We walk into an urban harvest

The Woods (Two Beers Brewing and Seattle Cider Company), Seattle (Sodo neighborhood), Washington
Dogs are welcome in The Woods. One would expect them to run freely and happily (it's the woods, right?) but they were all on leashes. They still seemed quite content.

As I sat at the bar, a man came up with his 17-week-old pup, Brandy. A woman asked to pet him, and when I asked about taking a photo, the man encouraged Brandy to look at me. We saw about four other dogs in the tasting room, and they were all happy to greet each other. (The tasting room page points out, “Dogs Welcome!”)

As cat owners, this wasn’t what attracted us to the place. The dogs are fun, but we came because The Woods is the tasting room for Seattle Cider Company, the first cidery to open in Seattle after prohibition. You might have noticed that we prefer cider over beer -- and what particularly caught our attention was that we could be at the tasting room when City Fruit cider was released. City Fruit is a local nonprofit that harvests urban fruit for the benefit of food banks and others in the community. The cider is made from some of that fruit.

As I entered the tasting room, I noticed Willy Wonka playing on a TV and the Talking Heads playing on the sound system. (After Charlie took off in the glass elevator [spoiler], that TV was changed to college football. “It’s what people want,” a bartender explained.) There are a number of entertainment options in the tasting room: pool, darts, shuffleboard, and, of course, dog watching.

There was a good crowd, and we even saw someone we know. Sean, who was our quiz master for Geeks Who Drink a few weeks ago. (His sister had brought along her beautiful dog, a Great Pyrenees.)

There were a lot of appealing ciders and seltzers to choose from (and beers, if you’re into that kind of thing). Mindy ordered a tasting flight to share, and we chose the City Fruit Cider (of course), Three Pepper Cider, Berry Rose Cider, and the Rose seltzer just for comparison. I went to the order window for Bread and Circuses, the brick and mortar space for a local food truck.

We ordered carmel stuffed churros and duck fat popcorn. (FWIW, the popcorn paired nicely with the Three Pepper Cider.) Instead of giving a me an order number, they handed out a Funko figure so the server would know who got the food. Ours was Clark Kent preparing to be Superman.

We asked Kristen, one of our bartenders, our two questions, “What makes for a good bar?” and “What makes for a good church?” She said she was willing to answer them, but right after we asked, she had a rush of customers, so it was several minutes before she could get back to us.

I mentioned that if she wanted, she could think of what makes The Woods a good place. She said, “The vibe and the energy.”

She said these things come about naturally; it was unexplainable. “People feed the energy.” She said the tasting room has many people who come frequently and stay a long time. She said having staff who engage with people, who are having fun, was important.

When she started telling us what she thought made for a good church, she mentioned (tangentially) that owner Joel VandenBrink had considered going into ministry and had earned a Master of Divinity degree. But to answer our question, Kristen said the important qualities of a good church include a community aspect, friendliness, and a sense of acceptance.

A sign at The Woods reads, “Life is more honest after two beers.” I can’t say I know that’s true, since I have a hard time getting through one beer. But life is more pleasant with cider. And dogs. Definitely more pleasant with dogs.

We walk soberly into a ball game

Safeco Field, Seattle, Washington
Last night we rooted the Oakland A’s on to their 96th win at Safeco Field, the home of the Mariners. I had to go to work after the game, so no, I didn’t drink any of the many adult beverage options at the ballpark. In fact, I signed up as a designated driver , which meant I got a free soda (or bottled water) for promising not to imbibe at the game. Even though we weren’t indulging, we thought you’d like to see a few of the bar options.

We walk into drama

ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery, Seattle, Washington (West Seattle)
It was International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19), so I think it’s understandable that I expected Skeleton Crew to be a play about Ghost Buccaneers. (My favorite Disneyland ride as a kid was Pirates of the Caribbean.) Turns out it was about something else. Things are not always what you expect, and that isn’t a bad thing.

I also didn’t expect that the first thing we’d see as we entered ArtWest Playhouse and Gallery would be a bar. But if only for this blog, we’re always happy to find a bar.

It was the preview night for the show, and we’d gotten free tickets when we were at a street fair this summer -- so we had to head to will call to pick up our tickets before we could check out the bar.

The lobby was well populated with people waiting to enter the theater, and some of them were ordering drinks from the bar. I heard a couple of people ask for bourbon because they saw signs for Motor City, a drink using Four Roses Bourbon, which fit with the actual theme of Skeleton Crew. It’s a play about auto workers in Detroit. Sadly, the bourbon wouldn’t be available until opening night. I guess that’s the penalty for going to a preview performance.

We did have options, though, and we had a choice about when we could have our drinks. Some people were getting something before the show started and taking their drinks into the theater. We chose to order a couple of ciders to be ready for us at intermission. (when we went to pick them up, we decided to get a large chocolate chip cookie, too. Gotta support the arts).

