One Day Left to Vote in the Best Happy Hour Poll!

Get your votes in folks!  Polling closes on October 1st at 5 p.m. in our second fight-to-the-death Ballard Happy Hour showdown.  Tell your mom, get your dog to vote, tweet about it and remind your friends! 

The winning bar will receive a swimmingly fantastic award by yours truly.  An award of epic proportions.  The suspense is nearly unbearable.

What is up with the Old Sunset Bowl and Denny's Sites?

First there was some cardboard art all over the fences.  Now there are huge white tents.  Who knows what is up?

Ballard Ave's Newest Bar - EXCLUSIVE!

The dynamic folks behind Moshi Moshi, Kevin and Tracy Erickson, are opening a new bar on Ballard Ave.  It's going to be called Harlow's and will be a self-described dive bar.  They're catering to folks who like to get their drink on - just an old fashioned love song if you ask me!

Harlow's will open up in the corner spot at 5200 Ballard Ave.  Down by the Tractor, the space used to be a guitar shop.  You know, this place:

Tracy hopes to have it open by the end of October.  Well, we know where we're going for Halloween!  Hooray and more Hooray.  Congrats, you two.

Happy Hour Show Down Continues!

It's a dead heat right now in our poll with Hazlewood and La Isla.  Vote now in the first round and send your suggestions for the second round of voting.  Remember, if you don't vote, you can't complain.

UPDATE:  Here are the results of our first round of voting.

As you can see, it's a dead heat between Hazlewood and La Isla.  Round Two kicks off today.  Don't forget to vote!

The Wood Pulls A-head

In our exciting Happy Hour poll, see the poll to the right, Ballard Darling Hazlewood has pulled ahead in the votes.  Where do you like to go?  Get your votes in now! 

And send us your nominations for other great Happy Hour bars in Ballard.  We'll have a second round of Polling next week!

Ballard's Happiest Hour

Let's have a poll!  Where is the best Happy Hour in Ballard?  Something about 3 p.m. on a Thursday has made us wonder.

Vote at right!

We voted for Hazlewood, mostly due to our undying love of the darling Jessica who is there today.

Vote, my pretties, vote!

High Ballard!

Next stop, Market and 15th!

We noticed an interesting trend in Ballard this summer and fall. While we were out walking around on Market Street we encountered a strange smell pouring out of cars.  It was an unmistakable smell, one that is instantly recognizable.  No, it wasn't cigarette smoke and it wasn't air freshener.  It was the Reefer!

And it wasn't just once that this happened.  It was multiple times, about half a dozen, that these mellow cars rolled by us or stopped at a light.

Which is why we wanted to pose this question.  Is this a new trend or is it just random?  We'd like to know if you, gentle reader, have also noticed an increase in the number of herbally enhanced drivers in the hood.  Because last we checked, there still isn't a medical marijuana store in Ballard.

Help The City and Help Yourself!

Booze - Let it Free

Fill out the Seattle Nightlife Initiative Survey
We enthusiastically brought you the news that our Mayor is pushing to extend liquor serving hours to allow bars to set their own staggered closing times if any at all.  We're in favor of this proposal, as you may know, because it's a proven method to prevent a lot of the mayhem that occurs with a singular bar closing time.

The City and the Police are in favor, but they will still have to get it passed by the Washington State Liquor Board.  According to our pals at the Stranger, the proposal is at risk because WSLB thinks it would encourage more drunk driving.  How?  Oh, they surmise that all the drunk people who don't live in Seattle will take to their cars to grab those last few hours of drinking.  We think that's a pretty fringe case scenario.  It's far better to have  some rogue drivers dispersed throughout the night instead of streets filled with them all at the same time.

So here's how you can help!  Please fill out the Seattle Nightlife Initiative Survey.  It's located right here.  Please let the city and the WSLB know that you want to extend bar hours.  Mayor McBeardy actually has an 8-point plan which is open for public comment.  That means you!

Thanks so much fellow nightlife friends.

OMFG What a Stupid Idea

We were reading in the Ballard News Tribune that city council member Sally Clark is considering regularly shutting down Ballard Ave to cars to promote commerce.  I'm sorry, but when was the last time you strolled leisurely to a restaurant in pouring rain, through the snow, in omnipresent drizzle or rode your bike down a windy wet street to get to a restaurant?  Are you crazy?   Did you notice the nice weather we had this summer?  No, we didn't either.

We at BGG have been stuck in traffic back ups that extended miles due to such cutsey fun-time street festivals as The Greenwood Car Show or The Ballard Seafood Fest.  Sure, those festivals are fun and you get to feel very EUROPEAN whilst strolling around in the road with your street food and your overpriced tchotchkes in reusable shopping bags.  Yeah, that's just awesome!  But pity the poor asshole who is trying to get home who can't get across town because some neighborhood decided they wanted to party in the streets.

Give us a flippin' break!  Ballard and the City of Seattle can't get their transportation issues together enough to synchronize street lights (something which would save us millions of dollars in wasted commute time/jam time) so you really think this would make people who live here happy?  We don't.

Sunset gets Squirrels

PIZZA....YUMMMMM

And this is better news than you think!  We heard that Flying Squirrel pizza will start serving pies at the Sunset on October 10th.  We had heard they were coming to Ballard (secrets) but didn't know where exactly until today.   Hooray for Max!  Can't wait to get our face in some delicious pizza and rock.