July 8, 2005
The slow decline of The Brickskeller
When I first moved to Washington, The Brickskeller was one of my favorite bars. I have many happy memories of hunkering down at a table with a half-dozen or more friends, expecting a round or two but ending up having a multi-hour party with a huge tab and a collection of exotic bottles leaving little room for the loaves of bread or buffalo burgers. The waitresses were cute and knowledgeable, able to correctly pour an unfiltered beer perfectly while chatting on some other topic as if that swirl-pull was the easiest thing in the world to pull off without getting foam everywhere (it's not).
But every time I've returned, it gets worse. The beer selection dwindles, although this is not reflected in the menus, which seem to get replaced with fresh copies less and less often. The food is the same, but the portions are smaller. The waitresses have changed over the years, as one would expect, and the new ones are grumpy since they have to tell customers "no" to their first five choices.
The little things, like the ketchup-stained menus, are a sign of the bar's larger problems. The Brickskeller may still draw a crowd, but their long, slow slide will continue until the die-hards get sick of hearing that they can't have a Erdinger Weiss or an Augustinerbrau or a Brooklyn IPA.
Posted by rj3 at July 8, 2005 11:01 AM
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Comments
It's the Brickskeller Rule - you never bat 1.000 on the first round, someone always goes scrambling back for the menu. That, and they have a really hard time telling the difference between a Shiner Hefe-Weizen and a Schneider Hefe-Weizen.
Posted by: Matthew :) at July 8, 2005 6:04 PM
they don't even have strongbow anymore!
Posted by: melissa at July 9, 2005 11:33 AM
Such a shame...I used to go to get the great Pac Northwest beers like Deschutes and Full Sail, but they haven't had them in the last several times.
Posted by: stitt at July 12, 2005 3:19 PM