Peter Johnson

Completely agree-we're all about sharing the wealth, and did that in Phila even when there was no corkage. Of course, it resulted in the occasionaly free gratis dessert, salad, "something new," etc. etc. etc.! Time to start investigating corkage fees...

This is what I was afraid of. Just had a perfectly delicious dinner at Matt's in the market (brazilian fish stew with coconut overtones and fresh king salmon seared with a caper/olive oil almost "tapenade" on top, yum) but the wine was $32--fine, it was an OR Pinot and tasty enough, but that rocketed the price of dinner up to $95!!! Sorry to be such a skinflint, but damn...the idea of paying $62 for the same meal is much more appealing--yes, we'd pay for the wine at a store, but somehow it's more paletable. Guess we won't be going out as often here...

Greetings fellow Seattle eGulletteers! My wife and I have just moved (back) to Seattle from a wonderful four-year stint in Philadelphia. As some of you may know, it's so bureaucratic, cumbersome and expensive to get a liquor license in Pennsylvania that many would-be restaurant owners say "the hell with it," open anyway, add a bit of $ to the prices, and allow people to BYO. As you can imagine, this is a VERY nice aspect of dining in Philadelphia, and allowed us to eat out much more often due to the money we'd save by not having to buy wine at the restaunts (I know, "the markup" is a touchy subject and I'm not intending to "go there" with this post!). When I was in grad school in Oregon, there were a couple of BYO places (in Salem), but I can't recall any such thing in Seattle. I come to you seeking help--where can I get some BYO satisfaction? Alternatively, if a restaurant does not have a liquor license (is there such a thing?), is the default option "bring your own"? Thanks! Peter Johnson

Absolutely! That's what makes Bob and Barbara's one of my favorite places to hang out--right after dinner at Django!

I've never been to Doobie's! Is it cool? Mellow? Do they serve food? Thanks!

Thanks for the welcome, Andrew! I have to say that I haven't been to the Rib Crib in quite a while, so my memories of their ribs may have gained grandiosity! I was thrilled when Ron's Ribs reopened, but have had inconsistent food ever since. I agree that TSJ's ribs have a great barbequed flavor; I think this just means (as others have stated previously in the thread) that I'm going to have to plan another trip to the Rib Crib for further investigation!

Greetings, all; I've posted fairly often at a different food-related board, but LOVE what I'm seeing here! My wife and I went to the S.J. for the first time for lunch (late!) yesterday; mainly because Good DOg wasn't opening until 4:00, and we were HUNGRY at 3:40. Around the corner we went. The "Joint" was nearly deserted; two tables were occupied by clearly out-of-towners (guidebooks)--did this place make it onto a published list somewhere? The ratio of staff to customers was approximately 2:1; slightly overwhelming. We weren't wild about the atmosphere (we believe ambience to be a critical element of our dining experience) and wondered exactly what they were going for with the hard rock cafe/chain/"inside of a barrel" (?) look; didn't do much for us. Let me be clear: We LOVE the ambience equally well at Ron's Ribs, Audrey Claire and L.B.F.; it's all in the restaurant, and S.J. didn't do it for us. On to the food! We split a 1/4 rack, with sides of root beer baked beans and cornbread, and a small (not so small!) mac & cheese. My first bite was the mac & cheese. Delish! Very tasty with a little subtle bit of blue cheese of some sort thrown in. I would have preferred it to be a bit crustier than it was (my wife dove in and stole most of the crust, so that could have been the problem!) and thicker (personally, I find Phoebe's mac & cheese side to be the gold standard of _consistency_, although I've heard others describe it as gluey); I found it to be a bit runny. The ribs were dry-rubbed and not served wet; there's a bottle of sauce on each table which I found tasty to add to the meat. The meat on the ribs was excellent; not particularly fatty, which some might say is a negative. I thought they were great, although I prefer my ribs to be served wet, wet wet (with aforementioned white bread!). The barbeque sauce was a nice sweet/vinegar-y combination, not super sweet (phoebe's) or super vinegar-y (Ron's); I'd say we rated the ribs just under Rib Crib in quality (R.C. being our top choice in this area) and flavor. Not as smoky as I would have liked. Root beer beans were excellent, and the corn bread was excellent. On the whole, it was great, although we won't likely be back to eat there; we'll definitely do takeout. A nice addition to the dining scene; as far as I'm concerned, we can never have too many rib joints! Glad to be here on egullet! Peter