Anchor Inn

After reading PJM's review, I was really excited to check out the Anchor Inn. I mean - PIRATES! Sadly, the place seems to have changed a bit after the ownership change because not one ARRRRRRRR, peg leg, parrot or shiv was part of our visit last Thursday. On the upside, there was a much better beer selection than previously reported, healthy pours at good prices, a super-friendly bartender and regular customers and a bit of the ambiance lingering about the place still. Highly recommended for a casual drink in a small sea-faring town.

Note to PJM: if you "like" dive bars but complain about the seedy characters and lack of micro-brews, you don't really know what a dive bar is.

My parents live in Anacortes and my husband and I come up from Seattle at least twice a month to spend a Saturday or Sunday with them.  My parents are always on the hunt for a great happy hour in Anacortes.  They even belong to a group of people who regularly go out for happy hour (a large group - like 14 to 22 people).  My parents had heard through the grapevine that the Anchor Tavern and Inn had new owners.  

It's obviously a dive bar and not really the type of place my parents would normally go to, but what the heck, we figured we'd go try it.  Sometimes dive bars have the best drinks and food, right?

We called in advance and asked what time their happy hour was.  The person who answered the phone was clearly not someone who worked there - just someone who grabbed the phone.  After some shouting to the owner about what time was happy hour, the owner got on the phone and said, "Every hour is happy hour".  Okay. That's cool.

We didn't have high expectations.  It's a dive bar.  Knowing that, we walked in and our noses were immediately assaulted with the smell of smoke. After ordering at the bar and then seating ourselves at a table we realize the smoke is coming from those who are out on the patio, however the slider door is open and they're standing in the doorway smoking with the smoke blowing into the bar.  Immediate turn off for all of us.  In Washington State there is a law that smokers must stand 20 feet from the entrance to a public place.  The smokers were standing IN THE DOORWAY.  

There are two pool tables.  I don't know if you have to pay to play as we didn't try it.  Besides, both tables were occupied the entire hour and a half we were there.  There was one server and she was doing triple duty as bartender, waitress and cook.  Yes - cook!  The kitchen is behind a closed, sliding door.  When she was in the back there was no one to greet patrons, serve/refill drinks, take orders, wipe tables, etc.  That seemed really insane to us.

We ordered chicken wings and nachos.  The nachos came out after about 15 minutes.  Tortilla chips covered in cheese with jalapenos on top and a side of salsa and sour cream.  The nachos were okay, but the irritating part was that they were put into a plastic basket with a paper liner.  Nachos should be served on a plate.  A LOT of the cheese stuck to the paper liner and consequently it was impossible to get quite a few of the chips and cheese to separate from the liner.  When I finally did manage to wrangle it out of the basket, the paper liner came with it making a large portion of the nachos inedible.

The wings FINALLY came out.  It seriously took 30 minutes.  The wings were good, very good, however who wants to wait 30 minutes for an appetizer?

We had ordered a refill on our drinks so we gave another order for the wings and some chicken strips.  We thought the wings would come out sooner since we figured the oil and whatnot was now prepped and primed from our first order.  Nope.  Another 30 minutes.  Geesh.

When we placed this order we asked for forks, knives and plates.  The waitress came out with our orders, but said they didn't have plates.  What?  She brought us forks and knives and to her credit tried to improvise by providing the plastic baskets with liners to serve as plates.  How can you serve food without plates?

They had five beers on tap.  The beer was good.  I ordered a 7 & 7 and it was very good.  The waitress tried to take care of everyone, but clearly it's impossible for one person to do three jobs effectively.

The owner spent the entire time we were there playing games of pool.  One would think when things are backing up so badly the owner would help out.  I've been a business owner before and we didn't have the luxury of hiring staff - WE did everything.  Our party didn't like having to wait for drink refills and for the food.

The building is old, very old.  The inside has an "old" smell, which you would expect because it is, after all, an old bar.  However...it smells old/dirty.  Hours after we left the bar I could still smell the bar on my clothes.  I hate that.  The smoke also didn't help.  

The tables are set up without any rhyme or reason.  It's not conducive to conversations.  Our table had crumbs on it and was sticky.  The paper/cardboard coasters were well used.  Almost all of the coasters on our table were warped from moisture and were curling up around the edges.  Those coasters can't cost that much - they can't replace those?  

We heard the owner say to someone, "It's a lot better here than it was".  That might be the case, but it still has a LONG way to go if it's going to be a successful business.

I don't think we'll be back.

Recently bought by a new owner and upgraded to sell liquor and some food, this DIVE bar is a great example of the olde worlde dive bars from times past. The clientele are friendly, the beers are cheap. Seriously, you can't go wrong. What kind of place were you expecting when you walked in? My wife and I will certainly go there again when we're next in Anacortes.