It’s important, at this point, to mention how a theater bar differs from a regular bar. Most drinks aren’t consumed in the bar area, but rather taken into the theater or the art gallery or even in the lobby. There weren’t any bar stools; there was just enough counter space for ordering. Still, people were chatting with each other in the area near the bar, just as they do in a bar. It makes sense -- the motto of the theater is: “ArtsWest produces artistic events that provoke conversation, incite imagination and use live theater as a powerful agent of change.” They have that in common with a good bar, the provoking of conversation.

I overheard some nice bits of those conversations. One man was talking about his great aunt, a bootlegger who used to cross the Detroit River with her goods. The woman he was talking with mentioned her woman her uncle, who made moonshine and shared it with anybody who was thirteen or older.

But in keeping with this blog’s tradition, we needed to ask our two questions, “What makes for a good bar?” and “Whether you go or not, what makes for a good bar?” So we talked to Mariam, the bartender for the evening. (Obviously, this is not a “real bar” and as far as we know, Mariam isn’t a paid bartender. Much of the work at ArtsWest is done by volunteers, and it’s a non-profit institution.) Mariam likes crafting cocktails, and she was our server for the evening, so we think that counts.

She said a good bar should have “a little bit of everything or one thing done really well.” If they have a little bit of everything, they shouldn’t stock every beer, wine, and liquor, but they should have a couple of things to choose from in each category.

Mariam said she hadn’t gone to church for a long time and didn’t plan to go again soon. “But I can tell you what doesn’t make for a good church…contemporary folk music with guitars. They do it to bring in young people, but it doesn’t bring in young people.”

We enjoyed the play. The story moved along with clever writing, and the actors were very good. My favorite line from the show was, “If ‘IF’ was a fifth, we’d all be drunk.” And if there was a more pleasant way to spend International Talk Like a Pirate Day (other than going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride again and again), I can’t think of it.


You wanted to read about our experiences in the Detroit area, right? The bar post is our second most popular, and the churches and ministries we visited were fascinating (though all were very different from the culture depicted in the play. The movies we saw on the big and small screens depicted a different world, too. 

We walk into a beer garden

Beer Garden, Chinatown/International District Night Market, Seattle, Washington
“Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.”

That’s what Jack Nicholson is advised at the end of the film of that name. (Sorry. Spoiler!) We're not about to forget Chinatown. The Chinatown in Chinatown was in Los Angeles. We were going to Seattle’s Chinatown, and we can’t forget it, because, well, one of our daughters lives there.

When we heard about the night market in the International District (which includes Chinatown), we wanted to go. And when we saw there was going to be a beer garden (with cider, too), we knew we’d write about it.

We took the bus because finding parking in Seattle isn’t always pleasant. We got to the International District and walked by all the food trucks looking for dinner. But we were distracted by a busker, Jules the Juggler, a talented guy with good patter. Juggling a rubber chicken is, of course, a skill to be respected.

The mainstage offered musical acts from rock to folk to breakdancing. McDonalds was one of the event’s sponsors, and they were selling food from a truck in the mainstage area (usually a parking lot). We suspected it was cheaper than the other options, but the line was long. Instead, we noticed free McNuggets being distributed from a second truck. So we did get free McNuggets but went to another truck for KFC (Korean Fried Chicken).

The repurposed parking lot also held the Night Market’s beer garden, which was made by blocking off part of the paved lot. Security guards (bouncers?) checked our IDs at the entrance.

The others in the beer garden seemed to be enjoying themselves and the evening. Some were playing bean bag toss (the other common name for the game is not one I care to use.) There were a couple of other games, but nobody was playing those while we were there. Beer was available, but if you’ve read this blog even a little, you know we’d choose cider over beer any night. They had Woodchuck Cider from Middlebury, Vermont; I had Granny Smith. Mindy had Wyder's pear cider.

We wanted to ask our two questions, “What makes for a good bar?” and “What makes for a good church?” but there wasn’t really a bar where we could sit and talk to people. All the tables seemed to be groups of friends having a good time together, and we didn’t want to bother them. The servers were busy, but we decided to see if they could talk to us when they had a moment. All the tables were taken, so we found a place to sit on the pavement while we waited for them.

We ate our KFC and drank our ciders; when we were done, it looked like a good time to talk to the servers. They hesitated,“We’re just volunteers.”

We tried to assure them that plenty of amateurs have been able to answer our questions, and that we realized their time was limited. So we said, “Can you give us a one-word answer?”

Two of the volunteers agreed to answer.

Rick was especially good at the short answer. He used one word, “ambience” to describe both a good bar and a good church.

Lindsay said “ambience” would be her word for a good bar, too. (For a bit I thought we were only going to get one word for the whole night, and I wasn’t even sure how to spell it. Online dictionaries allow for “ambience” or “ambiance”.)

Thankfully, Lindsey added another word for a good bar or church, “music.” She added one more word for a church, “community.”

“Community” may be the best word to describe the evening’s event -- making Chinatown a good place to be.