Last and final attempt- Beach House Bar & Grill- Kirkland **

So as you have probably noticed by now, I have gotten busy this summer and somewhat dropped my "happy" ball. I know there are no good excuses for not providing my riveting bar reviews. None of the less rest assured I have attended quite a few happy hours but mostly repeats. I will sum up my last and final "hur-rah" for the Eastside.

1. Beach House Bar & Grill- ** (2 stars)
I tried to get a bunch of work buddies together to try out yet another awful eastside establishment.
First off, only 2 good things about this place.
1. The view; who does not love a 180 degree view of Lake WA, and ability to sit on deck over the water.
2. Sweet Potato fries- altough I am finding these more and more often since this visit, there for a while I was begining to think that these were only figments of my imagination.

So the atmotsphere was to be expected, new modern chairs, tables and granite bar. Prices were also expected, $6 glasses of wine and $5 appies. I have found much better across the water.

All in all, this last & final trip to the Eastside only solidified my opinion, that Eastsiders are too busy to have one good happy hour. I'll hike my butt across water for a good pint, glass, and appie plate!

The Signature- ****

We had the opportunity to stroll through Lower Queen Anne Friday night. It was a great place to be. Nice weather, tons of people out and bars fairly busy. Parking was,as suspected, a bit of a pain, but we found a nice spot on Roy.

We stopped into The signature on 1st Ave N (right by Mar Queen Hotel). I was a bit skeptical at first given it looked just like an ordinary pho house and had a big blue vinyl awing out front. Tons of posters on the wall, and it seemed sterotypically like a pho house. I thought to myself, this will be so lame, but none of the less we decided to try it out.

I was pleasantly surprised. It was rather busy but had seating options at the bar or tables. Decor was modern, artsy, and actaully perfect. We sat at a small table towards the back. Nice atmosphere, plenty of people chatting and loud music. OK, very loud music. I quickly found out the con regarding this venue. I had to almost scream to my partner across the table. It was so loud I felt like I should put my hands over my ears, like a little kid, but as the drinks flowed my worries soon went away. I tend to think this was more of a mix up then the actual standard. This is a good place for a ton of friends, but certainly not first date material.

Regarding the most important part: the drinks, this place was awesome. Prices for import beer was $2.75 and wine was $4 a large pour. I was happy to know that even though the music was loud the prices were great. They had several beers from across the SE Asia area. My fav: Beerlao, from Laos. Wine was okay, only 3 options but that is all I needed.

They even had good food options: rolls, salads, soup, dumplings, etc... We ordered 2 skewers, one beef and the other shrimp. Both came out good, nicely grilled veggies and enough to keep us going through the night. I do have to admit though if I had the choice I would get the shrimp again; the beef was standard cheap cuts and needless to say a majority of fatty ends. Shrimp good, beef bad, (well do-able). If you need more options, they have a plethora of rolls, salads, and pho.

All in all, I do like The Signature and will be coming back soon. The drinks good, the food was good, and the venue was large enough for variety of people.

Way to go Signature, you get 4 stars from me.

Alki Tavern & Celtic Swell- **

After having a few weeks off and a mini vacation, I picked up the happy hour regimen while the in-laws were in town this past week. It was a beautiful day so we decided to check out Alki.

First stop-Alki Tavern, the $2 beer and $1 taco's pulled me in. This spot exerts the extreme dive bar attitude; nice bar tender and dark wooden bar. It is not unusual to find a line up of Harley's on the street and backs covered with black leather playing pool. This shop has mastered the formula of unwashed floors, battered bar stools and the various photos of drunk patrons. The drinks were standard, beer on draft and a cooler filled with bottles. However the $2 options were only PBR and Bud Light, if you want a micro, it's full price; and the $1 tacos were fish tacos which come from a kitchen straight from the movie "Waiting". Needless to say we did not partake in the food options.

All in all it's an okay dive bar; you can people watch and take in the views of downtown Seattle, but the drinks and food specials were not enough to have me crawling back for more. Sorry Tavern, it's a 1 star for the day.


