Reno Reviews: Fuego

                Fuego is a bar that used to be a bastion of the community. Now it’s more of a plight, and a terrible thing to look at. This pub used to be owned by some pretty cool people, but they left due to familial circumstances, and left it in the hands of someone who is more interested in making money than they are serving the community. This review is going to be somewhat scathing, so please hang in there with me on this, because this is a place that deserves some real tender loving care for the community it’s in, and not the rampant commercialism and promoting that the owner has been outsourcing to Seattle and other areas.

Location: Fuego is located at 2611 Colby Ave #2921. This place has been there for a while and has quite a deep history. It was once known as the Doghouse, and then it became The Lucky Dog. It remained The Lucky Dog for a few years before the owner closed its door back in 2016. It would soon become Fuego, led by the new owners, Lisa and Rico Sanchez.

This place was always a dive bar due partly to its location. It’s smack dab in the middle of Colby Ave, between 26^th and Everett Ave. This is an area that all people could have fun because of its accessibility to the public. It’s right there on the main street of downtown Everett. A place where all could access, be it by foot, or bike (there are bike racks right by the bar) or by those driving in who wanted a quick brew before they headed back into the suburbs, where their homes were. The location is great, especially if you showed up after business hours, since there are other businesses in the area and the parking was much better at those time. But Fuego has a sort of dark personality to it, then and now.

Libations: The drinks at Fuego have always been lackluster. It’s a dive bar after all. But in recent times they’ve been expecting more money for less. A 22-Ounce beer of bud light will cost you about $7, which is more than going to Toggle’s for 22-ouncer that has more alcohol content. Fuego’s has pretty much what every other bar has, and some other stuff too, if you’re wiling to pay the price. From wine, to champagne, to some micro-brews, and the usual cheap stuff.

Food: I can’t even fill out a full subject on there food selection. Their food selection consists of fried packaged goods they bought at “Cash & Carry”. It’s pretty much the fried stuff you give to your children during the summertime when they are restless, and you don’t have time to make them a real meal. This has been the fact ever since they were the Doghouse.

Atmosphere: Weird. That’s all I can I say. At least when it was the Doghouse there were people that you could have a conversation with during the day. Same goes for when they were the Lucky Dog and the first iteration of Fuego. Now there is nothing there, but a dark room with some curtains and music and a staff that seem sketchy at best.

This place used to have a great atmosphere which I will talk about later, but for now, the place might as well be a grey, open warehouse where they service beer, without any charm. There is also a dance floor, which takes up most, if not all the space of the bar. I thin ka dance club in Everett would be great, if you have the space for it. Fuego’s doesn’t have the space to be a dance club though.

Service: The girl who owns the place now has no idea how to run a bar. She constantly runs around looking for the right bottle, or the right glass, or the right tap, or she’ll tell you she can’t serve what your asking for because she doesn’t know how.

Other than that, the service is still lack luster. I waited 10 minutes for the bartender to fill my glass, and the place was empty. She was running around, handling administration issues, and trying to fix the other bartenders’ issues. She is clearly more inept at bartending than she is at handling the administrative issues.

Let’s not get started on the “sometimes” bouncer Eddie. This guy is a moron who just does what he wants and kicks out people he doesn’t like. He has exhibited racist qualities, as well as anti-gay and anti-trans qualities as well. He is someone that no bar should ever consider if they see themselves as a safe place for everyone to drink and have fun.

Clientele: If you’re looking for the dregs of society during the day, then come here. If you’re looking for more respectable people than go to the Irishmen down the street. The people who used patronize the place are nonexistence, and if they are there, they are not the people you want to know. Wait until later in the evening and the crowd gets even worse.

The owner sees herself as a promoter, and she promotes the bar as a dance lounge to a certain type of clientele that subsists of folks from Seattle and Tacoma. They are not locals and they tend to cause more problems than they are worth. It’s more like a gang reunion than a bar you’d find in north Everett that patronizes its locals. In short, none of the locals go there anymore during the day.

The first night that Fuego opened under the new ownership was fraught with fights, and the local police had to come in and mediate. I say mediate because there were so many troublemakers that the police were outnumbered and had no choice but be mediators. In short, they were outnumbered by out of town folks who were causing trouble.

Price: Outrageous. A 22-ounce of Bud light was about $7. That should have been more like 5 dollars. Shots of whatever your pleasure were about $10-14. The food, which as I said above, is lackluster. Fried children’s food, or even worse. Steer clear of this mess, because all you are doing is paying $10 for a plate of microwaved or deep-fried food that you could have paid $1 for back at home.

Overall: Back when it was the Lucky Dog the establishment was a bastion for dart players, which would always find themselves in the semi or final rounds for semi-professional dart players of this region. They had a pretty good reputation, for a dive bar.

The bartenders were no-nonsense people, mostly ex-military, or folks who were pervious bartenders from other bars around Everett. But there was a shift in the guard after Rico and Lisa left. A new person came forth…one that saw herself as a promoter, and someone that would bring business in from other regions. And while she has fulfilled that business promise, she changed the bar into something that just doesn’t fit with the neighborhood. It was always a place that the cops would watch, but now it’s now become a place where the police actively watch over.

The new owners thought they were gentrifying the neighborhood, but they made it even worse than it was perceived before.

In summary, I would avoid this place at all costs. Let’s bring back the old Colby Ave we knew, the one that we could all enjoy, no matter who you were.

