BTW, Oly beer is the best.

wow, THAT'S what jumped out at me from that post.

sorry.

Either he wants to paddle you, or he wants to break your legs.

I think it was left ambiguous as to which on purpose ...

Olymaceywater.

Course that would be one hell of a name for a state capitol.

Say Oly until your blue in the face. OlyOlyOlyOlyOly.

Just don't let it become like Olympia=state government.

Emmett: Metonymy is not going away because you say so. Crown for royalty? Washington for the federal gov't? You've got a big crusade on your hands.

I never heard it called Oly until Josh started doing it. That goes to show how much time I've spent down there, I guess.

Olympia: State capitol, awesome downtown, woodsy hippy college -- the perfect small city.
Tumwater: Cute hillbillies.
Lacey: Sprawling hell on earth oh my god this city sucks so bad.

As for the stuff to do Josh here's the run down:

If you want good pizza: Old School
If you want great pizza: Vick's on the west side

As far as bars go I think you could do better then Jacks. I love their food but as far as bars go I would suggest the following: The Brotherhood for booze, The Reef for a dive, The East Side or The Fish Bowl for beer, Swing for wine, The Mark for fancy booze, and if you want hang with the pros show up at Ben Moore's at around midnight.

Hope that helps.

But the food is still AMAZING.

It was also kind of scary/divey then - is it still?

So, I'd guess not as "scary/divey" as it was back then.

And Ben Moore's sucks donkey balls.

I am dubious of your omission of the China Crippler, Destroyer of Livers!

also, re: Old School, ask for the garlic knots.

the brotherhood is still a dive, a glorious fucking dive-mother of all dives. there are no hipsters in olympia. the reef is still there.

Even if they're pretty much the same thing nowadays.

Olympia and Lacey are very CLEARLY different things, culturally, economically, educationally, etc.

ok, fine, there's a chip on our shoulder.

I like my baby Jesus to party!

Old School is great. I discovered there that honey on crust is awesome.

Also, I wonder if he gets mad about people using "Washington" to refer to "Washington, DC," which in turns refers to the federal government in Washington, DC. I'll be looking for his next post on that pressing matter.

Great pasta at Trinacria.

Hushed, leisurely deal-making dinner at Gardener's.

Decent bagels at Otto's.

I'm getting hungry...

It's still the Reef. It was only King Sol's before you were old enough to drink in the bar.

Old School is so much better than Vicks. Unless you're a hippie. And I like Vick's! I'm not hating, I'm just saying. I've been trying to find pizza up here that's anything like Old School's for the past eight years. There is nothing.

Tumwater=cute hillbillies? No. Tumwater=ignorant hicks that go downtown to cruise in their pickups and scream "FAG" at anyone who doesn't look like them, regardless of sexual orientation. That is not to say that some rad people haven't come out of Tumwater - Hi Matt, Vern!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy

Okay, I'll shut up now, since I'm probably the only person here who cares about rhetorical devices. They're just so cool!

i know, it's a tragedy.

I'm sure nobody else cares about this, but to set the record straight: Maple bats are rapidly taking over, due in part to the success of Barry Bonds (no doubt because of the bat, not the pharmaceuticals). See www.maxbats.com.

I have to agree with Emmett.

Oly = the scene that's been an important part of the indie world for decades.

Olympia = the place where they enact stupid smoking bans.

I'm in Seattle now, but in Oly you should have happy hour at Ben Moore's for good, cheap drinks and food, or during the spring and summer the patio at the Brotherhood is one of my favorite places to be ever.

At night, you can get drunk and puke your guts out at the Reef. It's like the Maharaja, but with American food and less english.

Get a tattoo at Spidermonkey.

Buy lotion at Archibald Sisters.

Get your coffee at Batdor & Bronson.

Congratulations, you've experienced Oly while covering Olympia. They're two different worlds, and those of us from there like to make sure it stays that way. That, I think, is Emmett's point.

It's also why my decades-old screen name is "mattoly" and not "mattolympia".

:-)

Well, Otto actually owns the building still, but he sold the shop about a year ago, and the new owners packed up a week or so ago. If you can make it up the hill, the SF Bakery is still around. That was always much better than Otto's anyway.

recently they had introduced a genius breakfast-device, the bacon & cheddar egg bagel.

RIP.

Is it just me, or is this thread turning into Satanosphere?

Its actually turning into http://www.olyblog.net

I usually just use the campus cafeteria.

La Voyer is a vegan friendly place that has good garlic fries, but the place smells like a deep fryer.

Old school has good pizza but it isn't brick oven fired. Haven't tried Vicks yet.

There is also a good coffee place off Capitol and 4th, but I forget what it's called (its before you hit the starbucks on your way to the capitol campus)

Also, for a great Oly bar, check out The Royal.