Out in Seattle for a trade show earlier this year, the trade show turned out to be a bust. I pretty much did everything and saw everyone I needed to see on Friday, and I went back on Saturday morning just to see if I missed anything. I hadn't. As a big Iowa Hawkeyes football fan, it turned out that Iowa was playing that day and I wanted to watch the game. I looked up the list for Iowa Club Game Watch locations across the nation and found that there was a sports bar near downtown Seattle that hosted Iowa watch parties for their televised sporting events. Wanting to watch the game with like-minded Iowa fans, I headed to Buckley's on Queen Anne in Seattle.
Tim Buckley was a longtime pub owner in Seattle running the popular Belltown Pub since 1980. In 2003, Buckley lost the lease to the pub's spot and was forced to find a new location to set up shop. He decided to change a few things up and become more of a sports bar and grill. In 2004, he found a location on Queen Anne street about six blocks west of the Space Needle. (see map) He recruited many of the same employees that he had at Belltown Pub and opened Buckley's on Queen Anne in June of 2004.
In 2008, new ownership of a building forced the lease holders of a restaurant not far from Buckley's original Belltown Pub to vacate the premises. Tim Buckley saw an opportunity to get back into the Belltown neighborhood that he loved so much and took over the spot at the corner of Battery and 2nd Ave. (see map) The Buckley's in Belltown opened in late 2008 mirroring the decor at the original Buckley's on Queen Anne. Buckley continues to oversee both restaurants to this day.
There was a parking garage just next to Buckley's on Queen Anne street and I parked in there for a flat fee of around $10.50 for four hours. I really didn't know how long I'd be there, but I figured $10.50 for four hours near downtown Seattle was a pretty good bargain.
The place was already raucous a half hour before kickoff. A lot of Iowa fans were in Buckley's ready to cheer the Hawks on. The bar was already full and the bulk of the tables in the restaurant were taken, as well. There was a couple who was getting up from a high-top table in a back corner by the bar and I asked the hostess if I could grab that table. "I would suggest you get it as soon as you can," she nearly shouted at me as more people poured in behind me.
The bar was elevated from the back dining area and featured four flat-screen television hung on the wall behind the bar. There were two dining areas in Buckley's, the lower dining area behind a half wall by the bar and another area off to the side of the bar. Looking around at the full pub and the increasing amount of people coming into the place, I knew I had scored a prime spot for the house.
I was seated there for a few moments and one of the bartenders came out from behind the bar to wait on me. Her name was Lauren. And Lauren was working her butt off. She handed me a menu and asked what I wanted to drink. I didn't see a beer list, but Lauren pointed at the beer bottles and cans lined up on the back wall high above the back bar. I immediately saw they had cans of Rainier beer. "Oh, Rainier," I halfway exclaimed. "Yeah, I'll have a Rainier!" I hadn't had a Rainier beer in probably six years - the Old Style of the Northwest. And it was just as good as I remembered.
The game started and I held off on ordering food for a while. Buckley's has "Blunch" on Saturdays and Sundays starting at 9 a.m., but it was after noon when I was there. Blunch features at Buckley's include classic breakfast items such as eggs Benedict, a Denver omelette, and a breakfast burrito. French toast, pancakes, and a deep fried chicken with gravy, two eggs and hash browns were part of the Blunch menu.
Buckley's had the prerequisite bar appetizers - wings, nachos, and deep-fried cheese curds. But they also had Thai short ribs, a chicken quesadilla, and deep-fried calamari for appetizers. They had soups, salads and tacos which included shredded chuck steak, blackened chicken, shrimp or Alaskan cod with cheese, lettuce, cilantro and chopped onions. After 5 p.m., Buckley's has a buttermilk fried chicken entree; a penne alfredo with chicken or salmon; and the Pub Steak - a 10 ounce Black Angus beef tenderloin that is marinated in Worcestershire sauce, herbs and spices.
I was looking at a couple three things on the burger/sandwich side of the menu - the prime rib dip was enticing, as was the Reuben sandwich. In the end, I got the mushroom/Swiss burger. I asked Lauren if they could put bacon on the burger and she said, "Absolutely!" And they had tots on the menu - you know me, I to get the tots. But they also had sweet potato tots on the menu. I had to give those a try. Also, a small tub of a creamy peppery sauce came with the burger and tots.
The burger was very good. With all the Swiss cheese and an aioli sauce on top, the bun didn't fare too well. It literally collapsed and fell apart after about four or five bites. But, still, I can't complain about the quality and the taste of the Swiss cheese/mushroom/bacon burger.
The tots were interesting. They did taste like sweet potatoes with a crunchy outer shell. The creamy pepper sauce had a bit of a spicy bite and I used it to dip the tots into. I didn't finish them all as I was getting full after the eating most of the burger. (A lot of the bun was discarded on the side by the time I was done.)
As I was eating, a couple was sort of standing near the bar watching the game. I had two stools open at my table and I offered them the seats. Turns out that they were from Ames, but he went to school at Iowa and was an Iowa fan. They were out in Seattle and he said that he did a Google search to see if there was an Iowa Hawkeye bar in the area. "First place that came up in the search was this place," he said. "We didn't know what to expect when we got in here. I guess we should have gotten here earlier." I told him that I got the last open table a half-hour before the game started. They were both thankful that I offered them the stools that he ended up buying me a couple Rainier beers while we watched the game.
I also didn't know what I was getting into going to Buckley's, but I was more than happy with the burger and tots that I got. The place was rocking during the game and it was a wonder that Lauren was able to keep up with all the orders at the bar and taking care of the tables just in front of the bar. And it was fun drinking Rainier beer again. Buckley's was a cozy, yet fun place with a good burger.
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