Babalu the Mambo Room!

Kelly and I were invited to go see a friend of a friend perform at Babalu. It's in Wallingford which is a little neighborhood south of us we have not spent any time in. I don't really know how to describe Wallingford as a neighborhood; artsy, beer loving (I think this is where they have Oktoberfest), proud of their homes and recycling. I think if Fremont is where the alternative, granola type live, Wallingford is where the wealthier of these type live.

I wanted to go eat before we went to the club. We had a really good brewery restaurant we used to go to in Burien and had yet to find one since we moved. We've been to the Ram but it's noisy so I didn't want to go there. I don't know why I crave the food at these places but I do. We went to a place called Kate's Pub. It did not disappoint for a few reasons:
1) We met some authentic Irish guys! (I love when we go somewhere and there are authentic people - on our honeymoon we went to the Grotto in PDX and saw a real monk scurrying around!)
2) I had one of the best burgers I have ever had, Kelly had fish and chips and it was homemade batter dipped fish.
3) The burgers are build your own for $10! And when I say build your own they had a ton of toppings. I chose cheddar, bacon, mushrooms and avocado. The tomato and lettuce were chilled. It was SO good!
4) It is close to our house
The down side - it was noisier than the Ram - ha! Oh well. It was a little hole in the wall pub what could you expect. I bet it would be awesome on game night!

Then on to the Mambo Room - we haven't seen our friend Scott since we moved from Burien and he is one of the funniest people we know. Great sense of humor, great artist and really nice. He has been really excited for Kelly to meet his friend Ryan who plays Jazz piano/organ and he and Mycle Wastman were playing here last night. I attached one of their songs on the right, As Long as I'm With You. I LOVE THIS SONG. (see Valentine's blog about my love for romance. Would be great for a first dance wedding song. . .) Anyway, I have never liked jazz really but I can listen to this stuff. Babalu was very swanky. My favs - the decor and ambiance, the band, the 70 year old African American man in his nice clothes and fedora get. ting. down. (It was awesome) My not so favs - the place was packed, there were no tables and the seating was weird round bench seating along the walls that took up half the floor, there were two bars which was totally unnecessary and just took up more space in a small venue. We kept getting pushed around because we ended up in the main thoroughfare to I don't know where. And I have this complaint every time I am in a club, if someone can help me understand. . . why does the music have to be SO loud that you have to yell at each other to talk? Don't people go to these places to pick up dates or bring dates to have fun? If you can't hear each other how does that happen?! Why can't they have the music at a reasonable decibel? So if this is a mambo room I don't know how there is room to mambo.

On to late night eating. First of all I am shocked at the lack of late night eateries in Seattle. Even iHop closes at 11! I never knew this because I don't even remember when we were out this late. A place called Beth's was recommended - it was obvious when we arrived, there really is no other place to go. It was so great. I SO wanted all of my Boise friends to be there. First of all the walls are covered. . .covered! with crayon colored drawings made by patrons of the past who knows how many years. All of the staff were tattoo wielding, grunge/goth dressing, body piercing, college students. We literally were the oldest in the place by far but no one was obnoxious. And a bread option was Amish friendship bread! Breakfast food all around and the bill for three of us came to $27. We decided this is where the Amish kids come to do their Rumspringa - that is why the help is wild but they serve the bread! After our night out Kelly and I could not pull ourselves out of bed until after 12 and are enjoying a most restful Sunday.