Jon

Well, yesterday, now.

The day started with pancakes, from scratch. Something I've never done before on my own. Easy as pie (easier, for me), and yummy as heck.

We went to the gym, and went to Brouwer's restaurant, the new place opened up in Fremont by the Bottleworks guys.

Brouwer's was a mixed bag. They still don't have a sign up, and there were only a couple of free tables. Once they've become more widely-known, it might be too packed to go there often.

The atmosphere was lovely. The acoustics were decent; we didn't have to shout at each other to be heard. The tables were wonderful. The fake stone on the walls was not-so-great, but not too intrusive (except maybe above the bar, if you're downstairs). The music was mostly so-so jazz, though one John Tesh song stuck out and frightened us.

The beer selection on tap is great. Unfortunately, of the seven beers we ordered at our table, they were out of three. That will doubtless get cleared up in time as they figure out what their volume is, and what they can sell. Better to run out of stuff occasionally than to sell stale beer, though.

There was no list of bottled beer, and if what I could see behind the bar was it, well, it's better than what I've seen at other restaurants here in Seattle, but it's no Brickskeller. There were no actual tart lambics, just Lindemanns. Not a bad selection, but I admit to being slightly disappointed by the bottles. (Mind you, forty taps is nothing to sneeze at...)

The food was eeeh. The cheese plate we got as an appetizer was pretty good. Some complained that it could have used a bit more fruit, and more crackers. The cheese portions were a touch on the small side, but the selections were quite nice. There was a Guinness cheddar, an aged Gruyere, a triple-creme brie, and Point Reyes blue.

My mussels were disappointing. They didn't seem as fresh as they should have been, and too many were still closed, which indicated that my taste of the freshness was about right. The vegetarian options were limited, the fries weren't great Belgian-style frites, and though I thought the steak was done perfectly, it wasn't done to the medium that was ordered.

Despite that, and despite Seattle's typically high prices for so-so food, well, the beer selection was the best I've seen at a bar in this town. I had a North Coast Old Rapsutin on nitro, and a Weihenstephan Korbinian, both of which were delicious. I'm likely to go back, at least for the Barleywine festival in a week, and possibly more than that.

I hope the food shapes up; I really, really, really want to like the place.

(After dinner, we watched Carnivale and ate yummy pots de creme from the Victrola; I forget where Tonx says they originate, but they were incredible.)