On Small Business Saturday, I supported a local business.
A bar.
Why not? Bars are an important part of the economy.
A co-worker had talked about the $7 breakfast special at Tony V’s Garage, an Everett saloon with late-night music, karaoke, open mic and libations seven days a week.
Seven bucks for an 8-ounce steak and eggs? Oh, man. That sure sounded good to me. My husband, Max, was all in.
The bar’s website said the special was served 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. We arrived at 12:55.
The front windows facing Hewitt Avenue look like garage doors and are painted with car pictures so you can’t see in.
It took a moment to get my bearings inside the dim chambers of the beer-booze-bands-broads-&-burgers bar with the mission statement “Good Friends, Good Fun, and Good Music.”
There was a stage near the entrance with tables and leopard covered stools. A Volkswagen bus front jutted from the brick wall. Bicycles and pedal cars hung from the ceiling. Music blared from the neon-flashing jukebox.
Football players battled it out on the TV behind the bar. That’s where Max stopped.
“Let’s sit here,” he said, plopping on a leopard stool at the bar.
It was College Football Saturday for him.
A man emerged from the kitchen. I’d never seen him before but I somehow knew it was Tony V himself. He had the aura. I mean that in a nice way.
Were we too late for the breakfast?
Of course not, he said.
He handed us a two-sided menu. Breakfast on one side, burgers on the other. No drink menu.
Max didn’t need one. He ordered a Coke. Tony pulled out a red can and pulled the tab. No cup. Max is a can man. Tony somehow knew.
What did I want? Uh … I needed a drink menu.
Tony suggested a double screwdriver.
I don’t know if he was serious or joking, but it sounded good to me. It’s always 1 o’clock somewhere.
There were about five or six people scattered in the bar. Tony delivered a heaping plate of steak, eggs and hash browns to the lady a few leopard bar stools down.
“That’s what I want,” I said.
Actually, I wanted hers. It looked so good. I didn’t want to wait.
I busied myself snooping around the place, taking cellphone pics of things like the “Hunnies” sign on the women’s bathroom door and the hanging stingray bike with a sombrero.
Tony hovered at the grill.
“What are you, an insurance adjustor?” he asked.
I’ve been called worse.
Some places have crayons to color on placemats. Tony’s has Sharpies to draw on dollar bills. All year he collects $1 bills to put on the wall behind the bar. People draw cartoons, icons, sayings and words that you’d expect to see at bars. Some bar artists get really into disfiguring George Washington in creative ways. Before Christmas, Tony cashes in the loot at the bank, which accepts the defaced currency, and writes a big check to Boys &Girls Club.
Tony does other fundraisers. The day after I was there he got dunked in a dunk tank and had a burger-eating contest for charity.
By the time Max had drawn sunglasses on dear old George, the food arrived.
Before digging in, a photo or six was needed.
“You taking food porn?” Tony said from somewhere down the bar. He cooks, pours, chats and keeps tabs on everything going on.
It was food porn. The hash browns spilled over the side of the plate. The eggs were shapely. The steak was thick and juicy.
“A nice piece of meat,” is how Max sized it up, longingly.
He’d ordered the double cheeseburger basket ($7).
“This is a great bar burger,” he said. “The meat is cooked just right. The fries are just crispy enough. The bun is warm. I like the way he cut up the lettuce.”
Best of all: “I could watch football and eat.”
The total bill came to $22 and some change.
“Thank you. That was nourishment,” the lady a few stools down said. “Just what I needed.”
Ditto for me.
l think an online reviewer put it best: “There should be more places like this in the world. Although if there were, I’d probably weigh 20 pounds more and be drunk all day long.”
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
Tony V’s Garage
1712 Hewitt Ave, Everett; 425-374-3567; tonyvsgarage.com.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday; 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 9 a.m. to midnight Sunday.
Alcohol: Full bar. Drink specials 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Specials: $1 pork tacos, noon to 6 p.m. Thursday.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
