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?