Visiting Seattle (Summer 2015 Update)

Just looking for some recos in the Ballard area. I think we'd be looking to go to probably two in addition to Fremont and Reuben's, which would be on the list anyhow. What are some folks preferred places of the other options?

 

Stoup definitely, they seem to be firing on all cylinders lately.

I've always thought their beers were pretty mediocre, but Peddler's new patio, looks like a great place to hang out.

 

I second Schooner Exact. They're one of the Seattle breweries that I feel doesn't get enough love here on BA. And, as far as Inbev Fields goes, well opinions vary.

 

Ok tried 57 different beers and the standout for me and my friend was the Buoy IPL. Really incredible hop flavors!

 

The best beer in Seattle was a lager from Oregon? Hahahahahhaaha

 

I assume that post was meant for another thread. If you spit from Buoy, it'll be in Washington soon enough though.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, I always loved stopping at Elysian Fields before a M's game. I'll miss that place. But, they made their deal, and I make my choices. And, even at stadiums I don't drink fizzy yellow beers. Especially not Inbev products. I only even drink Redhook under duress.

 

Okay, I've been doing some research.

Here's what I've determined:

I'll start at Fremont then walk to Sixgill followed by Brouwer's. Outlander next. Then maybe some grub at Giddy Up. On to Stoup and Reuben's. The Noble Fir if we're not obliterated by then.

I'll probably do Holy Mountain on it's own, although another option is to cut out a few of the bars (Noble Fir would be easy to cut, but maybe Brouwer's or Sixgill) and follow Reuben's with Holy Mountain.

I've also determined that close to the Renaissance where I'll be staying, I can easily hit Collins Pub, Pine Box and Stumbling Monk and once I'm at Stumbling Monk I might as well try to visit Brave Horse and The Wurst Place. The ones closest to my hotel would be another day, of course. Not something I'd do after all the breweries.

One question I have is, if I were to, on a Monday or Tuesday evening, head up north beyond Fremont, it seems that there are a concentration of bars near Toronado. Is that correct? How's that neighborhood? Worth a visit?

As always, thanks again for this great thread and all the advice from you WA BAs.

 

Only advice I can offer is check the hours of places you may visit on Monday or Tuesday. Some places aren't open earlier in the week (Holy Mountain for example is closed Tuesdays).

 

I'm not sure exactly which neighborhood it's in (one of the Greens, either Greenwood or Green Lake, @TheBungyo will know) but Naked City is on my personal Must Hit list. In the U-District, which doesn't seem that far from Toronado (but I don't spend enough time in Seattle to be real familiar with the geography of the neighborhoods) is Big Time. They should still have their Old Sol Wheatwine on, and maybe bottles as well, and that's one of my favorite beers ever. Ever.

Excellent call on the Collins pub visit, another on my Must Hit list. It's not right next door, but not too far south of the stadiums is a little cluster of breweries: Machine House (only cask ales, great stuff), Schooner Exact, Two Beers/Seattle Cider, and I think a couple more.

 

Greenwood neighborhood. Definitely not shabby as a destination with the aforementioned Naked City, Chucks Hop Shop (great selection of bottles and something like 40 drafts), The Yard Cafe, and soon Flying Bike all within walking distance. Not quite in the neighborhood but definitely walkable is the 74th Street Alehouse and Prost!

Also, I've got to agree about Big Time. They've always done a great job in hiring talented brewers and their current brewer is no exception in my opinion. Really liking what he's putting out ... and Old Sol is an excellent Wheatwine. Definitely not one to miss.

 

They're opening up a Lodge in Greenwood on the corner of 85th. Crazy.

I live in the Green Lake Urban Village area, so Toronado, Latona, Burgundian and Uber are my haunts. Fix Coffee normally has Boneyard, and Pies and Pints is a nice option for local beers if you've got kids. There's a new place next to the Starbucks across from the lake called The Shelter has a decent tap list, but always seems to have Grapefruit Sculpin so I can't complain.

