In the Naked City

Like any home brewer, I've daydreamed about operating my own brewery / pub, and spending every day working and playing with beer and brewing. One of the regulars over at http://www.homebrewtalk.com recently did just that. The fruit of his labors is the Naked City Brewery and Taphouse in the Greenwood neighborhood in Seattle, just north of downtown around 85^th street and Greenwood Avenue N.

Since I was in Seattle last week, I just had to stop by and get a look at the fruits of his and his business partner's hard work. I called a work buddy who lives nearby, and gave him directions to meet me there.

The neighborhood is kind of an eclectic mixture of ethnic eateries, bars, art galleries, and the usual businesses you encounter at the urban/suburban border, although it tends more to the urban side of the scale.

The taphouse itself is still obviously very new. The bar is beautifully built, large enough to seat crowds, and the bartender was of the multiply-pierced urban hipster variety. She obviously had great knowledge and enthusiasm for beer, and we spent a pleasant few minutes pouring over the beer list.

And what a list it was. Please forgive the photo quality, but I did manage to grab a shot of the draft list, which included a lot of PNW regional specialties, as well as Naked City's own Dubbel, which is not currently brewed onsite, until the brewery is up and running. The dubbel was a great abbey-style Belgian ale, with plenty of abbey character, wonderful malt profile, and the stern kick of a well-brewed dubbel. Belgian styles seem to be a particular favorite here, as shown by the very well-stocked list of Belgian styles of bottled and tap beer. Everything from the lighter wits and saisons to the strongest trippels was represented.

I originally arrived about 7:30 on a Monday evening, and the bar was fairly empty. However, by 8:30 or 9 PM, the taphouse had filled in nicely and was full of lots of people, all of them having actual conversations, and not paying any attention to the TV's above the bar. My friend Steve and I spent a fair bit of the time we were there chatting with the younger Don's wife, who already had some fun stories about building the taphouse. All in all, it was a really enjoyable visit, and Naked City Brewing is now on my “must visit” list for those times I get to Seattle.