Jolly Roger Tap Room

Jolly Roger Tap Room
1514 NW Leary Way

Research Assistant: Jack

Ballard has been at the center of the American micro-brewery movement. One of the first, Red Hook, started here in an old transmission shop. They’ve since gone big time and now consort with Their Satanic Majesties of St. Louis—Augie Busch IV and Budweiser—but we still have a couple notable craft breweries. Laboring in the shadow of the Ballard Bridge are the hard working brewers of the Maritime Pacific Brewing Company. They operate the Jolly Roger Tap Room on the premises and there we met Research Assistant Jack for dinner. It was a nasty election night and it was looking like all the wrong people and things would win, so we took shelter from the miserable world outside in the warm and comfortable tap room.



Ballard’s bar history is full of ramshackle joints where fishermen and seafarers would cash (and drink away) their checks before going back out to sea. The Jolly Roger evokes that look but thankfully lacks the squalor of those bars. It’s a small but cozy space, perfect on a rainy night.

Maritime Pacific brews a wide range of beers. We each enjoyed Islander Pale Ales, then I made the decision to switch to Portage Bay Pilsener, a favorite around these parts. The friendly bartender poured us samplers of Harvest Pale Ale, a seasonal brew they call an “Extra Pale Ale.” Yowza! It’s a frisky little thing. Lots of hops but without that headache-inducing slap up side the head of other highly-hopped beers. It had a fruity quality that was simply charming. Should have ordered it from the start.

The Jolly Roger posts quite an ambitious menu. No hardtack and salt beef here, matey. We weren’t really up for lamb osso bucco or smoked pork tenderloin, so we enjoyed some sandwiches. Our legions of East Coast readers wouid recognize a JR sandwich as being the stylistic, if not culinary decendent of the old White Tower burger. They’re small and you best order multiples. Mine had lightly grilled oysters—just as we like ‘em—and Jack’s small chunks of mahi mahi. Both were served with shredded cabbage on small white buns. You could also get some excellent sauces, a lime-cilantro and a jalapeno something. We shared an order of planks (french fries) and the house salad. All in all, good eats!

Turns out that for once, the electorate in its wisdom mostly voted the right way. That’s about all you can ask for in an election. Maybe we’ll spend each election night at the Jolly Roger.

People's Pub

People's Pub
5429 Ballard Avenue, N.W.

Research Assistant: Rudi

Ballard was always a Scandinavian neighborhood but things change. Now all sorts of people live here. The People's Pub caters to Germanophiles. They pour many of your favorite German beers and feature a menu of German foods.

Research Assistant Rudi accompanied us to the People's Pub the other night. Rudi was born in Lithuania of German parents as they were escaping to the West in front of the Red Army. How about that for a welcome to the world? They found their way to the American Army and then emigrated to the States in the 50s. Rudi owned a German delicatessan in New York for many years so he brings unusually good qualifications to this blog. Truth be told, any sort of qualifications are unusual around here.

It's an odd space, a relic of its previous life as the Vasa Sea Grill and Patio Room. The grill was the restaurant in front, the Patio Room the dive bar in the back. The kitchen sits in between. The People's Pub bar is cozy but a bit loud. It's all right for happy hour but can get to be too much later on. If you wanted a little quieter time I'd suggest sitting in the front.

We had a couple rounds of a dark Weiss bier that was surprisingly good. In general, Weiss bier isn't favored around this blog but this one was just fine.

German food is mighty carnivorous and that's something we don't do anymore, so it's a tough menu for us. They do have a decent gardenburger with a nice aioli. It comes with fries or German potato salad, and tasty potato salad it was.

Rudi had a bowl of Maultaschensuppe, a chicken soup with pasta. He thought it OK but a little bland. He thinks most German food out here is too bland, that the farther away you get from the ethnic communities he knew back east the blander the food becomes. The potato salad had only a mild vinegarette. Perhaps proving Rudi’s point, this native Westerner liked it. Too much pucker and we’re over the side.

If you're a German speaker and you wish to knock the rust off all those compound nouns, stop by Wednesday for German Night, where everything's a dollar off. This brings in the bargain seeking Deutsch and you can get to work on your conjugations, declensions, and seeing just how far you can string the sentence along before landing the verb.

The People’s Pub is a nice place and hits the spot when you have a hankering for a Paulaner or Spaten Pils. And who doesn't from time to time?

Hi-Life

Hi-Life
5425 Russell Avenue NW
Research Assistants: Rad and Lynn

Being as Ballard Bars is all about the high life, it seemed appropriate to start this project at one of Ballard's new joints, the Hi-Life.

For many years Ballard's brave firefighters worked out of this grand brick pile. You can still see the firepole they used to get from the living quarters upstairs to the trucks below. Those big doors are replicas of the originals the fire trucks used to scream out of.

Inside, it's a big, yet comfy space. There's lots of brick, wood, and iron, but it doesn't get obnoxiously loud. Another obnoxious thing you won't find at the Hi-Life is cigarette smoke. The friendly staff much appreciate that. So do we.

The Hi-Life is both a restaurant and a bar. That means one thing for Happy Hour hounds like ourselves: Good Eats! We enjoyed tasty small pizzas and nice salads for $3 apiece.

The Hi-Life reflects the New Ballard, gentrifying and moving upscale with each glass of Laphroaig. Now, some of us won't say "Laphroaig" unless at gunpoint, which is where Research Assistants Rad and Lynn come in so handy. We have no taste nor interest in the hard stuff, so we turn to them for an evaluation of the bar's offerings.



Rad apologizes for the admitted Philistinism of single malt on ice, but it had been a warm day and, really, is it our place to question a man's pleasures? He deemed it most acceptable.

Sadly, we were too concerned with drinking the pint of Elysian Brewery porter to remember to get a picture of its dark and sultry charms. It may take us a while to get our journalistic chops back from the limbo into which they've been cast.

We left as the place grew crowded with folks too late for happy hour. Imagine paying full retail!