Lunch #4: Georgetown Liquor Company

Our first loop circumnavigating Georgetown has been on the outside of the street. After Matt's and the Industry Lounge on E Marginal Way, Marginal joins 99 and we turn right at Oregon Street passing the Hudson on the inside (next pass) and nothing else on the outside. Continuing along the northern boundary Oregon turns to Denver then jogs on 3rd then Dawson then back to Denver before running into Lucile and T-ing into Airport Way. We pass another possibility for lap #2, but nothing on the outside other than train yards and small factories. At Airport we complete our first loop and start on the inside loop. First stop, Georgetown Liquor Company. We conveniently have Veggie Rob with us today to help us navigate the meatless world that is the GLC.

Georgetown Liquor Company, Seattle
Average Rrrrrating: 4.2 R's
Address: 5501 Airport Way S, Seattle, Washington, 98108
Cuisine: American: Vegetarian, American: Bar
Website: www.georgetownliquorcompa...
Lunch date: 7/31/2009 @ 11:50:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 15 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 55 minutes
Chair quality: Typical Bar Chairs & Booths
Beers on tap: Pabst Blue Ribbon, Manny's Pale Ale, Stella, Hoegaarden, Budweiser, Believer Double Red, Rogue Dead Guy Ale, 9 Lb Porter, New Belgian Mothership Wit, Strongbow Cider, Hales Kölsch
Bar type: Full Bar
Year Established: 2007
Number of tables: 15
Number of occupied tables: 4 (26%)
Number of white collar tables: 3 (75%)
Number of blue collar tables: 1 (25%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp! , Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Darth Rueben - Roasted-tomato Field Roast, Ementhaler swiss cheese, sauerkraut and remoulade toasted on marbled rye - $10.00

Rrrrating: 4 out of 5 R's

The sign over the door of the Georgetown Liquor Company has the words Food, Beer, Booze, and Games surrounding the logo. As I evaluated the place after we sat down the proportions seemed right. It's about 50% bar, 25% restaurant, and 25% game room. It feels and smells like a typical hipster bar, dark wood, quirky art, and slight musty mopped out smell. There are vintage video games and even old console games. The menu offers much more than the usual bar fare and has a clear sci-fi geek theme to it. It also offers a lot less on one respect: MEAT. The GLC is veggie only but has lots of meat-like sandwich options.

I went with the Darth Reuben. I'm a sucker for Reubens, and this one might be able to choke me from across the room. I ordered Georgetown Brewery's 9 Lb. Hammer to accompany my sandwich. The beers came out right away, and I had trouble not finishing mine before the sandwiches came. This seems like a serious hazard of trying to be a responsible employee and only having one beer with lunch. I may have to rethink part of this strategy.

The sandwiches were beautiful and the first thing I noticed was the great breads used in all. The marbled rye on the Reuben was crusty and cut thick. The part of the sandwich that was not corned beef was Roasted-tomato Field Roast. This was my first experience with Field Roast and, while I missed the beef, the Field Roast was tasty and made a nice sandwich. I think I would have enjoyed the GLC more if I had ordered a vegetarian sandwich based on vegetables. It was hard for me not to compare this sandwich to the amazing meat filled Reuben at the I Love New York Deli .

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: The Cheezz Steak - Field Roast, roasted red peppers, roasted red onions, mushrooms and vegan cheese substitute. - $10.00

Rrrrating: 5 out of 5 R's

When you go to a seafood restaurant, you can still get land-based foods. When you go to a steakhouse, you can get food that has flown or swam too. When you go to a vegetarian restaurant, you might expect some land-, air- or sea-based food too. Nay, they only serve vegetarian and vegetarian-er (vegan) meals. That's cool, but I just thought I'd point out a little discrepancy in the taxonomy of restaurants.

This place is pretty cool. A nice rough-around-the-edges feel, big tables, a nice looking bar, and all the classic video games you could ever want. I ordered a sandwich off of the chalkboarded menu of specials, The Cheezz Steak. I feel lucky too, because as soon as I ordered it... they took it off the menu. I got the last one.

Fear not, just because it's vegetarian or vegan... it's still down-and-dirty delicious pub food. This stuff wasn't lacking in unhealthy (unhealthful?) options. The onions and other great roasted vegetables on my sandwich were dripping in something awesome. The biggest question about this sandwich for me was the fake cheese... how was it going to hold up? It was different, but was perfect for the sandwich. It was less like a sticky cohesive unit of melted food, and more like a sauce. No disappointments there.

