King's Hardware

Friendly bartenders, great selection of alcohol (and boy do they make some fancy drinks!) ... the music is just unbearably loud given the acoustics, and the Friday night crowd here makes me feel like I'm in a college town ... which, paired with the already blaring music, makes for an experience not wholly up my alley.

Sure they have ski ball and a lovely outdoor patio, but perhaps this place is more palatable on an off night or during the day?! Am willing to amend this review in either of those cases.

Stopped in after getting my hair cut at Rudy's. Not a bad place but I suffered a but of culture shock. Ballard has been completely lost to hipsters and this bar is one of their mainstays. So there was this weird little guy who was completely bat shit crazy. He was walking around and looking under everybody's tables, up skirts and what not. Nobody said anything until he got over and did that to me. So I say, "What's wrong with you 'ya lunatic!" He repeated the process twice before leaving. I was super angry, so I stepped out for a smoke. I said that I was really angry about the guy and these hipsters got upset at me and said "Nobody talks about him that way! He's an artist!" Well maybe he made paintings out of his own feces or something but... right, an artist. Whatever. Apparently there is a different "normal" here.

Bottom line: If you not a hard-core hipster, you are going to have a bad time. I don't get along with hipsters at all. (your mileage may vary)

We stopped by this place on our CycleSaloon . During the day , the bar was extremely friendly and the bartenders were quite outgoing and inviting . They had a great selection of taps , but their selling point was their home-bottled drink called Zombie . Get it. It is a rum based drink ; I've had a lot of drinks before , and suffice to say it was one of the best drinks I've tried . Definitely loving this place :)