City Guide: Proposal

[doug rr]

also I f*cking hate the seahawks to its probably best to keep my mouth shut

[E.H. Ruddock]

If you want real dive bars, go down to south downtown/warehouse district. It has grown a little but still really industrial area with hole in the walls scattered throughout.

Look up Henry's Tavern. It is near the Showbox SoDo. Great little place down there. There's also a BBQ place down there called Jacks, and there used to be some "craft liquor" bar down there too, although that was too trendy for me. That was more up trag's alley, probably.

i'll look it up...no trendy for me unless we go with my wife's coworkers...any good noodle joints with delicious pork broth?

Yeah, just go to the international district. Plenty of Noodle houses there, and it is near Safeco Field, so you will feel at home.

[doug rr]

If you want real dive bars, go down to south downtown/warehouse district. It has grown a little but still really industrial area with hole in the walls scattered throughout.

Look up Henry's Tavern. It is near the Showbox SoDo. Great little place down there. There's also a BBQ place down there called Jacks, and there used to be some "craft liquor" bar down there too, although that was too trendy for me. That was more up trag's alley, probably.

i'll look it up...no trendy for me unless we go with my wife's coworkers...any good noodle joints with delicious pork broth?

Yeah, just go to the international district. Plenty of Noodle houses there, and it is near Safeco Field, so you will feel at home.

is that anywhere near the hammock district?

[bodysnatcher]

Doug, make sure to eat some Ezell's fried chicken while you are there.

cool, thanks...is any of this near benaroya hall? we are at a hotel right there...

Actually, there's a long, drawn-out story here. But tl;dr ... Ezell was the namesake and founder of Ezell's Fried Chicken. In a nasty divorce with his wife, she ended up winning the rights to not only the restaurant, but his f'ing name. So, the Ezell's that used-to-be is no longer as good. The original Ezell started a new place a few years ago named Heaven Sent Chicken...

THAT'S where you wanna go.

There's not one that's near you in downtown, but you can get there via Uber. Might be a little pricey though.

[bodysnatcher]

I tend to eat at home a lot, so trag probably has you covered on restaurants better than me. I haven't even heard of some of those that he mentioned.

But if you want a cuban pork sandwich, go to Un Bien. The Caribbean Roast sandwich is insane.

Oh man, beer? Right by your hotel is a place called The Lodge. It's a super generic downtown sports bar, but they actually have a decent tap list with some local brews. It's a little overpriced bc, yeah, it's downtown. And it's by no-means a Seattle joint, but if you are just looking to kill some time with a beer that's extremely nearby, it's your best bet for selection, but not atmosphere. The closest joint to you in downtown for shitty, divey atmosphere would be Bernard's. Holy hell is this place divey. I went here weekly when I worked down the street from the W. If you go there, look for the sign overhead, bc you'll likely miss it. The doors look like it's a condemned building, but it is in fact a bar. The beer selection is shit, the food is shit, but these places are few and far between in modern day Seattle. Again, this is only if you want something that is literally a block away.

If you want to splurge and eat a steak really nearby in downtown, check out Metropolitan Grill. Just a classic steakhouse.

The W is in a kind of strange No Man's Land in downtown. I used to work about 2 blocks down the street, and always had trouble finding a bite to eat or drinks with buddies in town who didn't want to venture far.

If you want to check out local breweries...

Ballard has a ridiculous beer scene happening, and you can see the map here. I lot of these are walking distance from each other, so you can hop around easily. If you have an afternoon or night to drink, try it out. There are also tours, but I like to do this on my own time. I don't need someone barking in my ear to "finish up, we're heading out"

My current favorite brewery is Schooner Exact, south of the stadium district. It's got solid food for a brewery, and a varied selection. I've never had a bad beer or meal here.

If you want a dive bar? Man. Those are becoming endangered species in this town. 5 Point Cafe is a classic on the edge of Belltown... it's been around for ages and was a haunt for a lot of Seattle bands before they were SEATTLE BANDS. At any given time on a weekend, it can be really crowded, or it can be dead as a doornail. How far do you want to travel for a dive? There are more the further you get from downtown. The closer ones to you are probably First Hill and Capitol Hill. About a 10 minute walk from you is a place called Vito's. That place fucking rules. It's like this weird, old divey Mafia place. About two blocks from Vito's is a place called Hideout. It's in the hospital district, and is very, very unassuming. I don't think it even has a sign, just a florescent "OPEN" sign in the window. It's a solid cocktail bar. Further down the road is a place called Tavern Law, and its consistently ranked one of the best bourbon bars in the country. It's a good 25 minute uphill walk from your hotel, so if you go, I'd grab a $5 uber.

Pioneer Square and the stadium district (eg. SoDo) have some dive bars too. I'm not sure how you roll, but I wouldn't hang out around there after midnight. There's been a high escalation of violent crime in that area the past few months. Seems to always happen around 2am, and I'm sure there are stories behind them, but still....

How far are you interested in venturing out?

I'll be in Palm Springs this weekend, but if you come back again soon, we should grab some beers.

[E.H. Ruddock]

haha we drank at the Lodge before a Flight to Mars show. RM user: smileinmytree was with me.

[tragabigzanda]

from the ashes of tonkotsu

[doug rr]

thanks for the tips, I'll check out what I can..on a much better note my wife changed our flight to 730 am sunday so I can find a place to watch the bronco game now

[doug rr]

'snatch, are you going to the big concert this weekend outside of palm springs? watch out for the earthquakes..

[bodysnatcher]

Yep, heading down to Oldchella. My bro in law got tix for everyone, gonna be a good time

[doug rr]

you should take your golf clubs

[doug rr]

really hating this hard liquor tax in seattle...

[Norah]

I really have no sympathy for rich folk who don't want to pay taxes.

[doug rr]

its almost 30% on a bottle of jameson...crazy

[doug rr]

haha we drank at the Lodge before a Flight to Mars show. RM user: smileinmytree was with me.

this place is right next to my hotel..cheap drinks

[tragabigzanda]

from the ashes of tonkotsu

[doone]

This the new travel thread? Dublin was fantastic, thanks for all the info, dime.

[bodysnatcher]

really hating this hard liquor tax in seattle...

Yeah it's fuckin dumb. The liquor stores used to be state-run, and a few years ago, Costco got a measure on a ballot to move ownership of liquor sales from state government to big box stores that are x-amount of square footage (minus a few old locations) so that they could sell liquor. The measure passed bc people didn't realize what would happen, which was the state putting a 30% tax (plus the 9.5% sales tax) on all liquor sales