People are packing into The Lodge Sports Grille at 105 Lake St since it opened last week.  With lots of timbers, barrels, flat screen TV's, beer on tap and patrons buzzing, you can't help but to be drawn in to take a seat.  That is if you can find one, which we did-- right at the bar.  Steeeeeeeeeeeeve and I were there for date night on Thursday (I'm almost done teasing him about the eeeeee post, but not quite yet).  Joe, our super friendly bartender, looked us in the eye and asked our names and introduced himself with a handshake.  Love that.  Then he introduced us to Ryan and Nick, the men sitting beside us that became great buds to chatter with also.  We got to taste a few samples of the many beers on tap, and decided to go with a Tieton Cider, which is local and we really enjoyed- not too sweet. This place is probably a beer-drinkers dream- feel free to chime in beer drinkers....

Rabuchins always arrive hungry so we started with the steamed clams which were decent- the broth was really good -not oily or buttery. A bunch of the clamshells were empty, but maybe they escaped to the bottom of the bowl.   Little celery and pepper pieces were a nice touch in there.  I ordered the meatloaf with double veg which was pretty darn good, I would order it again.  The vegetables were super yummy- al dente green beans with some red peppers that had some sort of buttery salty deliciousness on them.  Steve had the ribs which are to be avoided- BUT here's the part I appreciate... Joe asked how they were and Steve said "they are ok."  Instead of saying "ok, great," Joe asked more questions and made sure to address Steve's slight hesitation about his (tough) ribs.  Ryan Zawisza, the General Manager, arrives within minutes with his big smile and shares his own concerns about the ribs.  Apparently it's a menu item they are considering removing from their offerings because, they agree, they just can't seem to get it right.  And he insists that they take them off our bill. 

In a nutshell- we really liked the friendly pub-like feel of The Lodge.  You can tell they know how close-knit we are in Kirkland because they are getting to know everyone and making it a priorty make us feel welcome.    These guys are doing all the right things, you should definitely go check it out if you haven't already.   Many friends have told me, "this is just what Kirkland needed."  Their hours are: M/T 11a-12a, W-F 11a-2a, Sat 8a-2a, Sun 8a-12a. 425-202-7763