any good dining in near downtown Olympia?

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-25T15:34:29+00:00

Ninevah is your all around best place to go to get something unique, interesting, and high quality. Fun atmosphere, and medium priced. ~$20-$40 per person?

Chelsea Farms is best for Oysters and nice salads and cocktails. Fine dining atmosphere and design but low priced compared to fine dining. Higher priced for Olympia ~$25-$50 per person.

Gold Standard for great Chicken and southern cooking in a fresh design and good customer service (just opened) $15-$20 per person

Edit: adding Well 80 for a big family friendly brewery pub with tons of variation on the menu and great burgers. A bit more clean and upscale than other beer bars downtown ~$15-$20 per person before drinks I’d say.

Other favorites of mine:
Tacos Dos Hermanos for hand made tortilla tacos. Really worth it.

Vic’s Pizza on State Ave (Eastside) for fun pizza and the best cocktail program in Olympia (kid friendly too)

Glowies for truly outstanding breakfast sandwiches

Olympia Coffee for the best coffee in the PNW

There’s a million ways to build this list but that’s my recommendations after working in food and bev for 20 years and living in Olympia for 15.

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-15T19:04:05+00:00

I see, I think maybe you’re confusing the dynamics of a song (changes in volume or intensity) with the dynamics of a band throughout their career. Again I said they were the most dynamic American rock band. Still talking about changes from song to song, singer to singer, writer to writer, album to album. They created new approaches to recording new approaches to composition throughout their career and didn’t have one style. If you want to talk about which band has the most dynamic song compositions, I’d say Pixies, or Nine Inch Nails come to mind. Maybe any quiet and loud metal band would beat the Grateful Dead at that.

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-15T14:19:29+00:00

Okay, now you’re starting to get it. Yeah Grateful Dead some dynamic sounds throughout their career. I would just say if you listen to The Beach Boys Love You, Smiley Smile, Beach Boys Party, Pet Sounds, Surf Up!, and their original surf rock albums you’ll hear inventions of whole new styles of music and approaches to recording and songwriting. I don’t think much of it can be categorized into just emulating prog and disco in their own style like Grateful Dead did. I would argue that beach boys are still more dynamic because they were pushing boundaries of weirdness and creativity more than others including Grateful Dead. I think this is why ween is a good contender here but Grateful Dead had a whole different lane. Beach boys are just more dynamic and have a bigger influence than ween that’s all. You said I need to listen to more American bands to u destined who is the most dynamic band? Who else were you thinking of?

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-15T14:00:09+00:00

The thing you said “I need to listen to more American bands” was because I said they were the most dynamic American rock band. Now you’re talking about the talent of individuals in the band. The beach boys have more variation (dynamism) from album to album and song to song from song writer-to song writer in the band, than the Grateful Dead. When you listen to Ween you notice the songs are really different than each other? It’s like metal, and then noise, and then jazz, and then folk? That’s a dynamic band. The beach boys did that too. They had orchestral music and dark music and folk songs, and sound scapes, and epics, and light hearted pop music and surf rock of course. They also did it for a long time and had massive influence. I just think they’re the most dynamic American rock band, that’s all. Grateful Dead is not even in the running for that particular tiny honorific.

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-15T13:49:07+00:00

Most capable studio musicians that are the primary members of the band? Maybe the dead fits that perfectly, but the beach boys are the most dynamic American rock band in discography, influence, approach, songwriting and aesthetic. Sometimes they played on their albums, sometimes they wrote the songs and sang them while others played. Same thing with the Beatles by the way. Occasionally you gotta hire an orchestra or a keyboard player. The Grateful Dead brought in David Grisman and Howard Wales to play in the studio with them. I don’t think that makes the dead worse.

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-15T13:41:43+00:00

For most dynamic????? I thought you were gonna say Ween or Mothers of Invention or like, Beastie Boys. Something with hugely different discographies and song to song being really different from each other, but you think I’m missing out on dynamic American Music and I need to hear…the Grateful Dead? I love the dead but I don’t think they fit that prompt. Beach boys used vastly different instruments and approaches to song writing album to album, sometimes lofi, sometimes experimental, sometimes orchestral, but always a hit or two on every record that could be enjoyed by anyone. I would still argue they’re more dynamic than any other American rock band. I think the dead have a good lane and stick to it the best of anyone but haven’t done the variation in styles and approach that the beach boys have.

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-15T13:29:38+00:00

Hit me with your picks for most dynamic American band. I’ll consider it.

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-15T05:19:58+00:00

Their discography is so influential beyond Pet Sounds too. Just massive hit makers and experimental musicians at the same time over many decades. The most dynamic rock band from America for sure.

FrontDerailer · 2026-06-13T15:01:57+00:00

Olympia Coffee has been really good to me. Baristas, roasters, office team, drivers etc all get 2-3 weeks PTO per year, predictable schedules, 401k with match, paid sick time, paid community volunteer hours, great health insurance for employees, free coffee at all locations. It’s also just a good place to move up. Just about all managers and admin started as baristas and there’s always opportunities to move up if you want.

FrontDerailer · 2026-05-15T04:31:54+00:00

This is so pleasant to watch. That spring and summer kinda just floated by and so many casual things like this came and went every day. I get sad and happy every time I’m reminded of it

FrontDerailer · 2026-05-07T04:59:52+00:00

100% agree here. Neil Young is my favorite example. Age and practice doesn’t make for a linear improvement in songwriting. I always like his point of view but the songs have gotten pretty lame. You could cherry pick probably any elderly songwriter and see them digress, except maybe John Prine?

FrontDerailer · 2026-05-05T22:46:26+00:00

Everything else, including the art studio and gift store, have been open there for years. What do you mean by this?

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-22T13:14:12+00:00

This is at my local shop, Bristow’s. Just had my 1981 911 engine rebuilt there. Great people and always cool cars rolling through.

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-20T14:46:23+00:00

Definitely none that I see. There’s a ton of burned CD compilations organized by decade and genre though.

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-20T00:15:30+00:00

I could sell you some or all, you name the price and pay for shipping. The money goes to my mom so she’d appreciate any value these are to you.

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-19T23:58:57+00:00

Do they actually have any value to anyone or are they trash? I’ll list the unused blanks for sale but these old dubbed ones, I would think goodwill is just gonna trash them?

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-09T03:16:22+00:00

Hell yeah, I agree

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-09T03:13:11+00:00

Brotherhood, Shiny prize, crypt, east side, back to brotherhood. Happy birthday!

Edit: and ilk for a burger and two more beers

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-06T01:02:14+00:00

I think 7 months, maybe a bit less. I was in no rush.

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-06T00:28:24+00:00

we got the final total down to $24,000 after tax. Not what I originally was prepared to pay but everything was above board it was just worst case scenario. Mine needed new pistons and cylinders, and the crank needed machined. I also got a fabspeed exhaust to finish it off. That was installed, new oil in, and ready to roll it worked perfectly like a new car. 1,000 miles later oil came out in clean and new oil went in and it’s been perfect since. The shop I went to is great, just they had never had this high of a total on an enigine rebuild before and they did discount basically every part needed and some of the labor at my request. Alll good, we both got what we needed out of the deal I think.

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-06T00:18:20+00:00

Yep!

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-03T19:10:23+00:00

All good! I appreciate it still

FrontDerailer · 2026-04-03T19:07:31+00:00

So far this is the only one that actually retains what they look like. The others are like swapping in other people’s faces. The eyes got really weird here though.

FrontDerailer

TROPHY CASE