Our next stop was Celtic Swell.
Typical Irish pub with Smithwicks, Guinness and Nachos ?? Our group was anxious to see some real Irish food, but all we got were cheese sticks, pepper poppers and nachos(really screams Irish doesn't it). I do have to admit that the potato leek soup was rather good, I'll stick just beer here. Again, no extremely awesome specials as our beers were only $1-.50 off. I don't think this is enough to drag me across the WS bridge again.

Sorry Alki, I didn't find it that interesting. You get 2 stars. (1 for effort the other for the views.)

Birthday Bash- Brasserie Margaux

A little over a week ago I had the pleasure of spending my birthday with awesome friends. It was quite a trip, we had several stops that night of which I will try to keep my reviews here, short and to the point. (yeah right..)

First stop- Brasserie Margaux- Great First Date Place
It was fancy. White table clothes, tenders with full length black aprons, and not very busy. We were the only group in there at the start at 4 PM. As we drank we discovered quite a few good things about this fancy place.
1- Great appies. Tapas style. I suggest, Duck Confit nachos, crunchy calamari, and the hot wings. Yes, hot wings. I am from Ohio, almost king of wings, and I have yet to find a good one, except this place. Humph, strange.. To sum up Brasserie Margaux, it's def a great first date place. Good prices, HH till 7 and you can practically eat dinner here. Right across the street from the movies or anything else.

I had my doubts but BM pulled off a solid 4.5 stars.

Second Stop- Shorty's- Great 2nd/3rd Date place
Yes thats right, fru-fru to circus clowns mixed with a touch of acid. Once you get over the fact that you are trippin, and you can play pinball all night, its starts to get a bit homey. Drinks are PBR tall boys, and eats are a big fat hot dog. Prices are cheap, pinball is a bit overpriced at $.75 a game, (go to Zoo Tavern in Eastlake for $.25). As I was not super into playing pin ball, but they did have old school "original" Mario Bros and pac-man. Not a good first date place, but good 2nd date place.. (I'm developing a theme here). I give Shorty's a solid 3 stars (i was not in the mood for a hot dog, so it made me off from the get go).

Third Stop-Noc Noc- Don't Go...
Yes folks, it's all down here from here. We went to the Noc Noc. Famous for it's burlesque shows and Gothic style. Two words describe this place: Service SUCKS. We waited around in an open booth and no drinks. We had to beg for waters at this point. So after about 15 minutes we left. And I have been there before for the actual show, nothing to write home about, but a cheap thing to do for a Friday night. Sorry Noc Noc, you get 1.5 stars.

Last stop- Pikes Place Brewery- Great Late night HH
Catch the late night happy hour, starts at 9. Prices were awesome, and as always the beer was good. We arrived for late night happy hour to notice empty tables, plenty of bar seating, it was a welcomed sight after the Noc Noc. We chugged down a few beers, and baskets of fries, and decided to call it a night. I always have liked the Pikes Place Brewery, service has always been good, and I do like their micro brews. The only bad side of PPB is the restroom has a lock code, get the code from the cuties at the bar first.

All in all my favorite was: Brasserie Margaux, but be prepared for a fancy shin-dig.
Shorty's is okay, if you like video games and pin ball.

Contour ****

I had the opportunity to visit Contour club on St. Patrick's Day. This was good for numerous reasons:
1. It was happy hour 3-8 (Perfect!!)
2. It was St. Patrick's Day (so many many people out and about)
3. They had open seating (which we hogged all night long)

This will be a biased posting because we didn't actually see the club/bar in it's real world environment. St. Patrick's Day brings out far more people then just a reg Wednesday night ever would. So..

The bar was cool to look at, if you don't mind the large silver space ship looking thing in the back, housing the DJ tables. The vibe was a mix between naked female body art, a space ship club and a chill Mediterranean scene. I think the owners couldn't decide which way to go so they decided they liked these 3 the best??

They have plenty of seating (for a regular night) which consisted of 2 large circle booths, standard tables, and a large "L" shaped bar. Plenty of dance space, if your into that type of thing.

The beer selection was almost nonexistent (only 4 kinds on tap of which are all light beers). They have plenty of fru-fru drinks. On St. Patrick's Day they offered $3 Green Beers which were basically shitty Pilsner, but I didn't mind, it was green and did the job.

