#2147 #S1138 - Yard House, Seattle - 4/25/2013

While places that look like this and stock a huge number of beers on tap is now a much copied trend, I suppose one has to at least give owner Steele Platt (yes, that's his name) credit for being ahead of that curve. Platt and partners started the Yard House chain in Long Beach, CA in 1996. The downtown Seattle instance has 119 different beers on tap (250 available in the original location) and a menu with 100+ food items covering a wide range of pub food based on various regions.  So if you can't manage to find a beer and some food you would enjoy here, there's something very wrong with you.

On the other hand, having a beer in one of these places is like having a drink in a Cheesecake Factory. If you care nothing about the setting where you go to drink -- or if you're happy with a formulaic, chain-like feel of a typical shopping mall for a setting, where even the art seems to scream mass production -- then you can definitely find dining and beer drinking happiness at Yard House.  But if the decor and vibe of a drinking place matter to you, and you value a bit of personality and interesting people over having a hundred beers to choose from, a trip to the Yard House -- like any number of places exactly like it in any sizable American city these days -- may make you may wonder what the point is.

1501 4th Ave Seattle, WA 98101 - (206) 682-2087
Est. Feb 10, 2013 - Building constructed: 1985
Previous bars in this location: None
Web site: yardhouse.com - facebook
Reviews: seattletimes - thestranger - yelp