 

Just got back to hot, hot Austin after 10-ish days on Bainbridge Island and a few days in Astoria, OR. I'll probably put together more of a review later on, but the tl;dr version of the trip was that we had a great time, tried a ton of different beers and ate some great food. The recommendations here and in other threads were outstanding, so thanks a ton! We were a little limited considering we had a 1YO and 4YO with us and were out on the island, but we went to several places on the OlyPen and made it into Seattle on maybe 5 days. I'll preface my highlights with saying I'm not the biggest hophead. I love some IPAs (but more DIPAs), but I get a little sick of it after a while. I'd love to come back in the colder months and revisit everything. Highlights for me were Holy Mountain by a large margin, Fremont, Pine Box, large local taplists in tons of out of the way places, etc. Marina Market in Poulsbo was pretty awesome and I could have spent a small fortune there. Got about 10 large bottles there, 5 consumed, 5 brought home (including one BBomb I'm excited to crack open). I can't believe all the barrel aged stuff that is easily available, though Poulsbo might be a little out of the way. I didn't make it to any bottle shops in the city, so not sure how they compare. Overall, it was great to see such a huge local brewery culture. I made it to Valholl and Bainbridge Island Brewing also and had several bottled offerings from Sound and had some good to great stuff from all of them as well. Otherwise, it was a pretty wide and random set of stuff I had in various places. Went to Ft George and Buoy in Astoria, which were also pretty good. Missed De Garde (closed the days we were around), which was a huge regret, but not really after being in the Seattle area for so long before that. Also missed the JK Atrial Rubicite release, which seems like it was almost certainly a good thing. I appreciate how not crazy the beer culture is up there. 3 hour lines and 80 year old grandma-mules are not really a part of the scene that I enjoy.

 

more in depth report...

Standout Beers: (more or less in order, though the Gin Barrel Saison from Fremont was as good as almost anything)
I could say everything at Holy Mountain, but I particularly loved Le Petit Gris, Celestial Lineage, Pyrokinesis and the grisette
Fremont Gin Barrel Aged Rye Saison, Gose, The Brother, Rye Saison
Sound Entendez Noel
Valholl Barrel Aged Stouty Stouterson
Manny's
Hilliard's Saison
Quilter's Irish Death
I'd imagine that in a different season, I might love Fremont as much as HM with BBomb, KDS and whatever available.

It looks like I had 65 different beers, almost 40 washington, almost 20 oregon, several Cali, 1 Alaska, none that I could get in Texas except for the Widmer Hefeweizen that my father in law handed me when we arrived the first night after traveling the entire day with 2 little kids. I have to admit that it was delicious. It also took me back to when I used to visit Portland a lot in the early 2000s.

Food:
We went to the Bite, which I had kind of pushed against, but my wife really wanted to go to and it was pretty fun and we did the craft beer tasting, which was good to get a general taste of a bunch of WA breweries.
Paseo. As all my own home specialties are slow cooked meats, I thought the pork could have been a bit moister, but the sandwich overall was really good. Then the seared scallops sandwich was amazing. I have to thank @TheBungyo for that tip because it's not something we would have ordered otherwise and it was one of the best things we ate the whole trip. I know Un Bien is supposed to be better, but this was pretty great anyway and we were driving right by it.
We also made it up to Ballard, which we liked a lot, but only long enough to shop a little and eat at La Carta de Oaxaca, which was probably our favorite meal. We meant to go to Reuben's after, but kind of ran out of steam/time on our only day without the kids. (that day we had done the Bite and Holy Mountain already)
We got one late night out minus the kids and went to Ba Bar (good, but overrated, overpriced) and Pine Box (loved it)
Also ate at Le Pichet, which was really good if you're into that sort of thing.

Misc:
You have too many damn people that live there (or probably just too many tourists). This is coming from an Austinite (15 year transplant) where one of our most common activities is bitching about traffic/pop. growth and reminding visitors to not forget to leave.
You have an insane # of breweries and that is awesome.
We're already talking about how we need to go back to Seattle when we get a long weekend away from the kids.
Thanks for this thread and the other threads with recommendations. I wouldn't have had a clue about what was good on the OlyPen (including Poulsbo) without those threads.
I just read in our neighborhood paper that we're getting a Yard House nearby in our fancy upscale shopping mall-ish area and I cracked up. Maybe I'll direct visitors to it in the SW forum.

 

Very glad you enjoyed your trip, and happy to hear you liked the scallop sandwich. That pork you had at Paseo, well imagine that sandwich but with a better marinade and much moister pork ... that's basically Un Bien, which is also cheaper. I've always meant to eat at La Carta de Oaxaca but the crowds have kept me away. Must be as good as they say for a Texan to praise it. I've visited Corpus Christi many times and it always kills me to leave Mexican food of that quality behind.

Thanks for the detailed review of the area. I love reading these ... and please let us know when you come back. Much will likely change in that time, we'll give you the scoop!