The food was awesome! They sport a long Mediterranean menu which included: hummus, lamb skewers, Falafel Sliders, baked Brie, calamari, oyster stew, sea scallops, etc...All of which were very reasonably priced. Not to mention that happy hour lasts till 8.

Overall I give this place 4 stars ****: for it's food options and fru-fru drinks. Go here if you want a light tapas style dinner and some drinks with the girls.

www.clubcontour.com
M-Thurs 3-8
Friday 3-9 (Holy S batman, you can stay there for 6 hrs for super cheap)
S & S 2-8

The Hideout ****

What a place! It's dark, full of art on the wall, and has good beers on tap. What could be better.. The food, or should I say lack thereof.
This place was pretty neat though if your not hungry: all the artwork on the walls really helps you tap into your inner self; discusssing what you like, what you don't, what creeps you out and what you just had to have. Don't be looking for good food though, as thier food menu consists of 3 things: hummas plate, cheese plate and a bowl of nuts. So go after your dinner or grab a few brews before your dinner plans.
The location is great, just inside First Hill on Boren. I found it somewhat hard to find, as the windows are blacked out and there is one small sign with super curvy writing. Driving down the street it was hard to locate. None of the less, this place has adequate seating, a large bar and a huge couch along the wall. Chairs are strun about with small tables. Drinker beware: get there early or late or else seating for a large party might be hard to come by. I arrived at 4 and by 430 seating was hard to find. Not saying impossible but not optimal. I really felt like I was in a hideout. Perhaps hiding out from the craziness of Friday's.

All in all, I give this 4 thumbs up because of the atmoshpere, the art, and because it's just plan simple. No complicated menu, or hard to understand hours.

The Hideout: www.hideoutseattle.com
Happy Hour 4-7 M-F

Serious Pie ***

It was Serious..seriously delish!!! I visited the acclaimed Tom Douglas Restaurant, Serious Pie on Friday afternoon. A short one; it's only 3-5. I got there at 4 and they already had a waiting list for tables. This is a sign of one of 2 things: 1. It's amazing pizza and everyone in town wants it. or 2. They cant afford a larger venue to hold the demand so they are trying to create a certain image of it being a part of some elite club, perhaps just because it's TD place...I tend to believe the latter but the pizza was still good.

I was very impressed by their topping combinations. The pizza was a flat bread style with little to no red sauce. We had the clam & pancetta, egg & arugula, and the fennel sausage & peppers. All were tasty but my fav was the Penn Cove Clam pizza. Perhaps it was the taste or perhaps it's just that I am in love with Clams. My second choice was the sausage pizza because it had the red sauce. My partner took a liking to the egg arugula pizza, which was also very good. The pizzas for happy hour were personal size ( a little larger then both of your palms) but I thought they were plenty for one person. Between the 2 of us we ordered 4; when we could have done with 2 or 3, but we wanted to try the different flavors. The drinks were limited to wine and beer, of which you only had 2 options of each. Big surprise , I took to the red wine which was pretty standard. At $5 a glass, I was hoping it was a bit better. I enjoyed the convo looking at the large pizza oven, it seemed like they were operating like a well oiled machine. I do have to mention here that our service was sub-par for a place like this, but they were busy, I get it.


All in all great happy hour. You can really get your dinner complete and get a few drinks in a one stop shop. The dress was business Friday attire, I'd say a lot of jackets and nice jeans. I don't think I saw a T-shirt in the entire place. Come straight after your 3 o'clock meeting and you wont regret it.

**Helpful tip #1 -Get there early- @ latest 4:15 or you won't get a table in time to devour the deals.

** Helpful tip#2- they will only seat you if your party is in full at the time. So gather up the hens outside and order a table when everyone is present. It goes much quicker that way.

I would give Serious Pie a 3 star badge today. It didn't blow me away, but I would go back.

Heed my advice & go see for yourself.

Serious Pie Happy Hour M-F 3-5 PM
(on Virgina between 3rd and 4th)

www.tomdouglas.com