At the south side of Magnolia, after much searching (we didn't have a map) we finally arrived at McGraw St, where two restaurants and two bars have liqour licenses. The restaurants being closed, and not seemingly have seperate bars in any case, we scratched them from the list. And so we came to the Village Pub.

Okay, by day it's a restaurant, too, but at night, it's a bar. There's a couple of pool tables, and a long long bar counter, and Brandon and I sat at the very end, almost chosing to take a table, which would have been a shame.

Brandon started off on the wrong foot, asking if they were still serving food. The bartender gave him a look, and said that people who asked if they served food this late without even ordering a drink really made her mad. So I inserted my order for a vodka cran, Brandon ordered a G+T, and all was well. The bartender smiled, said that was better, and that of course they had fried food if we wanted some.

We got our drinks quickly, and introduced ourselves to Tracey, our new best friend of a bartender, who was funny and had the sort of attitude I love in a bartender, where she won't take your shit, but won't give you back too much shit. It's a fine line, but she walks it well. We also met Nina at the bar, who was a friend of Tracey, and we sort of met John, who was doing some work installing supports for railing, and was a friend of Nina's. Or something like that. Brandon in fact became more acquainted with John, or rather, his food, when Tracey, deciding not to bother with making any food, slipped John's onion rings, or the half he hadn't eaten, over to Brandon, who was only looking for a snack, and was thus satisfied.

We ended up talking rather a bit, and discovered that Nina tends bar for the weirdest shortest shift in Ballard once a week, and that Tracey knows Valerie from the Pacific Inn, oh those short weeks ago that seem so very long. Also that both were going out of town to different locales for a week or so. And more, of course, the sort of pointless bar talk that is great fun but slips away very quickly.

Somehow in there I ended up getting a second drink without really ordering it, but I didn't complain to much, and just drank and paid like a good boy.

If the Village Pub weren't so far out in Magnolia (and it is pretty far out there) I'd probably return. It's a fun place. But it's really out there, and even Tracey who works there thought so. So while I liked it, I think I'll just give it a pass in future. It was really the people, anyway, and we'll see them again elsewhere.