Visiting Seattle (2022)

Completely understand. I only brought it up because my visit gave me a more positive outlook on Seattle versus my perception going in. So I meant for it to be a positive contribution to the view of the city for those who may have the same perception but haven't visited. I will leave it out of the rest of my posts.

 

Have they tried more English style ales? I'm hearing a lot of buzz about their curative powers

 

You can lead a politician to English Style Ales, but you can’t make ‘em drink…

 

A political attack ad focused on a politician's craft beer choices seems like a parody of Portland that you would find out had actually happened in Portland

 

Voice Over: “Ted Wheeler says most West Coast IPAs are ‘too bitter.’ What else is he wrong about? Paid for by Citizens for IBUs.”

 

Continued...

Day 3 (Thur) - We had a stacked itinerary today, so I drove my daughter to work so we can have her (my) car for the day and donned our tourists caps... First stop- we heard about a creepy homeless creature living under a bridge so we headed over to Fremont to check it out...



(You can take your finger off the delete button now, @John_M )

Next stop was Gas Works Park but we stopped close by there to check out one of the house boat communities, interesting stuff. By the way, we stumbled upon a cool concept- there was a company on the water that rents out floating hot tub "boats". Here's a pic of a couple going out for a voyage, cool concept if you're looking for something different to do...



Gas Works Park itself was really cool. I loved the way they kept the old structures and equipment in place and developed the park around it. They even made some of the structures part of the playground that kids could climb on. And there's a great view of the city. From there it was over to Fisherman's Terminal. We could have left this out, I was anticipating some active fisherman activity going on. Not much was happening, probably the wrong time of year or something. Now it was lunchtime, we were hoping there was a brewery nearby that serves food but like around here, most breweries only have food trucks and not on Thursdays at noon. We drove through Fremont and were surprised at the lack of restaurants open for lunch. There was a Thai place open but my wife wasn't in the mood for Thai (I'm always in the mood for Thai...) We settled on a pizza place, I think we were in Ballard at that point, Mod Pizza- it was a slight step above frozen pizza in my book, but we nourished up. Finally we get to go the a brewery! We chose Reuben's because it was a beautiful day and they had a nice beer garden. Pretty funny that as we were walking in the first guy we see saw that we had CT plates and asked if we were from CT (duh). He grew up near us and moved to Seattle 10 years ago for a tech job. We chatted with him for a bit. Beer there was great, I had a Helles wife had an IPA, both really well made. Unfortunately, we only had time for one but I was consoled by the fact that we were planning on coming back to the area (sans driving) to brewery hop (spoiler alert, that never happened ).

I think we went to the Chittenden (Ballard) locks next. That was pretty cool, but again, wrong time of season to see the fish ladder in action. On the way back into the city we stopped at Kerry park. One of the best views of the city from here in a very nice neighborhood of Queen Ann (I think). Then back to the city to get ready for dinner.

Dinner - On the way to dinner we did the Space Needle. I really didn't want to but I'm glad we did. I think we lucked out because it was super chill (in terms of crowds) and a beautiful day. Plus a couple places to get drinks up top, win! I had an IPA by Stoop that I think was made for the Needle, it was good, wife had the draft "house" IPA made by Pike Brewery, it was OK. The Needle was a cool experience, glad we ended up doing it. The dinner was planned as an Italian place in Ballard. But traffic was so bad we had the Uber guy turn around and we ended up eating at a pretty chill no frills Italian place near my daughters. Seapine IPA was the craft on offer but a good choice, the women had wine. Long day, hit the sack!

To be continued (again, sorry I have short periods of time in the day to bang these out...)

Cheers, I hope every is having a great Good Friday!

 

OK, let's finish this story up- I'll be more brief-

Day 4 (Fri)- Molly had the day off so we took a road trip, we decided on Snowqualmie Falls, which were super cool. One of the things I love about Seattle is it's proximity to spectacular outdoor options. Shit, from city center you see the wonderful Cascade range on your right and turn left there's the mammoth MT Rainer. It took us all of 45 mins to get out to Snowqualmie. We built up our hunger by hiking down to the water (and back up) then headed into the town of Snowqualmie for lunch. Cool little town, had a mining town kind of feel, old trains on display on the way in. Thankfully Snowqualmie Falls Brewery serves food so we went there. Super nice people there and the food was great. I had the Porter (good, maybe a bit cloying which detracted a bit) girls had some IPAs there were spot on, I had their WC IPA for my second was was very good.

