Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Beveridge Place Pub

Beveridge Place Pub
6413 California Avenue SW

www.beveridgeplacepub.com

Category:
Pub

When:
Thursday July 24, 2008
4:30pm to 9:00pm

Walkabouters:
Keri & Eric

Happy Hour:
3:00pm to 7:00pm Mon-Fri
2:00pm to 6:00pm Sat-Sun

Specials:
Alcohol: No hard liquor


Beer: $1.00 off pints and imperial pints
*$2.00 off pitcher
14 beers available on tap
Wine: *$1.00 off all glass pours
$3.00 off most bottles
13 wines available, plus 4 sparkling
* = varies, web site states different than night we attended.

Keri started with a Blackthorn Cider, something crisp and sweet for the evening, it was a nice way to start the night. Then she moved on to the Locomotive Imperial Red, which was pretty tasty, and then an Agate Pass Amber, which was her favorite of the night. Eric started with a Whistling Pig Hefeweisen…which was a little on the sweet side, for a Hefe. Then he moved on to a Roots Organic Red, he and Keri ended up swapping beers on the reds, preferring the other’s over their own! As far as happy hour is concerned, Eric ended with the Troll Porter, which was his favorite of the tap beers.


Food:
NO FOOD. However, Beveridge Place knows how to provide great service to their customers, they provide take out and delivery menus for the local restaurants, and allow food to be brought in!


Atmosphere:
When you walk in, you are greeted by a very “living room” type scene. There are games spilling out of a cabinet, lamps on the window ledges and chairs and sofas scattered about. Since there’s no food here, dogs are welcome! Nothing like coming in the front door and having a happy pup look up from his place on the floor with a tail wag! The music was your typical “Jack Johnson barefoot rock” mix, which was a nice background to the overall feel of this comfortable “joint”. The bar is made from an old bowling alley lane, it’s deep and bright, making it the perfect place to sit and spread out with your delivery meal and beer…even room for a board or card game! The back bar is absolutely gorgeous, dark wood and very grand in scale…it’s a thing of beauty! Apparently this piece was a salvage piece, thanks for being ahead of the recycle curve Beveridge Place! We sat at the bar (also salvaged) which was comfortable and spacious, the stools were comfortable enough for us to sit there for more than 4 hours without feeling like our butts were going to fall off! There are two sofas that looked really comfy and appeared to seat 3 each. There were 2 tall two stool tables, with hooks to hang coats and purses, 8 multi-person tables and 9-10 bar stools. This seat count is for the main entry only, the game room and outdoor section has additional seating, but we never got that far!! The game room has foosball tables, a fabulous game that appeared to be tabletop tetherball bowling…just ask me, it made perfect sense when I gave it the name! Beveridge Place is so ahead of the curve, they even offer loaner bike locks for their customers that ride their bike in from the surrounding area! When we got there at 4:30 there was a smallish crowd of about 8-10 people, this number easily grew to be more than 50 by the time we left at 9:00pm. The noise level never reached a point where we were shouting at each other to be heard and our waitress was great and very attentive, however, we lost her early on and when our waiter took over, the service slipped to a rating of “fine”.

Bar Hooks: Yes

Foot Rail: Yes

Cost of Happiness: $21.50

Overall rating (1-10 and personal thoughts):

Keri: 8
I will refer to Beveridge Place Pub as BPP, for laziness purposes.
Okay, so, let me paint you a picture…you’re driving down the street, looking for a place to grab a nice cold beer…not a faux beer, but a real beer, one of the many fascinating micro’s that make you remember what ingredients go into making a GOOD beer. You’re also looking for someplace that looks like a hangout joint, someplace that looks well tended and cared for, not a dive bar, which serve a purpose, but a place to hang out, a place you can hear yourself think or, chat up the person on the stool next to you. Suddenly, in an area that appears to be struggling to maintain an image of “well-kept”, you see a jewel, sitting there, quietly beckoning you with fresh paint, a hand printed blackboard/sandwich board on the sidewalk and some very comfortable outdoor seating. You expel a sigh of relief as you pull into the adjoining parking lot, find a space and head in. When you get to the entry, you are greeted with a wide deep room, with enough light to be serviceable, but not so bright that it’s a sun-room! You take a slow inventory of everything in front of you, to your right, a few tables and a pup wagging his tail in greeting to you. Further back, there’s a cabinet filled to bursting with card and board games that appear to have been well used and well loved, and further back than that, is a beautiful, bountiful cooler o’ wine…a thing of beauty!!! To your left, you spy a few scattered tables, some funky lamps and two sofas that look to be soft, cozy and oh-so-comfortable! Instead of opting for a sofa spot, you spy the bar at the very back of the room, and you think…ahh, now there’s a place a person can spread out and be “at home”, so off you go, to claim your space! When you sit down, you are surprised by the amount of elbow room, you’re not being crammed into a 2x2 space by your neighbor’s elbows, as a matter of fact, you actually have to extend your arm in order to tap the fellow on the shoulder to ask for the take-out book. Once you get your beer, you take stock, the people, the air, the space, this place is BETTER than your living room (except if you need a television). BPP allows you to actually socialize with other people! When we were there, I didn’t see people chatting on their cell phones so much as chatting to the people they were with! BPP takes me back to old family gatherings and picnics, where the point was to share good food/drink and truly socialize with the people around you. The only reason I gave BPP a rating lower than 10, was because I wasn’t that impressed with the food that was delivered, and I’m betting that if BPP does beer, wine and atmosphere this well, they could do some really great, simple bar food! But I’m good with their decision to not monkey up the works, we’ll just order from someplace else next time!

Thank you Beveridge Place Pub, for being a true-on PUB, and providing me with a place to let my hair down and just hang out!

Eric: 8
So what? So what if they don’t serve any food. This might come as no surprise to anyone but it isn’t the food that puts the happy in Happy Hours. What they do serve is some great beers in a great atmosphere with a great setting. To me, this is the perfect neighborhood bar to hang out in for a few beers after work. But you would also want to hang out for a while and play some games. There is a lot of comfortable seating available to play many of the board games that are available. The back bar is absolutely stunning and the main bar is unique with the bowling alley top. The selection of beer is excellent and contains a lot of beer you don’t find in a lot of bars. One of the things I really enjoyed was the vibe the pub generated. I highly recommend it.