How many outdoor bars do you know of in Seattle? Not many, huh? It seems like a ridiculous concept here (because of, you know, the mass amounts of rain we get), but somehow this new place pulls it off — and well!
Shelter Lounge (Yelp Page)
Shelter Lounge is a half-indoor, half-outdoor bar in Ballard that just opened in late October. And although it doesn’t looked too covered in the picture above, it is. The outdoor section also has a long fire pit with bench seating, and a bunch of heat lamps. When I went the first time it happened to be a particularly windy night, so the heat from the lamps didn’t have a chance to warm the area up, but I’d assume on a still day (even a very cold one), it would be very comfortable out there.
Indoors and out both have matching curved bars, plus some booth tables and some interesting other seating/stand options. There’s a big garage door between the areas, which I assume they open fully in the summer (we’ll have to see), and open halfway in the colder months (so wait staff can scoot under it to take orders).
Good beer + avocado fries + silly friends = a good time at Shelter
But to get passed the awesomeness of the building itself, I have to admit that they also have great food. In particular I was eager to try their avocado fries, as I had heard a lot of hype about them. And they are awesome! Crunchy and spicy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. Mmmm. They also have PB&J Poppers (like jalepeño poppers), but I’m of a rare kind that doesn’t like PB&J, so I didn’t try — heard they were good though! Their wine list wasn’t fantastic, but they had a decent selection of beer and cocktails, which the waitress was able to recite to us from memory, which was impressive.
Parking is great, since it’s just passed the Ballard bridge on Leary, where there isn’t a bunch of other stuff. And if you don’t like huge crowds, I’d recommend trying it out for some happy hour plates and drinks (4-6pm).
This site has a great slideshow of 12 pictures of Shelter Lounge. Click on the main picture to check them all out.
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