Headed back into town, got ready for dinner. Molly's friend was with us and they were fired up to get the weekend started so first it was to a Mexican joint Mercado Luna for margaritas for the girls and a couple Modelos for me (ok, and a Mexi Mule). Cool place, upstairs there's a outdoor patio with a taco truck (yup, a taco truck up on a roof) Dinner was at a trendy Malaysian place called Kedai Makan (I left out the part were you have to get in line at 5 to put your name on the wait list and they call you, but we planned for that and went to Mercados..) Again, it seems like Seapine IPA is a popular restaurant offering, that's what I had, no complaints. After we went to Linda's for a nightcap (or two).

Day 5 (Sat)- Sluggish start today... we had a lot of shit to get done with my daughter (taxes, graduate school stuff and coordinated her move out). Wife and I went to lunch a place called The Hummus Bar, freaking spectacular food, I love falafel and such and this was some of the best I've had. Didn't really do too much more, ran some errands with the daughter, made dinner at her place and she went off to a concert with her friends. The wife and I wanted to grab a cocktail somewhere, we were going to go down to Bathtub Gin, but somehow my wife came across the Sorrento Hotel as a place to go and that was around the corner so we went there. And what a find. Perfect kind of swanky cocktail bar we were looking for, and a live jazz band to boot, that was awesome. Nice relaxing night out with the wife. Highly recommended.

Day 6 (Sun) - Another late start, was hoping today we could go over to Ballard to drink beer but wine was on the girls' minds so we went out to Woodinville and went to a couple wine taprooms, which was fine, gottta roll with it. Cool area, but they're really just a bunch of wine bars, there didn't seem to be any actual vineyards around, I guess grapes are all grown out in the Columbia valley. Wine was good but man I needed a beer to wash it all down, which had to wait until we got back to my daughters. Early dinner as we had to get up at 4am the next day to start the travel day. We went back to Six Arms just 'cause.

All in all a great trip and I really enjoyed Seattle. My daughter loves it out there and doesn't really wan to come back, but grad school starts on NYC in June so...

Again, not to start the political slant, but either the city was greatly "cleaned up" between the prior reports I had and our visit or the reports were off base. Probably a combination of the two. I hope the next visitors can get some value out of my posts.

Cheers - Paul

 

That makes sense, and yes, it seems to be working as the places we visited were fairly busy for a Sunday afternoon. The first "winery" we visited, Novelty Hill, was more than just a tasting room, it seems they make the wine there as well. You can see the equipment in this picture, nice backdrop to our table!



The second winery, Matthews, was definitely just a tasting room. Great wine at both. And yes, I saw the distillery on the way to Novelty Hill and the brewery on the way to Matthews. The area is just begging to take a party bus to!

 

Seattle peeps...... I'll be visiting this weekend and need some food recs. If the place has good beer, thats a bonus, but im interested in some good grub.

BAs usually have their pulse on the food scene as well, which is why im asking. I plan to hit Fremont, Holy Mountain, etc. while Im up there so I think I wont have a problem finding beer.

Dont need anything fancy, rolling up there with kids (13 & 10). Thanks!!

 

Or, just let them play on the train tracks......

 

dont think I wont consider this......

 

I'm the best "Uncle".

 

Just booked a long weekend in Seattle for our 20th Anniversary. We got the Seattle City Pass. We will have 3 dinners while there. Bringing the boys (9 & 12). Hoping to enjoy some good beer during the evenings. We are staying at Hotel Nexus on Northgate. We will be hitting up the Space Needle, Aquarium, Woodland Zoo, MoPOP, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and Pike Street Market.

Any recommendations for family friendly dining with great beer selections? I enjoy solid lagers, traditional saisons, and cask ales. Pastry stouts, sour smoothies, and chunky IPAs are a no-go.

 

Thanks so much for the tips. Watershed has some decent Vegan options and a lovely taplist, so that will be a for sure hit. Already told the wifey we have to hit Machine House for the casks. Looks like they allow outside food, so that can work for something they want to eat, and something I want to drink.