Soak It Up: The Ebb Tide Room

When: Saturday, Feb. 28, 10 a.m.

Level of hangover (1-10, with 10 being a nausea-infused bell-ringer): My companion and I split a fifth of Basil Hayden and played dice into the wee hours the night before at our friends' house in Mt. Baker. So, like, 7.

The Soak: If beer is for breakfast, then vodka's what's for brunch at the Ebb Tide Room, the adjoining lounge that belongs to the 70-year-old Chelan Café, a family-owned greasy spoon located where the heavy industry of Harbor Island begins to morph into the sands of Alki. There's also a barber shop included in the same building, in case your hair gets too drunk to drive.

An out-of-control car crashed through the Ebb Tide's front wall last year, which allowed the owners to expand the front of the dark, reddish lounge a bit--although the extra square footage serves as little more than a foyer. Whereas pouring country gravy over as many breakfast dishes as possible seems to be the key to the diner's success, obscuring any hint of tonic with a tumbler full of straight vodka seems to work for the bar. My companion and I chose Bloody Marys over vodka-tonics, and weren't disappointed. But the real key to the soak was the Country Benedict, a sausage/scrambled egg/biscuit & gravy combo (served with hashbrowns) that's more than enough to make the Egg McMuffin cower in shame.

For those who think the notion that people drink before work is a myth, the Ebb Tide's early evening crowd will dispel it. Harbor Island is a bastion of heavy industry where production never shuts down. This means union jobs and graveyard shifts -- and guys who've grown tired of their union jobs and graveyard shifts trying to liven them up a little with a pre-grind nip. But while this sort may be the most reliable of the Ebb Tide's denizens, there are few bars in Seattle where the crowd's composition is more unpredictable. One day, it might be several tables full of boisterous couples, reenacting their own blue-collar version of The Big Chill. Another day, it might be a large crew of big black dudes who look like they could be on the Seahawks' taxi squad. Other days, it's straight-up, salt-of-the-earth lushes. You just never know what you're going to get at the Ebb Tide, which is a big part of its appeal.