56 Taps: Lodge Sports Grille Now Open in Downtown Kirkland

Downtown Kirkland grew Friday by one restaurant, six big screen televisions, 20-some jobs and—to the delight of those who appreciate a fine ale or two—56 taps.

The Lodge Sports Grille is now open on Lake Street.

“We’re an upscale sports bar. You say 'sports bar' and people think, ‘Oh, cheap food and beer.’ This will be a nice place where you can bring your wife or girlfriend with a real good feel, real comfortable,” David Louthain, one of three owners of the restaurant, said Thursday. 

In fitting with the name, wood is the operative word in terms of decor, including timbers on the facade out front, for tables and decor inside, and for the taps. There will be four bays of 14 taps on four rough-finished logs.

That’s likely more taps than any other restaurant in Kirkland.

The plan is for the beer and the food to be upscale as well. Louthain and his partners—sister Elizabeth Stewart and Shawn Wroten—already operate a Lodge Sports Grille in Mukilteo.

“We’ll have all kinds of beers,” he said. “Being in Mukilteo for two years gives us an opportunity to get some high-end beers that are hard to get.”

Several taps will rotate regularly with various ales. The menu will be executed by the chef for both restaurants, Daniel Garrity, who has staged six-course wine-pairing dinners at the Mukilteo location. It will include steaks, seafood -- clams, salmon halibut—and a dozen “Pac 12” gourmet hamburgers, such as the “Husky Big Dawg” Kobe beef burger and the “Wazzu Monster.”

Four of the taps will be reserved for wines, two reds and two whites.

Louthain said the Lodge will employ about 25 staff, most of them new local employees, but including several who already work at the Mukilteo location and will rotate between the two.

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The Lodge Sports Grille is at 105 Lake Street in the heart of downtown Kirkland; 425-202-7663; http://www.mukilteolodge.com/.
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