The Porterhouse

Lovely place in "downtown" Mt. Vernon, just a block away from Empire Ale House and two blocks from Skagit River. Interior is very warm, darkly lit and cozy. Beer list is average, but quite good for a small city. Service is extremely friendly. I wasn’t looking for big pours of anything, so the server was extremely generous with sample pours. My favourite stop on our Mt. Vernon pub crawl.

I hate giving bad reviews, but I hate glossing over the truth even more. Finally made it to this place after hearing about its tap list. Ambiance is great -- comfortable and bright. Beer selection is nice; I forgot to count, but they probably have at least 15 taps. Pretty good stuff, too. They even had Green Flash IPA on, which is one of my favorites. Only problem: They use chilled beer glasses. What kind of craft beer taphouse does this? Not surprisingly, the bartender was dealing with over-foaming issues ... and I had to deal with an excessively cold and watery version of a Green Flash IPA. Fail. Then, even though the place wasn’t very busy during our visit, our service was still horrible. Our server was friendly, but she was so flighty and infrequent that I ended up ordering my beers at the bar. Then, after she delivered our beers to us (with our menus closed in front of us, signaling that we were ready to order), she quickly turned and walked away. I had to stop her to tell her we were ready to order. Our food, when it finally came, was OK, but I expected a little more for $13 entrees. And it’s a steak place, but the "marinated" steak on the salad was completely bland, as if they marinated it in plain water. After eating I wanted to order another beer, but our server never came by to check on us, ever. So when she finally came by, well after I finished my first beer, I just asked for the check. If I decide to go back someday and I have a better experience, I will update this rating.