Post is in a great location: Post Alley, Pike Place Market-adjacent, next to what always seems to be a very busy Kell’s. They have a few tables outside, adjacent to Kell’s outdoor seating area, which will be a great spot come summer. The interior is low-ceilinged and warm, with lovely and varied light fixtures and a terrific bench of seating running the length of the back of the restaurant. The bar top is beautiful — made from the African hardwood, bubinga, I’m told — and the vertical panels of wood that front it match the horizontal version on the long bench seat. The several large gold-framed mirrors along that same wall do a nice job of reflecting the space and amping up the classy factor of the place.
Unfortunately, those same mirrors also reflect everything happening on the three televisions clustered around the bar. I wasn’t facing that direction, but still found it incredibly difficult to focus on the conversation with my friend (look! shiny object over here! no, over here!) because I couldn’t help but be distracted by the flickering images coming from every which direction. What’s with the TVs, people? Just like my experience at Pour House they, along with the massive, karaoke-ready speakers next to the bar, seemed incongruous elements in what otherwise could be a great place to hang out. Post’s interior falls just shy of cozy, I’m afraid.
And happy hour? Post has good beer and well drink prices, and I hear that they are participating in a weekly wine happy hour come June 10. Though the menu says that it is “driven by the seasons and [the] focus is fresh, quality, artisan ingredients,” they clearly mean their regular menu and not the happy hour version. We didn’t try the pepper-encrusted brussels sprouts with Bernaise sauce or the Spaghetti Bolognese, but the two items we did left much to be desired. The Turkish lamb sliders pictured below were, shall we say, very oddly shaped, rather dry and totally overpowered by the Le Piaf poppyseed baguettes. The chicken pesto pizza had great pesto flavor, but the crust was of the very chewy variety that tasted not so much of quality artisan ingredients but rather of frozen and reheated product.
I’ve never been in the restaurant business but I can imagine that happy hour is a tough equation, given that you’re offering your food and drink at reduced prices. The trouble is that the food can’t be of equivalently reduced quality. Post may have the most fantastic dinner menu ever, but after sampling what was available at happy hour I’m not likely to take a chance on the non-happy hour version being significantly better. And add lackluster service and those darn TVs, and I’ll probably find other spots at which to belly up to the bar.
