It's not all about the food

Last night I headed over to the soft opening of 'Roxy's Back Door' with some friends. I'm not sure if that's the name of the bar but our bartender Skip did make a couple of 'Backdoor Surprise' cocktails for the ladies so I'm assuming there's a connection. That and the fact that the back door of Roxy's Diner leads to the bar.

I wasn't alone in being quite surprised by the bar itself. It's almost classy and I mean that in a good way. If it were any classier it would be pretentious. This place has just the right atmosphere to make you feel like you can walk in unshaven and wearing flannel, or wearing a three piece suit and pocket watch. Either way, you wouldn't feel out of place.

A second surprise came in the form of the food at the Back Door. When I first moved to Seattle from New York about 6 years ago, I wasn't keen on eating pizza or deli food. I had my fill after having worked at a deli and eating pizza every other day. I was also scared that the pizza in Seattle would be horrible in comparison. I'm happy to say it doesn't have to be, not with all the great cooks in this city. When I first went, Roxy's Diner didn't disappoint. Over the years however, it seemed the quality of the food went down as the demand to get a seat on a Sunday morning went up. I'm happy to say that the pork chop I ordered was great. A little pink in the middle, just the way I like my piggy. The sweet potato latke was a nice touch. It added that fun sweetness that works so well with salty pork. The portion size was perfect, I didn't feel stuffed, just satisfied. By the end I was gnawing on the bone to my girlfriend's dismay. I tried a bite of her lamb burger and I was less impressed but I have a problem with ciabatta bread. Something about the huge holes makes me angry, like I'm not getting the same dough density value for my money that I would out of a nice brioche bun. That said I think the rustic ciabatta works better with the likes of lamb and feta.

The night was winding down for us, mostly because we had been cut off from free cocktails. It seemed they caught on to one of my friends getting his two free cocktails from three different bartenders. Before leaving we spoke with the owner about his new venture. On the subject of opening a bar to add onto his deli, he said "it's not all about the food." He's right of course, it's not. It's about the experience and the atmosphere as well. If you can't enjoy the intangibles and the overall experience then it doesn't come together. Luckily for him, they got the food right too.