The Mini Pub Crawl

In an effort to get into proper form for the Britain/Ireland trip in September, we decided to do a mini pub crawl a couple of weeks ago, consisting of two stops. Since we were in Seattle for the Susan Komen Walk for the Cure anyway, we went to establishments that neither of us have been to.

Most of the draft selection at The Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle

First up was a trip to West Seattle and The Beveridge Place Pub. This was a beautiful place in a nice neighborhood that had lots of comfy couches to get lost in on the main floor with a whole array of different games such as cribbage on the many tables.

My personal favorite feature? It has to be the fact that the bar itself used to be a bowling lane from a center that met the business end of a wrecking ball a long time ago. BowlingWidow and I each ordered a hoppy IPA (can't recall the brand though...there were so many) and enjoyed being in the warm confines of this establishment.
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The cozy space at Brouwer's Cafe

It was on to the Fremont district of Seattle and Brouwer's Cafe. This is a place that specializes in Belgian Ales. And they had tons of them. But when our bartender mentioned that they had Pliny the Elder (brewed by Russian River Brewing) on draft and arguably the hoppiest ale made today, we simply had to have a pint to go with the pub grub we ordered. (Note: for those who are interested in learning more about Pliny the Elder, the Roman Philosopher, click on this link).

We're not quite ready for a full-blown pub crawl in Dublin yet. But it was a good beginning.

We're With The Band (Redux)

Now that the nasty Trojan Virus has been eradicated from my computer system (I think) for the second time, it's appropriate to get back into the swing of things and warm up with a short blog post.

For anyone who shakes their head in disgust at the number of Al Stewart and Dave Nachmanoff posts that show up here (and there are a few of you), feel free to hit the "back" button a few more times and Google the phrase "World Cup Soccer" like the rest of the global masses.

Leftynemesis and Dave before the show

Yep, Al and Dave were in town recently, performing a free show at the Snoqualmie Casino, so my friend Leftynemesis and I stepped up to help Dave sell his CDs at the merchandise table. The bad news is that we missed most of the concert, having to guard the goods in the lobby. The really good news is that we were granted all-access passes, including backstage, before and after the show.

Just as the first time we were allowed to do so, it was a lot of fun hanging out with them, exchanging bits of music trivia and listening to Al deliver more than a few words about his 40-plus year career as a folk-rock headliner. We also talked a little NFL Football. For some reason (I never did find out why), Al is a huge Denver Broncos fan.

BowlingJoe looks on as Dave warms up

Before the show, we were backstage with them while Al was writing down the night's list of songs. Being knowledgeable fans, the left-handed one and I were doing our best to persuade him to play things that we selfishly wanted to hear, albeit while in the lobby. Al was having none of it, though, and proceeded to write down hits such as Year of the Cat and Time Passages. Oh well, maybe next time.

As the post-concert merchandise lines dwindled into nothing, we headed back to the green room once more for a late night catered sandwich and some last-minute conversation. And then we all hit the road into a rainy North Bend night.

Al writes the set list (WITHOUT BowlingJoe's help!!!)

If you've managed to make it this far in the blog post, thank you for hanging in there. Since I know that more fans of fine ale read this than fans of Al Stewart and Dave Nachmanoff, the next post, coming up in just a few days, will be devoted to a Seattle-area "mini pub crawl" that Bowlingwidow and I recently made up involving two alehouses we've always wanted to visit.