Saturday found my dad, of all people, and I searching out a site to view the Canucks game in a city almost void of a hockey culture. Banners supporting the Sounders and Mariners were everywhere, and the odd out of season Seahawks logo popped up.
After some mid-day reconnaissance to a couple of sports pubs, which were less than pleasing, we wandered down 1st, then over to Pioneer Square, eventually arriving at FX McRory's.
McRory's is fairly classic Seattle. A classy saloon, filled with sports memorabilia and bottles of liquor on display, it lends it's self to the laid back nature of Seattle, while still being more than your neighbourhood pub. Also, they have a large whiskey selection, especially bourbon, which may be the largest collection in the world. If your looking to sip scotch and skip suds, this is probably the place.Marble tables, prints of the pub itself by famous sports artist LeRoy Neiman, and very high ceilings convey a more elegant feel, but the sports and patrons keep that in check, averaging out to a really nice sports pub.
Service was slow at first, but did pick up, and then fell off again. She was nice enough, but nothing special, no offense.
Once we did have her attention though, she was friendly and accommodating. When we asked if we could put the 'Nucks game on the TV in our corner (there were about a half dozen flat screent high def tvs and a couple projection screens out) she directed us to the manager, who happened to be sitting a table over to us. After he freaked me out with a straight faced rant about "some crazy Canadians" he had earlier in the day he obliged.
This meant there were basket ball play-offs, a Sounders game, a M's game and our hockey playoffs going on at the time. To our surprise, it was the soccer collecting the most attention. No wonder basketball failed here, it's a footy town. After the Sounders game an eclectic mix of classic and alt rock serenaded us, with tunes from Nirvana, The Ramones, and some celt punk.
The nachos and wings were great. Hand cut potato chips formed the base of the nachos which was a lateral move in my opinion. Crispy and covered in hot sauce, they were, with guaca, salsa and sour cream. They seemed to lack some of the toppings I'm used to though, like tomato, and onions, but chalk that up to culture shock. The wings were awesome though, big juicy suckers, 8 to a plate. 12 regular wings usually = a pound, but I bet these 8 matched that.
The beers were pretty high quality too, with a mostly local selection, with a couple of the expected imports and domestics. At 5 to 5.50 US a pint, it's what you would expect, a little on the high end, but within normal range. We saw the likes of Red Hook and Deschutes arrive at our table.
Now for the rating:
Service - Slow but alright, we'll give it a 3
Price - Fancy place = higher prices, 3.5
Pints - A solid local selection makes me smile with 4
Character - Fancy sports pub, though a little quiet - 4
Food - Juicy wings! mmm...4
No comments:
Post a Comment