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.)