From the people who brought us the Jitterbug, the Five Spot, Endolyne Joe's (which we haven't been to even though it's more than a year old) and Brandon's least favorite place of all time, Atlas Foods, comes their newest establishment, the Hi Life. Located in the husk of what was once the Ballard Firehouse, a bar I don't miss at all, it's a vast improvement.
The big empty space has now been converted, with restaurant sitting pretty to the left and the cozy bar to the right. Beyond the bar was a large room that had more tables, and I wasn't certain, and I'm still not, whether it was bar seating, or just another space for diners. You didn't have to go through the bar, not really, to get to it, but if you just casually looked, it would totally seem to be an annex to the bar. Who can say?
We sat at the bar, at the end of it close to this annex that perplexed me, and ordered some drinks. We got a bar menu, and then a moment later got our drinks, and then, well, we thought about ordering food. But sadly, for a bit, thinking about it was all we could do. One of the bartenders had just left (gotten off shift, I presume) which left only one woman to boldly hold down the fort, and she was restocking her area and not noticing when we, way at the end, tried to flag her down. Over and over. But a few minutes later, she was there, we ordered a pizza, and it came in like five minutes, so I suppose the haste of the food made up for the slowness of the service. Total wait time was about what it might have been at another bar, I mean.
The drinks were tasty. Not great, but certainly decent for wells. And the price wasn't high, for which I'm happy. The pizza was good, about the same as the recent Via T. experience, although Brandon seemed to like it more. Not the best value, but the crust was made with a special flour, so the bartender told us, and it did have an odd crispiness, not quite crisp enough for a thin crust experience, but more interesting. I know that doesn't make much sense, but go there and try it and it might be more clear. It was odd, but not bad.
Even though it only opened a little while ago, I got the feeling that there were already regulars hanging out at the bar. Which, Ballard being the drinking area that I know it is, shouldn't surprise me at all.
Pretty decent, over all. I still like the Jitterbug better among their places that I've been to, but the Hi Life doesn't shame them at all.
Posted by Jason at February 21, 2005 12:27 AM