Red Top Tavern (Darrington, Washington)

Red Top Tavern, 1020 Darrington Street, Darrington, Washington, United States
Phone (360) 436-1590
When my wife and I tried this place out, I said if you want to leave right away that is OK! When we walked in I though what did I get my self in to! All the seating in this small little place is around the large horse shoe shaped bar. The owner has obviously not put any money in to this place in many years, if ever. Most of the bar stools are worn out and fixed with duct tape and the duct tape has worn out. So you are left sitting on tattered seats and the stuffing coming out. In the crappy picture I took you can see the only good chairs in the place, what gives?? My wife had to change seats as the duct tape glue was sticking to her pants. There are no lunch specials and the menu has about 5 items on it. Once we ordered our drinks the fun began. Our bartender Jennifer was great, a real sweetheart! My wife and I both ordered wine. Jennifer apologized that all the wine glasses were broken and they don't have any more. She brought us one pint beer glasses and filled them right up to the top. She said it was the same price and maybe the owner will now order some wine glasses. Well hell ya! We are going to stay for a while. Jennifer's Mother in Law was in for a beer as she is the bar manager. Well everyone was very friendly and we had a great time taking. Jennifer is a 3rd generation Darrington person. When It came time to eat we ordered the Pizza as the hot dogs on that wire rack that goes around didn't look so good. The Pizza was a McCains frozen pizza, but not bad for frozen. The tavern has a logging theme to it with lots of old pictures. I guess it has been around for ever according to the old timers. It burnt down in the 1950's and this is the one that replaced the burnt one. The wall to the left of the door is made of cinder blocks and for $5.00 you can buy a block and write what ever you want. Some people have written what they wanted!! This place hasn't been cleaned or dusted in ages. I can't believe that I took my wife here for lunch, but if not for Jennifer, her Mother In Law and the other friendly locals, we would have run!! Oh ya! Our bill for 2 pints of wine and a medium pizza! Taxes in $12.75!! I kid you not!! Jennifer even asked if we wanted another glass of wine!

Porterhouse Pub (Mount Vernon, Washington)

Porterhouse Pub, 416 Gates, Old Town, Mount Vernon, Washington, USA Phone 360-336-9989. The Porterhouse is in downtown Mount Vernon just across the street from the Skagit River. There is tons of parking over looking the the river. It doesn't look like much from the outside but it is much nicer in the inside. They pride themselves on having 21 different types of local beer on tap. Our waitress/ bartender was Malana and she was nice and friendly and worked her butt off keeping every one looked after. You never had to go looking for service! The sit up bar seats 10 people. They have about 10 booths and lots of tables and chairs. The area we sat in had nice wood plank floors. The other side is down a couple of steps and has a pool table aswell. The food was outstanding, I had the pulled pork sandwich on fresh artisan sour dough hoagie style bun. It was very good and I needed a good wash once I was done eating it. The pulled pork came with home made fries and they were very good! My wife had a bowl of the soup of the day which was Beef and Chilli soup which came with several big slices of artisan sour dough bread. The soup was so thick your spoon could stand up straight in it. I snuck a taste and it was great. This place is one that I look forward in coming back to. Great food, great beer and wine selection how can you go wrong!

Brown Bridge Pub (Princeton, British Columbia)

Brown Bridge Pub, 265 Vermilion Avenue, Princeton, British Columbia, Canada. The Brown Bridge is right off Hwy #3 when you are going through Princeton. You can't miss it. This is a really nice place and from what I am told it is the place to go in Princeton. The bar is finished off in copper due to the history of copper mining. It was a really nice touch. The front of the bar was finished off in round river rocks and look great. There is lots of seating and quite a few people were in for lunch. There were two girls working the floor and the bar and both were very friendly and made you feel welcome. The waitress suggested the hamburger as they are made fresh. My buddy and I took her up on her suggestion. She was right on, the burgers were great. They came with fresh home cut fries and they were also very good. The daily special today was Beef and Onion pie. The bartender came over and she talked to us for about 10 minutes. She even told us about her year long trip to Africa that she had been on. Very interesting indeed. There is lots of parking and I am sure if you are towing a trailer you can find parking very close by. This place was very clean as were the washrooms. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend trying this place out, you will enjoy your self!
Summer 2014, was here again and the food and service was still very good!!

Skagit River Brewery (Mount Vernon, Washington)

Skagit River Brewery, 404 South Third Street, Mount Vernon, USA. It is located in the old Pacific Fruit and Produce Warehouse. The Brewery opened up in the mid 1990's and have been brewing their own beer ever since. They have 12 different types of beer on tap. This place is divided in to two parts, the restaurant and the bar area. We sat in the bar area which seats about 25-30 people. The restaurant has much bigger area. The sit up bar seats about 6 to 7 people. The service was very good and very friendly. Since I am a wine drinker, the wine list was very good. As for the food everything looked good coming out of the kitchen. There is a very good selection of foods with daily specials. I tried the pizza which is cooked in their wood fired brick oven. The pizza was outstanding. Tons of cheese and loads of toppings all on a thin crust! There is an outside patio area, but I think that it could get a bit noisy being right on a busy intersection. They are located right off the Interstate 5 and are easy to find. As a matter of fact you can see it from the I 5! I suggest if you are in the area try this place out for sure!!

August 2, 2015, went back again and the food was awesome.  I had the 3rd Street Combo pizza which is on a 9 inch scratch dough crust with pepperoni, Italian sausage, sliced mushrooms with melted mozzarella and parmesan cheese, roasted garlic tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes on top .  It was very good indeed!  My wife had the Fish Tacos which came with either flower or corn tortillas.  She had the corn tortillas, pan seared cod (and lots of it) shredded cabbage, black beans, fresh pico de gallo and cheddar jack cheese.  She rated it as one of the best fish tacos anywhere! There is a out door patio as you can see in the picture, but when the freight train flew by with 100 empty coal cars, you couldn't hear a thing so we opted to eat in side.  Still really like this place.

