#1007 - Champion Sports Bar, Portland - 3/11/2010

Meh...

Barfly calls this "The only dedicated sports bar in downtown ..." Portland is my favorite bar town on the west coast, but as a dedicated sports bar (a fairly low standard to begin with), this is a FAIL.

On the weekday evening I attended, a home state college team was playing in the conference tournament, and the hometown NBA team was also playing. But you could not hear either game because they preferred dumb top 40s music. That's not a serious sports bar in my book. The food is standard sports bar nachos and burgers type fare, the drinks are the standard sports bar beer and bad cocktails, and the crowd is standard medium quality hotel boring salesmen (the bar is in the downtown Portland Marriott).

marriott.com - yelp - barfly 
1401 SW Naito Pkwy., Portland, OR 97201 - (503) 499-6393

#1006 #S623 - Avila, Seattle - 3/10/2010

Update: Avila closed in July 2010.

Judging wine bars as simply bars can be a bit problematic. Since I exclude the restaurant/food portion, you're left basically with the ambiance, service, and a tiny fraction of a taste of the wine they have, when you can now get very good wines at virtually any grocery store. And the decor of wine bars is, of course, highly formulaic -- there are going to be servers dressed in black, modern exposed-concrete and steel surfaces, rolled up towels in a basket in the restroom, a touch of abstract art, votive candles on the tables, and small, halogen lamps hanging over the bar.

So setting aside the eclectic and adventurous dinner and appetizer menus at Avila ("AV'-ill-uh"), I'm basically left with a fairly typical wine bar, but with unusually friendly servers (and none of the attitude I've experienced at Smash, just up the road a bit). That makes this a pretty nice little stop if you feel like a couple glasses of wine (and an even better one if you feel like a bite of some interesting food).

1711 N 45th St., Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 545-7375
avilaseattle.com - seattletimes - thestranger - yelp

#1005 #S622 - Bottleworks, Seattle - 3/10/2010

For a moment I was not sure whether to count Bottleworks as a bar, since it is focused on retail of bottles, and the limited bar area was largely covered in boxes as the staff busily stocked the refrigerators that line the walls and maintain said bottles at temperatures tastefully maintained below the standard grocery store section dedicated primarily to your Bud Light fans picking up a half rack at halftime. But there are some good beers on tap (as well as the great selection of approx. 1,000 bottles to enjoy in the shop, if you'd like). And the table I sat at provided one perhaps the most important feature of all in a bar, which was good conversation -- this one between four people who'd never previously met.

So cheers to Matt ("Vern" to his friends), one of the strangers, who turned out to be the owner, and to cute Emily, and to the bicycling guy whose name I forget. It's a great little place for anyone who likes good beer, and I'll definitely be back.

bottleworksbeerstore.blogspot.com - yelp - bsbrewing - beermapping.com
1710 N 45th St, Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 633-2437

#1004 #S621 - Blu Water Bistro, Seattle (Greenlake) - (OOO)

Update: This Bluwater Bistro closed in April 2015.



One more bar that I've been to plenty of times but missed from my list.  A nice restaurant with a bar that is fine, but nothing special.







7900 E Green Lake Dr N., Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 524-3985
Est. May 1, 2002 - Closed April 25, 2015 - Building constructed 1996
bluwaterbistro.com - yelp

#1003 #S620 - Palace Kitchen, Seattle - (OOO)

Another place I've been to many times (the bar, not just the restaurant), but somehow missed on my list.  The Palace Kitchen is, of course, a Tom Douglas place, which means the cocktails are not up to the level of the food, but that's a very high bar (everyone in Seattle already knows about the food at Douglas's places, so no comments necessary on that front).  The bar is pretty much the basics, but it tests your self-discipline with those dang bowls of pistachios sitting around the bar.

2030 5th Ave., Seattle, WA 98121- (206) 448-2001
tomdouglas.com - yelp

#1002 #S619 - Marie Callenders, Seattle - (OOO)

I decided to belatedly add this because Marie's does have a whole separate room for the bar and people clearly go there just for the bar (most dependably one big guy in a hockey shirt who appears to go there every single day). For several years this was a fairly regular haunt for myself and several co-workers at a small software company due to its location (we referred to it as "Murray's," since "Marie's" is not a fit name for a bar). If it's not the most conveniently located bar for you, I really can't think of any other reasons you would go.

9538 1st Ave NE., Seattle, WA 98115 - (206) 526-5785
yelp

#1001 #S618 - Rat & Raven, Seattle - 3/7/2010

The new owners of this space have made some very nice remodeling changes and made a good effort to change the vibe for the better.  It used to be the Emmigrant, supposedly an Irish bar, which was big and boring and suffered enormously by comparison with the Galway Arms right across the street.  The Galway is small and lively, overflowing with interesting people, and remains a bar of considerably more character.  But thanks to the new ownership (expanding from Clever Dunne's on Capitol Hill), the Rat and Raven is now at least a pleasant change of pace.

The R&R now includes a very nice, open, upstairs area, and hosts people playing not only pool and darts, but also shuffleboard, Scrabble and Texas Holdem.  The drinks are unfancy, as you'd expect in the a university district, and the crowd, if not as interesting as across the street, is tad more pleasant than the previous one.


5260 University Way Northeast Seattle, WA 98105 - (206) 524-3166
Est. 2009 - Building constructed: 1926
Previous bars at this location: Irish Emigrant, Century Bar/Cafe/Tavern (Boom Boom Room)
ratandraven
seattleweekly