Northwest Beerwerks

This is a brand-new (as of this writing) beer bar that definitely gives Oly a new splash of variety on the beer scene. They focus on finding the rarest and most-interesting kegs they can get their hands on. They have a beefy tap list and a half dozen coolers as well. Most interestingly, they have taken over an old house and turned it into a real business. It might actually be the most convincing transformation of residential real estate into a cool business that I’ve seen. They’re up on the hill on the east side of downtown. There are tons of all different kinds of businesses all around here, and the busy street on the south side of the building runs straight out to the freeway. Despite all this nearby activity, the house setting makes it feel very private and even like a bit of a friendly treehouse club meeting. There’s a bit of parking out front, and there’s a gravel lot behind the building. The front door has a couple of landings as you move up the slope from the street. This makes the place feel as much like a home as anything else about the place--the steps and railings feel like they’re original to the house. From the outside, you still see the gables and eaves that make it the little bungalow that it is, but as soon as you see the glass in the door and look inside, you know it’s a completely professional and very new beer bar. There’s blond wood on the floor, big windows on three sides, and on a sunny day it was very bright and cheerful inside. There are a few seating areas--a nice mix of heavy wooden tables and benches alongside overstuffed leather chairs and a sofa. There are several different areas where a group of friends can have their own space, and there’s a big sunny deck out back that they’re working with the city to license for service. Can’t sit out there just yet, but by the time you read this that may have changed. The coolers are not totally packed, but they have a nice selection of good stuff. Still, after being open only eight weeks, they have filled six coolers nearly full with a nice lineup of bottles, so it seems likely that they will fill these much fuller before too much longer. You can crack any bottle in the coolers, or take it home. There’s no charge to crack a bottle in the bar. The bar is the centerpiece of the whole place, of course. It runs along the long outside wall, with a nice barback and wall of taps. They offer 6 and 9 ounce tasters along with pints, in a sensible small variety of glasses. This isn’t the place to come for a huge variety of glassware, but the variety of beers is spectacular. You sit on gigantically heavy custom-made barstools, with hand-welded legs under seats that look like butcher blocks. And then there’s the taplist--two dozen beers focused on Washington breweries. They featured two breweries that were so new they didn’t appear on most of the more-common lists of Washington breweries, as well as plenty of interesting kegs from tiny newer breweries in the south Sound and southwest Washington. They really do the legwork to find cool stuff. They also feature a few more-familiar names from Seattle’s brewery scene, and up and down the west coast. Not too many from farther away than that, though. And that’s really cool. Emphasizing the local goods gives the place a great feel. The staff are incredibly well-informed and super friendly. The manager has extensive brewery experience himself, which goes to show how closely connected these guys are to the industry and the scene. The prices are very fair, and there’s nothing about this place that you would change. It’s a long drive for me from home to here, but I can easily see return visits in my future.