Train Wreck Bar & Grill (Burlington, Washington)

Train Wreck Bar & Grill, 427 East Fairhaven Avenue, Burlington, Washington U.S.A. Ph# 360-775-0582. It is just off Hwy 20 about ten minutes from Interstate 5 to the east. What a great find! This is way up there now for one of my favorites! As you can guess it has a train theme, but not over bearing. It is after all, right beside the Burlington Northern Sante Fe line. This old brick building is narrow on the front and opens up a bit like a wedge with a patio out back where they do BBQ over wood charcoal. The sit up bar seats 10 people and is made of old growth wood. This wood is beautiful and is 3 1/2 feet across and 3 inches thick with very thick lacquer coating. Along the east wall they have a 20 foot long bench that is made of a one piece of a split log for the seat and back. It too is finished in thick lacquer. To go with this bench there are 3 tables, two that seat 6 and one that seats 4. These tables are also made out of old growth wood same lacquer finish. The bases for the tables are laquered stumps. Wow its beautiful and worth checking out!!! They have a very extensive menu and I had the special which was a Chili Burger with deep fired cheese curds on top and side order of home cut fries. It was very good and worth having again! My wife had the Crab Tacos (with fresh crab meat) not that fake stuff, and she said it was very good. We were there for lunch on a Saturday and it was very busy. All ages and back grounds of people were here. I guess this cozy place sits about 70 people or so. There is live music in the evenings so they ask you enter via the side door. I guess with a small band near the front door you would have to walk through the band to get to your seat. Service was very good, but they never asked if we wanted another drink, odd! But they kept coming around and checking on us to make sure everything was good. I can hardly wait to come here again.

August 2011, I hit this place several times in and it is still one of my vavorite Bars.  The food is some of the best bar food I have had anywhere.  I saw some guy order this mombo sized breakfast burito.  It was the biggest I have ever seen.  You could feed a family of 4 and still have left overs.  When we were there the train roared by ( train is about 5 yards away).  If you are there when the train goes buy they sell shots for $1.00!!  Maybe check with Burglington Northern Santfe and Amtrak to see when their trains are going by and schedule your visit accordingly, LOL!!

August 2012, I keep coming back......and often.  Food is still the best!  My wife had the lunch special, which was a pulled pork quesidilla and it was very big and it was only $8.95.  I had the Carribean chicken sandwich on awesome bread with a mountain of home made fries!  They are just about completed their expansion which includes a bigger kitchen!!
Went here again for breakfast in a Saturday in February 2013, you just gotta try their " Ultimate Breakfast Bloody Mary".  What is it you ask, well here are the ingredients: Cellery, Carrot, Cucumber, Pickled Beans, Pickled Okra, Pickled Asparagus, Pickled peppers, Queen olives, Chunk of ham and Cheddar Cheese, Blue Cheese stuffed olives, Salami, then add, the extra:  3 breakfast sausage meat balls, 4 chunks of potato wrapped in bacon and two small breakfast biscuit sandwiches all a 32 oz mug of Bloody Mary!!  Wow!! Check out the picture!!

Feb 2015 back for lunch and had the Beer Battered Alaskan Cod and chips with home made coleslaw.  Two large pieces of fish, nice fresh and firm, not mushy. A mountain of home made fries, which I couldn't finish but were very good. The fish and chips were very good and I wold have them again for sure!! Service was very good and friendly!  They don't do the $1.00 shots any more, when the train goes by. 

The Shop Tavern (Oroville, Washington)

The Shop Tavern, 2002 Main Street, Oroville, Washington, U.S.A.. The name says it all. This used to be the site of NAPA Auto Parts and it is now a Tavern. They only sell beer and wine, due to licensing. That will hurt in the long run. The walls and the bar are made out of corrugated metal and give it that shop feel. There are several TV's on the wall and a large projection screen TV. This is a Sports Tavern........but they are going to have to step it up n the food department. I had the Nachos, which were chips with that liquid cheese. The kind you get at the Football or baseball games. The bar tender told us that we could go out in the parking lot and buy something and bring it back in to eat. In the parking lot there was a van selling Mexican food and a BBQ stand to go along with Subway! Maybe we should have brought our food in to eat. There is a lot of echo in this place so it makes it a little hard to hear the TV's. The Tavern and the washrooms were very clean. I understand it is new, and probably going through some growing pains. This place does not stand out!

Irish Embassy Pub & Grill (Toronto, Ontario)

Irish Embassy Pub & and Grill, 49 Younge Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada www.embassypub.com. This great place is situated in an old bank building that was built in 1873. It is in the heart of the financial district and a couple of blocks away from the Hockey Hall of Fame (a must see)! There are two parts to this wonderful pub, the first being the Embassy main bar which is where you enter, the second half is the Dublin Lounge,m I sat up at the bar in the Dublin lounge. they had 18 different beer on tap. The food was fabulous. My lunch special started of with a fresh Cesar salad, followed bu the 3 cheese macaroni with double smoked bacon chunks (wow was it ever good!). A couple of glasses of wine to wash it down and for desert it was fresh strawberries and cream!! All the tables in the lounge had fresh bread on them. The service was very good and friendly. The main bar is a little bigger and obviously very popular as there were reserved signs at the sit up bar. Many people were in to watch the World Cup. My biggest mistake was leaving, because when I left it was pouring rain. I should have stayed and waited it out, hahaha! If you are ever in Toronto this is a very nice place to go to!!