Farina's Winery and Cafe (Grapevine, Texas)

Farina's Winery & Café  4320 Main Street, Grapevine Texas, USA.  I found this place on an unexpected stop over at Dallas/ Ft. Worth airport.  Couldn't get out until the next day so we stumbled upon this little gem.  It is in the downtown historic area of Grapevine Texas.  It has a good wine selection, which it should, LOL.  I had the Farina blend and it was very good.  My wife had the Farina red blend also very good.  It has a very nice sit up bar with a massive mirror behind it.  I some how forgot to take a picture of the bar so I took a picture of my side salad instead.  There are quite a few tables of 4 and a very large square table that can easily seat 8.  Next door is an antique store which is attached and you have to cut through it, then through part of the kitchen to get to the beautiful outside patio area.  3/4th of the patio area is covered and there is also a bar out there.  To eat, I had the baked lasagna that came with the above pictured side salad.  The recipe which is a Farina family recipe since 1941 and probably one of the best lasagnas I have ever had.  Did I say it was very good!  My wife had the spaghetti and home made meat balls meat balls, and they were awesome as well!  This is a fantastic place and I give it two thumbs up for sure!!

White Horse Saloon (Arlington, Washington)

White Horse Saloon, 304 N. Olympic Avenue Arlington Washington USA  Phone 360-435-3122.  We stopped in on a Friday for a glass of wine and some lunch, to our surprise they don't serve any food but I will get to that later.   The building is 70 years old, but there has been a bar there for 50 years.  It is located on the main drag in downtown Arlington which is very quaint. We met the owner, Barb who was wonderful and we had a great visit with her.  She bought the bar a few years back and closed it down for 6 months for renovations, much to the surprise of the previous owner. She showed pictures of the renovations and the mess that it was in.  The renovations turned out well!  They have a large sit up bar that seats 16 comfortably.  The Saloon has a full sized shuffleboard, a pool table and get this a ping pong table. A ping pong table in a bar, for me that is a first, great idea!  There are 3 high bar tables that each sit 4.  In the back they have a nice moose head mounted on the wall.  3 nice flat screen TV's for watching sports or what ever else.  As for beer, they have 12 different kinds on tap as well as bottled beer.  It is a fully stocked bar with all the hard liquor you would expect to find. 
As I said they don't serve food but the restaurant next door, the Blue Bird serves food and will deliver it to you in the bar.  The White Horse Saloon has menus for the Blue Bird.  I had a grilled ham and cheese on sourdough and it was very good,  My wife had the BLT on sourdough and also very good.  They have live music on the weekends. 
The cooler still retains the old wood door and is a very nice touch.  I enjoyed my stop here and would recommend it to anyone in the area looking for a drink and food from the Blue Bird!

Rusty Gull Neighbourhood Pub (North Vancouver)

Rusty Gull Neighbourhood Pub  175 E 1 Street, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  Ph# 604-988-5585  www.rustygull.com  Located in North Vancouver across the Burrard Inlet from downtown Vancouver.  Founded in 1983 and a local favorite for over 30 years.  It is a small cozy bar, long and narrow.  It has a very nautical ship building theme as this area was the ship building area and still is today.  They have quite a few great old pictures of the ship yards and workers. As  you enter the front door, there is a small beer and wine store on your right, then they have 2 large booths.  On the left side is the kitchen followed by the first half of the bar that has a very nice gas fireplace.  The sit up bar is in the middle of the pub but there are only a few seats, on either side.  It is a very nice looking bar, but there are bar stools in a row right across from it with a small ledge to set your drink. The back or south side of the bar has a small stage where they have live music on Friday and Saturday nights and some Sundays.  Since the bar is built on a slope, the back patio area is one story off the ground, and has a retractable roof.  It had a great view of the water before a condo high rise was built recently.  As for beer there are 18 different types of beer on tap.  Their house wine is Peller Estates Wine which is an Ontario, Canada winery.  They have lunch and dinner specials daily.  I did not eat here this time, but others around the pub were eating and all the meals looked very good. They have 3 HD TV's, just enough to watch the game.  I have always liked this pub, and suggest that you give it a try!!

Slo Pitch Sports Grill & Casino ( Bellingham Wa.)

Slo Pitch Sport Grill and Casino 3720 Meridian Street Bellingham, Washington, USA  www.slopitchcasino.com  This place is so easy to get to and from from Interstate 5.  Take the Meridian exit in Bellingham and go west about a block and there it is, nestled in between to hotels on the south side of the street.  When you walk in there is family  area with tables and booths, but we never saw any children while we were there. Then you go in to the bar, which has a pony wall around it to separate it from the family area.  There is a small Casino in the back of the bar with tables etc. They have a granite sit up bar that holds about 22 people.  They have 34 different games of pull tabs.  As for beer on tap, they have 12 different types of beer.  The only wine they serve is 14 Hands, Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Gris as for the reds they have 2 or 3,  14 Hands is a nice wine.  We got there around 5:15 pm, in time for happy hour.  Slo Pitch has 2 happy hours one at 11 am and 1 at 5 pm that runs to 6.  So we were in time for happy hour and we ordered salad, Home Plate Nachos with taco meat ($5.00), and a Quesadilla with chicken ($5.00).  The waitress kinda looked at us funny.  When the food arrived, we see why she looked at us funny.  The Nachos were huge, and they don't cut back on anything at happy hour.  The Quesadilla was also big, it was all we could do to eat the Nachos and Salad.  They were very good and the Quesadilla made a great lunch the next day. There are over 12 flat screen HD TV's with all kinds of sports on.  They have 4 round high tables and chairs that each seat 4, you could squeeze more in if you had to.  The service was very good!  Our waitress was on the move all the time looking after her customers.   It was quite busy when we were there and no one had to look and hunt her down.  If she was not waiting on tables she was cleaning and wiping things down.  If your spouse isn't interested in going to the pub, Bellisfair Mall is just a could of blocks away on the east side of Interstate 5.  Just saying........two birds with one stone.  I would definitely come here again! 

