demons vs. drinks

[CW: Suicide.]

First, some history: There used to be a largish restaurant & bar on Broadway in Seattle called the Broadway Grill. It was loud, it had a somewhat gay vibe and occasional drag events, and it had pretty good food & drinks. dagard, who lived in the neighborhood, spent many an evening there, some of them with me. I think he liked to think he was imparting wisdom. I could often smell bullshit, but for better or worse I kept my mouth shut about that.

The Broadway Grill closed years ago and remained empty for some time. Apparently the place or its equipment needed expensive repairs or maybe replacement. The building's owners, as I recall, were out-of-state investors and could afford to be patient. And during that time, in March of 2016, dagard committed suicide. That messed with my head, to put it mildly.

At the start of this year Olmstead opened in the old Broadway Grill space, a restaurant and bar with apparently the same floor plan. One of my extended Burner buddies gets a regular group together for drinks, and she decided to check out this new place. Lots of people showed up, including domestinatrix.

So, how does Olmstead compare to the old Broadway Grill? Read on.

• Drinks: I think Olmstead wins at presentation, hands down. Orchids in the mojitos. Owl-shaped copper mugs. I only had a couple of beers, but others said the cocktails are right on. There are ingredients on the drink menu that I don't recognize, of course. The Grill had some excellent bartenders that Dag dealt with with personally and extensively, but I think Olmstead is at least their equal.
• Food: The nibbles I had were pretty great. corprew was disappointed with the poutine. I'll call this a wash.
• Decor: I think the Grill won. I remember liking it all those years ago, and Olmstead has a lot of blank, verdigris-painted walls.
• Prices: Olmstead is a little spendy, which is to be expected after several years of Amazon's depredations and the staggering debt Olmstead's owners must have incurred to fix the place up. But I don't recall the Grill being all that good a deal, either. That wasn't why anyone went there.
• Vibe: Too soon to tell. I was there about 1700-1900, and people are just finding out about the place, so it wasn't busy.

Did I exorcise the demons from that space? Maybe. I'll just have to go back, like on a date or something.