October 11: Fuel

Full disclosure: everyone, including me, paid for their meal with $20 gift cards we each received as "welcome to the neighborhood" gifts a few weeks ago.

That being said, skip the spaghetti. Get the chicken.

The Fuel sports bar is one of our new building's across-the-street neighbors, and I've walked past their "$8 daily special" sandwich board almost every day. I've always had some other destination in mind, or thought to myself that I should try more-distant places before the weather turns drippy. The Timberlands IT folks, though, convinced me to join them for lunch (it wasn't that tough!).

After navigating our way into the somewhat awkward entry space and considering seats near the bar or upstairs, we grabbed a couple of tables up on the stage, overlooking Washington Street. A few other folks were having lunch, but it was mostly empty. This place looks like it would be shoulder-to-shoulder madness on a game day; I gotta remember to stop back here then.

Drink service was quick, and our waitress let us know that the special of the day was spaghetti and meatballs. Sounds good to me. Three of us ordered it. It was, just a little, mildly disappointing.

To my untrained eye (sorry, great-grandpa Onofrio), the "spaghetti" was linguine. The tomato sauce was mild, almost flavorless, and the promise of sprinkled Italian seasoning on the rim of the plate didn't come through in the sauce. The garlic bread was toasted well, barely browned but crisp and buttery. The meatballs were merely OK, tasting like a good quality frozen meatball from Cash & Carry, but perhaps manufactured a little heavy on the parsley and breadcrumbs. Small pools of tomato water remained in our plates when we had finished. But honestly, for $8 at a sports bar, I didn't expect it to knock my socks off.

The fourth co-worker at our table ordered the Cougar Cheese Burger. She said it was pretty good, almost as good as Burger Express near where we used to work in Federal Way. At the second table, my co-workers had a French dip, a Cobb salad ("good"), Thai chicken skewers ("really good"), Jack Daniels chicken bites ("to die for"), and a plate of fries. They allowed me one of the chicken bites, and I concur -- these were really, really good. The breading is thick, and the sweetness of the Jack Daniels sauce perfectly blends with the breading and sesame seeds to become what might be Seattle's best finger food.

I also grabbed one of their crinkle-cut fries and dipped it in the Thai chicken's peanut sauce. Crisp on the outside yet fluffy on the inside, but not overdone -- nearly perfect.

Service was very attentive, and the manager made a special effort to stop by and welcome us personally to the neighborhood. The waitress handled the logistics of processing seven gift cards well, managing an error with the automatic large-party gratuity with grace.

Fuel does their bar food very, very well. Their spaghetti was a ground ball and a quick out, but the chicken bites knocked it out of the park. I'm looking forward to returning soon.

Fuel
164 S. Washington St.
Spaghetti and meatballs and a Diet Pepsi, comped, but normally $10.50 + tax and tip