The Dust Bowl
Who doesn’t like bowling?
You’ll need to reserve your lanes ahead of time at this Blue Dome District (2nd & Elgin) bowling-alley-turned-bar, but it is well worth it. Bowling is inexpensive here — the service, drinks, and the atmosphere here are all of the quality we’ve come to expect from the McNellie’s Group (El Guapo, Fassler Hall, Dilly Diner, etc.)… That bunch just doesn’t mess around.
Sporting a hulking bar top made out of an old bowling lane, this is a great place to grab a White Russian and one of their “onion burgers” (these are so, so good.)
The Downside:
In the vein of the Dust Bowl’s retro theme, scorekeeping is old school: pen and paper, baby. I guess that’s only a downside if you don’t know how to keep score in bowling.
University of Wash
This is going to be a radical departure from the last bar we mentioned, but maybe if I phrase it like this it will help:
“Who doesn’t like doing laundry?” No… that just doesn’t work.
What’s crazy about this place — located at 15th and Florence Pl — is that it’s a laundromat and a bar. It used to be super-divey, but it was renovated a few years back and it is absolutely great now.
How great is it that you can come to this place, wash your clothes, have a few drinks, throw your clothes into a dryer, have a few more drinks, play some pool, and be done? Doesn’t that put a much more entertaining spin on doing laundry? It sure does to me.
I give this place high marks for originality… and just being able to drink while doing laundry.
They used to only sell two or three beers (I oddly remember Amber Bock being one of them) but they have a full selection now.
The Downside:
Much higher chance of forgetting which dryer your clothes were in while imbibing.
Fassler Hall
Love, love, love this place.
When Fassler Hall first opened, I worked in the same building. The VP of our company used to send one of us down with the ol’ Amex card on Fridays and buy beers, sausages, and duck fat fries for all of us. I really miss working for that guy sometimes.
Fassler Hall is a German-style bar and restaurant with that class “biergarten” feel — big shared tables, great German food, and — you guessed it — beer.
If you’re looking for something a little different, without being too far off into left field, Fassler Hall is your pick.
I mentioned the duck fat fries earlier — you’ve got to try those if you stop in at Fassler. Their sausages are excellent, too.
My go-to sausage at Fassler is the Lamb Sausage; think of it like the holy matrimony between a gyro and a classic sausage. This and the Chorizo breakfast tacos are a few of the things that keep me coming back to the Blue Dome District frequently, but the vast selection of strong beers is what I’m really in love with.
The Downside:
Um… let me get back to you on that one when I think of a downside.
Soundpony
Probably the most funny, interesting, and downright weird (in a good way) bars on this list, the Soundpony is the King of North Main.
If you slip into this narrow little bar at 5pm on a Thursday, you’re going to see a room full of mostly office workers from downtown. Give it a few more hours and you’re going to see a much more diverse crowd, by far and large. The best thing about Soundpony is that these different groups of people intermingle almost seamlessly.
The bartenders here are some of the funniest bartenders I’ve ever met in my life, too. They treat their patrons like royalty.
I went stopped into a different bar recently for a Guinness while I was waiting on a pick-up order and the bartender treated me was so rude, I almost wondered if I was being recorded for some type of hidden camera show — that kind of stuff straight up doesn’t happen at Soundpony.