Friday 23rd of May 2008 04:23:01 PM

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Essentially in the basement below a used book store, this place is correspondingly dark but in other ways very unexpected. It has bare utilitarian concrete floors, but also luxurious wood paneled walls and large wooden tables and chairs. And this is no ordinary wood, either, but high quality. It is light in color and has gorgeous grain. Most of the tables and the wall panels are made from the wood of a single very old spruce tree. It was an old growth tree downed years ago (close to a century?) when this area’s original massive forests were cut down, but it wasn’t considered good enough quality to be used then and was abandoned. Now the tree has been recovered and used to good effect to create a very unusual space (after a lot of hard work, of course). The wall panels are 4 to 5 feet wide with lots of knots and irregularities but each is beautiful and unique. The bar and a couple tables are made from other special wood and also have a lot of character. At the back there is a large photo mural that shows two men standing by a twelve foot diameter spruce tree they’ve just cut down. The tree is similar to the one used to make this place. Other aspects of the pub: a bookcase full of books you can browse through, only one TV, and generally soft music playing in the background.

The beer is served somewhat too cold and is a bit pricey (except perhaps during happy hour), but the selection of micros is good and it’s worth visiting (especially in the evening or on a dark overcast Seattle day, so you won’t miss the sunlight anyway).

Food comes from the bakery upstairs in the used book store (which is owned by the same proprietor) and is not fancy (sandwiches, snacks, etc.) but good quality, nonetheless, especially the breads.