Old Stove Brewery.
New to Seattle in 2016, and new to their home in Pike Place market in 2017. Here is my experience of it in 2018.
Is it beautiful? Yes.
Is it a great location? Yes.
Do they have great food? Yes.
Do they have amazing beer? Yes.
Is it authentic, Seattle? No.
Will you receive great service? Maybe.
My experience at Old Stove was pretty mediocre.
Let me tell you the good parts.
When you walk up to the brewery, it looks so pretty. The doors all open up to turn it into an open-air brewery which is a super cool concept. They have
Their beer is very tasty. They offer a lot of options that will make your taste buds dance.
Their location is killer. Right below Pike Place market with an amazing view of the Puget Sound.
Their food is good. We ordered a pizza and it was great. We also ordered the pretzel bites, which were pretty darn delicious.
Now let me tell you why I didn’t love this place.
Their service was very sub-par. It took 20 minutes for our waitress to arrive at our table, and it took 30 minutes from the time we finished our meal, to receive our check. This place is so big, that our waitress continued to forget about us and we had to keep reaching out to her. I literally had to walk up to the bar to pay for the
But besides the terrible service…
Old Stove is not authentic. It doesn’t belong. The name “Old Stove” tricks people into thinking that it is an established place that has been around for a while. I’m sure that most of the out of town tourists dining and drinking at Old Stove each day have no idea that this place is new to the city because the name makes a promise of being old, being rustic, being established. But it’s not.
And I’m not against new businesses coming to our city. I am all for it. I just don’t think it’s fair to come into a space like Pike Place and act as if you own it. Pike place is a place of tradition. Pike Place pops to the top of my mind when I think of Seattle. Pike Place is full of history.
In my opinion, Old Stove does not belong within the boundaries of Pike Place. It is an outlier. It’s a huge, boisterous, fancy brewery that sticks out like a sore thumb.
To add, the owners are not from Seattle. How can you open up a brewery in Pike Place and not even be from the PNW? I mean, come on. It’s just weird. One of the owners is from Michigan. On the day I visited, the interior was decorated with at least five HUGE Michigan state flags all over. So here I was, sitting in a brewery in Pike Place market, in SEATTLE, surrounded by Michigan flags. It just felt so wrong.
I truly felt the pioneers of Seattle shaking their head at this place.
I am disappointed that this outsider brewery, encroached its way into one of my favorite locations in Seattle. And that’s okay. They do have great food and even better beer.
Their vibe doesn’t quite vibe with mine, and that’s okay too.
As my goal with this blog, is to welcome newcomers to Seattle, I still stand here with my waving hand, saying “Welcome.” I just have a little bit of sadness in my heart right now with places like these who are taking over the traditional Seattle that I grew up with to know and love.
Times are changing. Seattle is growing. I will try my best to accept this.
