The Watering Hole: Auto Battery, 1009 E. Union St. , CAPITOL HILL
The Atmosphere: Being a sports fan can be tough in this town. There are the sports bars that have great chicken-wing deals you may be able to partake in by halftime if the overworked waitstaff ever finds you in the sea of shouting jocks. Or there are the insufferable hipster bars that show the Super Bowl in the name of irony and serve artisan flatbread. But at the recently opened Auto Battery, you can wear your skinny jeans and eat your greasy foods in front of enormous flat screens too!
The Barkeep: Jeni Guelld. “It’s a weird one, I know,” she says re the odd spelling of her surname. Apparently Guelld’s grandfather had three different birth certificates with different names and countries of origin, so the family just picked one.
Guelld says she doesn’t know if her family’s patriarch was living a life of crime, but “I’d like to believe so,” she says. “I hope he wasn’t fleeing something for some lame reason.”
Perhaps that lack of concrete identity is why Guelld can so comfortably mix with the strangely blended patrons of Auto Battery, whether they’re there for the cream-cheese-and-scallions hot dogs encased in brioche from attached Po Dog (the two establishments share an owner) or hollering at the television.
The Drink: Tequila and pineapple juice. “I started drinking tequila, then someone suggested an orange instead of lime,” Guelld explains. From there it evolved into using pineapple juice as a chaser, then finally just blending the two together.
A pitcher of beer may be more standard for an evening of tragically awful Mariner baseball. But if you’re planning to start watching college games when the first kickoff happens on the East Coast, you’ll need something more suited to breakfast. And what better way to start your day than tequila with pineapple juice alongside a Morning Glory Dog (cheese, eggs, bacon, wiener)?
