From the Sea and From the Tap

After settling in at our hotel, we still had the evening to work with. We headed over to Pike Place Market to see the much-talked-about area. Later on in the trip, we'd have a bit of spare time (more on that in a future post), and wound up returning to the market in the day. This first time around, we really just scratched the surface. We got a taste of the hustle and bustle, and the overwhelming scent of fish, but didn't really have a full sense of how far the market actually spread. But by the time we'd found a place for dinner and were walking back through, things had already closed down -- surprisingly early for a Saturday night, we thought.

That dinner was at the nearby Cutters Crabhouse, at a table overlooking the Sound and ferris wheel. The former was shrouded in darkness, the sun having set around 4:30, but the latter was lit up brightly. We hadn't really talked about this before traveling, but now that we were there, we resolved to seek out seafood for most of our meals in Seattle. (Denver not being known for its fresh catches, obviously.) Cutters scratched our itch quite nicely.

After that, we bounced around to a few breweries that were in walking distance. Cloudburst had popped up as "one of the best" in some searching I'd done beforehand, and it had the vibe of some of the hole-in-the-wall places that excel in Denver. It was built in a noisy converted garage that you could easily walk right past without a sign on the sidewalk to guide you. They had a couple of good things worth trying, but both -- while decent -- seemed like imitations of great things we could get back home. (Craft beer in Denver will spoil you.)

We moved on to Old Stove, our best brewery find of the night both in atmosphere and selection. The place was a giant shrine to the University of Michigan, which was just a strange and fun thing to find in Seattle. A flight of their beers let us sample a number of good options, including their Saison du Snozberry, Blackberry Sour, and Downtown Freddie's Brown (a surprise, as I don't normally go for browns).

We then hopped to Pike Brewing, which I believe is the oldest craft brewer in the city (having been around over 25 years). The kitsch in the place was dialed up to the max, with every inch of every wall covered with photos and factoids about craft beer. The beer was robustly average. We tried things that were perfectly accurate (and perfectly forgettable) versions of core beer styles, no frills.

That was enough to satisfy us for our first night in town. After that, it was back to hotel to rest up for our first full day of activities.