On The Rocks Pub and Grill (Kamloops)

On The Rocks Pub and Grill, 1265 Rogers Way, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada   Ph# 250-374-9761.  Located just off Hwy #1 in the Hotel area of Kamloops.  It is situated as the name says, up on the rocks with a beautiful view of the valley and city.  They have 26 different types of beer on tap.  For the gambler in you, they have Keno, pull tabs and video poker.  I did not come out a winner on either the Keno or pull tabs, but I hung in there for a while.  The sit up bar holds 8 with various Hockey jerseys hanging around it.  Sports memorabilia through out and lots of money donated to charity causes. There are 14 flat screen TV's through out with one very large TV for watching sports!? There is also a large projection screen that can be lowered for that big game.  This place has a very nice wrap around outdoor patio that has a great view of the valley.  If it is pool that you are in to there is one pool table.  They also happen to have a very attractive hiring practice.  It just happens to be right across the highway from the Aberdeen Mall, how handy is that!?  The food was pretty good and quite a few people came in for their dinners (supper depending on where you come from).  Beautiful setting, well laid out, good parking, good service all you can ask for.  Plus it is very easy to find!!

Longhorn Saloon (Edison, Washington)

Longhorn Saloon, 5754 Cains Court, Edison, Washington USA.  Phone# 360-766-6330.  Edison is a small little town with a couple of artisan bakery's, art stores and antiques.  A cool looking bar from the outside. The sit up bar can handle 12 people. 12 different types of beer on tap as well as hard liquor, wine and coolers. There are 4 booths along the front windows.  They have long tables and metal chairs for the rest of the seating (which I am not a big fan of).  For lunch I had one of the daily specials, the Fillet-O-Longhorn, hand breaded Alaskan Cod fish burger served with fries and a cup of chowder.  It was all good, especially the chowder, and all for $11.95.  My wife had Prawn salad with blue cheese dressing, everything was very fresh and very good.  On the menu, their signature dish is the Cajun Seafood Stew.  "Extra large bowl of spicy Cajun style stew loaded with oysters, prawns, clams, cod, spicy Italian sausage and fries sautéed spinach in a rich tomato broth, Served with garlic bread for $14.95.  Sounds pretty darn good!  The food was very good and I would love to try some of the other dishes.....maybe the Cajun Seafood Stew!  It is not that far west of the Interstate 5 Just north of Burlington, Wa. 

Pint Public House (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Pint Public House, 455 Abbott Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the Gastown area in downtown Vancouver.  www.thepint.ca  604-684-0258.  Hours 1100-2 am.   A great sports bar just a few blocks from BC Place Stadium, home to the Vancouver Whitecaps of the Major Soccer League, and the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, and the Rogers Arena home to the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League.  The walls are adorned in tons of various sports photos, mostly local teams.  In the center is a nice big square bar with seating an all 4 sides, I guess it could sit 30-35 people.   Before games this place fills up very quickly.  They just added a 300 seat extension below in the basement and that opened about a month ago.  If it is beer that you are after, there are 17 different types of beer on tap, as well as bottled and canned beer.  You can also order this real cool beer vat thing.  It is about 2 1/2 feet tall, glass and full of beer.  It has a tap on the bottom and you can pour your own beer!  No waiting for service, which by the way was very good!  Through out the bar there are numerous HD TV's.  They have roll up doors so you can sit and enjoy the fresh air and everyone passing by.  This pub is in the old Lotus Hotel, which a few years ago  you would never have ventured here as it is part of the downtown East Side which still is one of the poorest areas in Canada and riddled with drug and addiction problems.  Where the pub is located, there has been a lot of revitalization going on and sure that is nice.  You only have to walk a couple of blocks to the north east and you can appreciate how good you have it!  The food here is very good, I had the pound of chicken wings.  They come in 40 different flavours with a choice of 8 different dipping sauce.  I had the Bourbon BBQ with blue cheese dipping sauce. The wings were great, juicy and not dry, the sauce had a little zip to it but still mild, the way that I like them.  My Son had the Great Canadian Burger that came with Bacon, smoked cheddar cheese and maple BBQ sauce (and all the usual toppings), it came with a choice of sides that included, fries salad, etc.  He had the fries which were very good!  They have a fairly extensive menu!  The atmosphere here is very good, you don't have to be a sports fan to have a good time here (but it helps)!  It is not that far from all of the major hotels in the city, so it is a short easy walk.  I really like this place and highly recommend that you give it a try!