Nothing says “up and coming neighborhood” or “urban revitalization” quite like the opening of a tap house pouring an ever-rotating selection of locally brewed IPAs or “session ales”. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, The Original Growler Guys (8500 Lake City Way) are synonymous with sourcing and pouring the freshest, most innovative beers in the region. Get your growler filled (for those unfamiliar, a growler is a hundred percent air-tight glass, metal, or plastic container that allows its owner to transport freshly brewed beer from a “beer station” to back home without any degradation or loss of quality.) The OGG’s Ravenna location features a mind boggling 36 taps—including something called “draft kombucha” (can that really be a thing?) The Growler Guys certify their very own “Beer Stewards” to guide drinkers through a wide variety of tasters because, let’s face it, Peach Sour Ale, Imperial Stout and German inspired wheat beer don’t taste much like Bud Light or Rainier and are perhaps an acquired taste.
Similarly, Ravenna’s ravenous carnivores are already licking their lips in anticipation of the opening of The Shambles, a spanking new tap room/butcher shop specializing in locally-sourced beef cuts, charcuterie and, of course, artisanal sausage links. Known as the “farm to bar experience,” The Shambles will be serving up some of the best hand-cut beef and pork sandwiches in the city once it’s in full operation in February 2018. Located in an historic brick building with an open floor plan and plenty of wood trim, The Shambles will almost certainly be a success from the day it opens. According to Seattle magazine, “The bar top is an estimated 800-year-old fir; much of the wood that decorates the place (and there’s a lot of it) came from an old barn in Chehalis.”
Who knows, it might even pull the beard and flannel crowd away from Fremont and Capitol Hill.
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