I initially balked at the prices for the sandwiches. I would have loved to see some cheaper lunch options, because you can't spend $10-$15 on lunch every day... which is how often I want to eat there.

The atmosphere was right. The food was great. The beer selection was wide and plentiful. GLC is everything I want in my Georgetown lunch options.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Tycho - Garlic-roasted portobello mushroom, grilled red onions, mozzarella cheese and baby field greens and roasted tomato aioli toasted on ciabatta. - $10.00

Rrrrating: 4 out of 5 R's

There's a lot about this restaurant that confounds me.

1. The name. Liquor Company. It's a restaurant, yet. . . a liquor company. I guess cause they serve booze.
2. It's vegetarian. Why a Liquor Company chooses to sell only vegetarian food is anyone's guess.
3. My Portabella burger was named after Tycho Celchu, a renowned starfighter pilot for the Rebel Alliance and New Republic . Hmmm.
4. They have old school video games. Atari 2600 . Super NES . And they work. And connected to working, equally old school televisions.

Regardless, this liquor company serves damn good beer and food. Vegetarian food that a meat eater like me would enjoy. With fun Star Wars/Star Trek themed names like "Obi Won-Tons." And a decent selection of old-school video games.

My sandwich, the Tycho, was delicious. Lots of mozzarella and aioli jazzed this fucker up. And the Ciabatta it came on was quite good. The Obi-Won-Tons had a nice zing from the goat cheese. The food here is expensive, but quite good.

Add a full bar and video games to the mix and you have a winner.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: The Sleestack - Roasted red peppers, goat cheese, fresh arugula and our housemade olive tapenade toasted on ciabatta. - $10.00

Rrrrating: 4 out of 5 R's

Okay, a $10 sandwich is way too expensive, and probably why the Georgetown Liquor Company felt somewhat empty at lunchtime. I mean, come on, the veggie sandwich at Salumi is less than $10. Sigh. But the GLC is a vegetarian joint, so I'll cut them a little slack, and their grub is pretty darn good. I scanned the sandwich list and the name "Sleestack" jumped right out at me. Tapped straight into my nerdy kid days. And yeah, roasted red peppers, goat cheese, olive tapenade... Yum. It was a bit heavy on the goat cheese, but tasty nonetheless. If only their lunch menu were $2 cheaper, then I'd be going there for lunch much more often than once in a blue moon, especially on my unemployed salary. Regardless, next time I'll have to resist the siren song of the Sleestack and try something else. It's such a lovely feeling to be able to close my eyes, point at something random on the menu, and have it be a lovely veggie meal.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Picard - Lentil-sage Field Roast, roasted red onions, fresh mozzarella, Tofutti cream cheese and roasted garlic spread, toasted on ciabatta. Served with vegan au jus dipping sauce. - $10.00

Rrrrating: 4 out of 5 R's

this is a dive bar for geeks; my girlfriend sez it seems like the kind of place where a few people got together and said "let's make a place that we'd want to hang out in", and one of them happened to be vegetarian, so they serve veg food. i think she's right, and furthermore it seems like the kind of place i'd want to hang out in, especially during the relatively quiet lunch. if their twilight zone pinball machine had been working, i might not have ever left.

i had the "picard", which is their goofy name for a french dip sandwich. and despite losing the roast beef in favor of locally made lentil-sage field roast , it was one of the best french dips i've ever had. the garlicky aioli emphasized the garlicky field roast, and the cheese was perfectly gooey and messy. the jus was so amazingly beefy that i passed it around the table for everyone to taste. i even buttonholed the guy and said "there's no way this is vegetarian", and he was like "i know, it's amazing". he told me what the secret is, but i'm a jerk so i'm going to keep it to myself. if you want to know, go to GLC and ask. oh, and the broccoli-cheese soup was good too.

i have a couple minor complaints about the place. for one thing, soup or salad as the only side choices for the gooey sandwiches seems a little odd; why no fries or chips? second, it's spendy. this isn't a once-a-week lunch place, more of a splurge. that said, i'm sure i'll go back; seriously tasty food that happens to be vegetarian, good beer, and a comfortable atmosphere is a great combination.

Luncher: Torrey

Lunch: Darth Rueben - Roasted-tomato Field Roast, Ementhaler swiss cheese, sauerkraut and remoulade toasted on marbled rye. - $10.00

Rrrrating: 4 out of 5 R's

The best vegetarian restaurant where I have eaten. The after taste of my meal wasn't that great though, so I'm giving it a 4.

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