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Bars where Pete has had a Drink (5,608 bars; 1,754 bars in Seattle) - Click titles below for Lists:


Bars where Pete has had a drink

Saturday, April 27, 2013

#1999 #S1099 - The Hillside Bar, Seattle - 1/6/2013

This place has a great, comfortable feel, and I have had many nice experiences at some of the owners' other place (Hooverville in SoDo), so I am not going to judge it long term by my first experience and I expect to upgrade this rating after another visit. But tonight's experience was ridiculously bad.
Maybe they gave their regular staff the day off to watch the Seahawks playoff game. But in any case, I would not have left a new bar trying to make an impression in the hands of the single, burned-out, red-faced fellow behind the bar tonight. He acknowledged me almost right after I sat down, then socialized and ate peanuts for over 10 minutes before seeing what I wanted to drink. God only knows how long he could have taken it I didn't have a meeting set with friends and walked down to the other end of the bar to get his attention.

I ordered a Manhattan. His mixology expertise did not extend to this rare concoction and I heard him asking another fellow at the bar how to make it. At that point I quickly shifted to a gin and tonic -- my go-to drink for inept bartenders.  A G&T with Hendricks turned out to be $9, another negative for a place that is not exactly positioned as Canlis.  I gave him a twenty and watched as he struggled for several minutes to calculate my change.  Eventually he brought me $12 change for my $9 drink.



From a certain perspective I admire the people who own a business and provide some income to a person who is so comically unable to care for himself or others -- and barely able to perch himself on a stool -- even at the risk of the reputation of their new business venture. Indeed, if I see service like this again I will assume that it is not a bar at all but some sort of absurdist performance art piece.

1520 E Olive Way, Seattle, WA 98122 - (206) 324-0154
Est. Dec 8, 2012 - Building constructed: 1924
Previous bars in this location: The Elite
Web site:  facebook
Reviews:  capitolhillseattle - thestranger - yelp

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