Bar #8: The Spectator - Queen Anne

After Jabu's, four of us (Nat, Nolley, Dean and I) decided we had one more Lower Queen Anne bar in us and chose The Spectator. I've waited at the bus stop outside it many times, and my gut always told me I didn't need to go in. You know what they say about always listening to your gut.

The Spectator is a sports bar. There are a lot of TVs. There are video games, pool and ping pong. They have food. There's nothing to drink that would excite anyone (unless you're a bargain hunter who comes in on $5 Bacardi-You-Call-It night). I didn't even pay attention to what beers they had on tap, I just drank PBR from the can. I would've had a shot of whiskey to liven things up a bit, but I could tell that no liquor was gonna prevent this place from sucking all the energy out of us.

This is one of those bars that you can size up in five minutes. Being a sports bar, it's a dire place when there are no big games on. When we rolled in, there were 8-10 other dudes sitting around and the bar just had a pathetic feel to it. I'm sure it's plenty lively during World Cup matches or the NCAA tournament or something, but as a place to drink on an average Thursday night? Not so much.

Before we left, I saw one of those Superpretzel warmer/display things on the bar and it had one sad-looking pretzel spinning around and around. I thought, yeah little pretzel, I know how you feel. It's the same way I'd feel if I'd come in to a bar like this by myself tonight.