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.