Alcoholic beverages can't be sold at Memorial Stadium, but I understand there are a number of bars and restaurants close to the stadium. As a public service to potential attendees of Reign home games, perhaps people familiar with the area can offer suggestions on their favorites. 5500 are expected to the Sky Blue match on Saturday. Some of them are bound to be thirsty.
Is there some place where you'd prefer to trip rather than somewhere else?! Does anyone know of a bar that has been supporting the Reign some way or another?
I don't pre-funk before games, but the Royal Guard's tumblr account has Floyd's Bar as their 21+ gathering spot.
I haven't been there yet, but Rapinoe gave a shoutout to Anchors Down in Ballard. Apparently that place shows the game streams on a "big screen." If someone wanted to pregame there, unfortunately it's not very close to Memorial but since it's on Market street it'd be easy to take the D line bus if I'm not mistaken. As for stuff near Memorial: The Great Nabob (sp?) is nice. It's on 5th a couple blocks north of the stadium, so walkable in minutes. New York Pizza is even closer. It's nothing special but they do have all-day-Sunday happy hour which is nice for some of those weekend home games. A little further away is one of my favorite pizza places (I'm a man of simple taste), Serious Pie. It's a Tom Douglas joint east of the stadium, on the other side of Aurora. Not a long walk at all though. It's not a "sports" bar, just good eats and good beer. Not the ideal size for a large party of people, but if you are eating at non peak hours they have a good happy hour. There is also of course Dick's Burgers on Queen Anne, if you want fast food that is a lot better than the big name fast food chains. Unfortunately I haven't been to a lot of the bars bordering Seattle Center on Mercer and Queen Anne and the like, but they are plentiful.
With the playoff game coming up next weekend, I thought I'd bump this thread back up in case someone wanted to add to the nearby bar/restaurant discussion as a public service. This weekend is the Bumbershoot Festival (and holy cow I just looked at the music lineup and I even recognized some of the artists!). Of course, last year some of us non-Seattle people became aware of Bumbershoot because it booted the Reign out of Memorial Stadium for the championship game and forced them to play it in ill-fated Starfire down in Tukwila. Anyway, I was curious about how you could have a music/performing arts festival and not sell alcohol at the stadium, which some have noted discourages people from attending Reign games. But, yup, sure enough, the Bumbershoot Festival map shows Memorial Stadium as not serving beer, wine or other drinks. However, there are places nearby in the festival that do. But going off topic for a moment, I said I looked at the music lineup for the festival and I actually recognized some of the bands and solo artists playing, including a couple favorites: Neko Case and Social Distortion. They both play Sunday evening. I wonder if the team will be back by then. I'd highly recommend them - although why 20 yearolds would bother with my opinion on music is a mystery. Heck, I'll use this an excuse to post a link to the first Neko Case song I fell in love with. Incredible voice. "Hold On, Hold On" from Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and on an opposite end of spectrum - Social Distortion with Don't Drag Me Down