The Occasional South End Pubcrawlers
Scott, carl, Ulrika, and Hal react variously to the camera
On Saturday I drove down to the south end of Lake Washington to visit friends and drink beer. The occasion was Airways Brewing Company's Third Anniversary, which they celebrated with some fine special brews, including a Belgian Strong Dark Ale and (on the opposite end of the ABV scale) a Berliner Weisse. I picked up Scott and carl in Renton and drove to the brewery in an office park in Kent, where we were joined by Ulrika and Hal. It was fairly crowded, but we hung out long enough to eventually get a table, which we shared with another couple from Kent, one of whom was Swedish. Small damned world, as he and Ulrika proceeded to speak Svensk. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we sat out in it. Good thing, too, because if everyone had had to pack into the building, it would have been a tight fit or worse.
Eventually we migrated to Imperial Garden Seafood, where a lovely Chinese meal was consumed and further gossip and smoffing ensued. (Scott: "I'm not here for the fan politics; I'm here for the party.") We were the only gweilos in the place for a bit, not that there were ever many people in the restaurant at any given point. It seems there's a bit of a Chinatown in Kent. Who knew? I even spotted a branch of Cathay Bank.
After that we parted ways with Hal and Ulrika and headed to the Dog and Pony Alehouse in Renton. Thus we were basically reconstructing the pub crawl we all did with johncoxon and strangedave when they were here on their respective TAFF and DUFF trips in 2010 2011. The Dog and Pony was out of the Creepy Monkey that carl was hoping I'd get to try, so I settled for a Cascade Kriek. Not much of a sacrifice, as far as I was concerned. Conversation got onto 20th century avant garde music and atonality, for some odd reason.
Well, it was a lovely day, all in all. Still haven't made it to the Airways Bistro, which was shut down for the day so that all the staff could work the anniversary bash. Guess I'll just have to go back. At the very least we all agreed that we should reconvene for the Fourth Anniversary next year.