We Review: The Copper Gate

Saturday night we were itching to get our drink on. A few calls later, we ended up with a plan to check out The Copper Gate in Ballard. The wife, who used to live within walking distance of the place was wary. "When I used to live up there, the cops warned us about that place."

The friend in charge of organizing the evening assured us that the bar has indeed changed and is no longer overrun with drug dealers and hookers. So out we went on a night in The New Ballard.

Unfortunately, what we found is more than just safe and is now devoid of character (like much else in The New Ballard). The bar's décor includes a large Viking-like ship as the bar, but harsh angles, combined with admittedly lovely period light bulbs and much-too-much white left us feeling like we might be in a LA concept bar.

On the plus side, the place's shtick is to serve an artisan version of aquavit which is kind of like vodka in that it's clear, strong, and comes from a cold part of the world (Scandinavia). Since we'd never even heard of the stuff before, we were intrigued to try it and found that even when flavored in part with anise (our least favorite flavor), the licorice flavor is subtle enough and mixed nicely with things like caraway and dill to make a very interesting drink.

At about 80 proof, it also gets you drunk right quick.

Getting to the point where we even knew what to order was a trick though. The menu makes use of one font in two sizes and weights, leaving us confused even before the drinking started. Each flavor of aquavit is then listed with its place of brewing, a number, a color description, and the flavorings used in it. With no context though, none of it made any difference to us. At the least, we'd like to have seen a description of the drink and its components.

Finally, when we decided just to choose the local brew, we ordered. Our server, who seemed annoyed anytime anyone at our table ordered, brusquely asked if we wanted a beer with it. Since she asked we assumed that meant one is supposed to order a beer back, and we chose one at random. It would have been nice if the menu had mentioned this or, better yet, given us some hints as to what beers would go with what aquavits.

Apparently the food there is really good, but our group was so put off by the atmosphere and server gruffness that we settled up and walked up the street for some Old Ballard drinking at The Viking which is much more our style.

The Copper Gate is open 5 pm to midnight, seven days a week. It's located 6301 24th Ave. NW.

The picture wasn’t taken at The Copper Gate (like we said, aquavit works and everything got blurry fast) but we thought it was pretty. It's called wine flight and pink_fish113 put it in the Seattlest Flickr Pool.