Front Street Ale House

Front Street Ale House sits prominently in the heart of "downtown" Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.  As you exit the ferry to head to all points on the island you wind your way passed this Friday Harbor staple. 

Next to the Ale House is the San Juan Brewing company, owned and operated by the same people.  They brew several varieties of beer and supply the pub. 

I’ve only been to Friday Harbor a half a dozen times but the Ale House has always been one of my stops.  Partially, because the choice of places is very limited, but mostly because it’s a perfect pub.  It’s always filled with locals and tourists alike, the food is decent bar food and the staff is very friendly, if sometimes just a bit slow.  But heh, you should be on island time here, so what’s a few extra minutes one way or the other. 

It’s also helpful that the pub, well most of "downtown" actually, sits just a block from the seaplane dock, the marina and the ferry terminal.  Actually, there is no terminal here.  It’s just the dock and a small building with a couple of restrooms that denote the ferry waiting area.  With limited ferry service, if you’ve driven onto the island, it’s always best to get in the ferry line one to two hours prior to ferry departure. And then, with time to kill, it’s an easy walk to the Ale House for a burger, pizza or other pub grub. 

The food is not fancy but it’s good.  Mostly I’ve had burgers from their menu but last week I tried a BLT.  It was a perfect, old-fashioned sandwich!  Crispy bacon, ripe slices of tomato, crisp lettuce on toasted bread.  My only complaint was that they used shredded lettuce and I would have preferred a couple of leaves, as the shredded stuff was hard to keep in the sandwich.  You have a choice of sides and I chose fries.  Not the best fries in the world but certainly passable.  I sat at the bar, talked with the bartender, a couple of locals and a couple of travelers – all in all a pleasant experience.  I was actually there for lunch this time, as I had a new place in mind to check out while in the ferry line – more on that later. 

Oh, and of course the best part – :-).  While sitting at the bar, you get the lovely view of the Orca taps…  These are a little hard to see, as the orcas are turned every which way, but look closely and you can see that all the taps are orcas jumping from the water.