Last Friday before the T-Birds vs. Everett Silvertips hockey game my buddy Greg and I popped into the new Sport restaurant and bar. It was about 6 pm and the place was fairly packed. We got seated at a table with our own 17 inch HDTV LCD flat screen TV. The service was kind of hit and miss. I got a pizza and Greg ordered a steak. It took a bit longer than expected to get our food but we really were not complaining as we could enjoy flipping between the basketball games that were on TV. I saw the owner/head chef John Howie come in with his family and it was interesting to see him in just dinning with the family. About 6:45 pm the coach of the Sonics, Nate McMillian came in with his family for dinner also. I know he is an investor in the restaurant also. I kind of joked to my friend that I wanted to get some crème burle but we were late for the hockey game. The server said they were out anyway. How could they be out before 7 pm on a Friday night? Overall I would rate the experience a B+. We went on to the T-Birds game where they beat up on Everett and moved them into third place in the division. They bounced back to second place the next night when they beat whoever they played next.
I was back at the Sport restaurant on Monday night before the Sonics game. I got there about 5:30 pm and the place was almost packed. I was lucky to get a little table in the lounge area of the restaurant where you sit and look up at their big 106 inch screen. By 5:45 pm many more people were coming in and looking around for a place to sit. Some people would go get drinks in the bar and then kind of hover around waiting for people to get up from the lounge area to find a place to sit but very few people were moving. I actually had a hard time holding a seat for my housemate who was meeting me before the game. While I was waiting I ordered some Thai chicken wings which came promptly and were great. I was only drinking diet soda and they kept coming by quickly to refill it. I noticed that John Howie was "working" the bar area and talking with people. I guess he came by my table when I was off in the restroom and he talked a bit with my housemate who kind of knows him through a friend of his. He ordered a double drink and either they mis-charged us or he got it fairly inexpensively. I got the french dip for dinner and he get a sandwich. They both came quick and we gave them a thumb’s up. Off to the Sonics game where Ray Allen was out sick with the flu. Also Coach Nate McMillan was away since his mom just pasted away out in North Carolina. The Sonics played well but the Spurs played better. They could double up on Lewis and then the Sonics did not have a lot of scoring power. In the end it was kind of a blowout for Spurs but the Sonics are still the only team to beat them twice this year. On the way out we ran into a bunch of my housemates friends so we went back to the Sport restaurant to drink away the loss. The service after the game was great and it was not that crowded. My diet sodas came quick and I also had to have some crème burle!! One of the guys in our group had a few cocktails and I guess he ordered something special as he felt they were a but on the spendy side.
Tonight there was no trip to the Sport restaurant but I was back at Key Arena for another hockey game. The T-Birds skated uninspired other than the first 10 and the last 10 minutes of the game and lost in the process 3-2 to a vastly inferior team in the Spokane Chiefs. I guess you cannot win them all but it hurts to lose to a team so bad. I am not even convinced we got the best of them in the four fights that happened in the third period.
A digital recording of my life 