Reno Reviews: Toggle's Bottleshop

In the heart of downtown Everett there are plenty of little wonderful spots to enjoy, all locally owned and operated. The greatest part of it all is that its all pretty much within walking distance for those who live in the North Everett area. From kitschy vintage secondhand stores, to pubs, and hole in the wall restaurants with wonderful atmospheres, downtown Everett is becoming a sort of mini-Seattle, and with the growth that’s expected in the city within the next five years it’s certain to become just that and even more.

In these blogs I’m going to take some time away from the maddening political realm and focus on some of the wonder and beauty of this ever-growing city and review it’s top, middle and awful establishments. I’ll be reviewing based on several criteria; however, I won’t be giving a rating or a grade, you’ll just have to read what I have to say, you lazy bastards. The criteria will be as follows: Location, Libations, Food, Atmosphere, Service, Clientele and Price.

I’d like to introduce you all to Toggle’s Bottle Shop.

Location: Toggle’s is located at 1420 Hewitt Ave, off Hoyt Ave in downtown Everett, and unfortunately, it’s in that area that’s been subjected to the street renovations. However, those renovations haven’t seemed to hinder their ability to draw in a crowd and make money. I’d chalk that up to the fact that you can still park on parts of the street, plus there is a parking garage just catty-corner from the pub which doesn’t charge you for parking after a certain time of day. The pub is also located right next to several other downtown Everett favorites such as Sol Food, The New Mexicans, and Abbott’s. There is also a mini-mart right next store which could cater to the casual cigarette smoker who found themselves lacking in their cancer-stick department. Overall, it’s a great location, however once the street renovations are completed it should be even better to access.

Libations: Toggle’s offers some great, locally brewed beers, many of which you can’t find anywhere else. They pretty much have whatever you fancy, except Bud or Coors or any of those other cheap, shitty beers. They have plenty of micro-brews to chose from, and their menu seems to change every now and then with some new additions coming across their menu, which is great. I’m not a micro-brew aficionado, but I do like to try new beers, and if trying new beers is your thing than you should go to the bar and check out the menu.

Toggle’s does something else though, and I’ve never seen this before in my time of pub crawling. You have the bar, like every other pub in in the world, but you also have a back room that is filled with mini-mart like refrigerators that are filled with all kinds of beer bottles. You can find anything from ciders to lagers to ales and other specialty bottled brews that you can’t find at your typical corner store or mini-mart.

Food: Now, this is where Toggle’s takes a dive in my appreciation. Toggle’s does not have a menu for food. However, they do offer what I like to call “Stay Sober Snacks”, which is cool, but no substitution for food.

There are two dog food-like contains with dials on them which you turn to release treats. The two treats are peanut butter filled pretzels, which I love, and a sort of Chex mix pretzel combination that are free to patrons of the establishment. This is the extent of their food offerings. No kitchen at all, which is understandable considering the great lengths they took to give us every alcoholic beverage they possibly could.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere is atypical from any other pub I’ve been to. There is limited seating, but there are board games provided. There is light music played over the speakers, but nothing I recognized, just stuff that plays in the background so as not to have a completely dead atmosphere. The bar is clean, and smells clean, probably the best looking or smelling pub I’ve ever visited. It’s not a clinical smell by any means, it just smells and feels very natural. It’s kind of a blank slate for those of us who wish to enter a pub and make our own experiences, instead of being guided to whatever theme the bar has. It’s more of a “choose your own adventure” pub, and I have to say, I really like that idea. It’s very well lighted, and the two front windows roll up for the summer months, almost like an auto shop garage.

Service: All I can say on this criterion is that the service is great. The folks that work there are not rude, and they engage in conversation. They’re also knowledgeable when it comes to the micro-brews they serve on tap and can give you their firsthand experiences with them. Overall, they’re courteous, informative and great to talk with.

Clientele: The people that come into Toggle’s are pretty low-key. They all kind of do their own thing, which is typical in a pub, but there is never some crazy outburst or drama from what I’ve seen. It’s a younger, professional crowd that I’ve come to admire, having been the patron of many rowdy, unhinged pub scenes. All I can say is that from what I’ve seen, the clientele behaves themselves and treat the place like their own home.

Price: This is where I have a problem. When you walk up to the bar to get something on tap, the prices seem a bit high, and the glasses seem a bit short. They’re are not pint glasses at all. They fall short of what I would pay $6.50 per glass for at a typical pub. If you go to the back room and grab a bottle and have it served for you there in the pub you pay for the bottle and a serving fee, which is pretty steep if you ask me, especially since all the guy or gal is doing is pouring the beer into a goddamn glass and handing it to you. Plus, you don’t even get the full beer right away. If you buy a 22-ounce beer bottle the staff will pour the beer into a short glass, the same size they serve their taps in, and then they cap the rest of the beer and hold it behind the bar for you, making you return to the bar when you want the rest. I’ve been there a few times where they’ve offered to pour a full 22-ounce beer into two different glasses for me so that I could have the whole beer all at once, but they don’t seem to do this all the time. I figured that this is a method they use to keep the alcoholics at bay, but still, there is some inconvenience here.

Overall: I like this pub. It’s a pretty cool place to meet up with friends and have some pretty obscure brews that you have maybe never heard of. It’s an eclectic establishment when it comes to that, and I like that characteristic in the pubs I go to. You can find stuff here that no other pub serves in the city and that’s what keeps me coming back. On top of that the people that patronize the pub are always cool, and the employees are cool, and the overall atmosphere is great. I especially like the fact that they have board-games and card games available for people to play. It’s not like other pubs that have a theme as I said before. It’s a sort of “choose your own adventure” pub, and I like that.

If you live in Everett, I would highly suggest giving this pub a try.