The Golden Anchor

The Golden Anchor is the sports bar on Base Kodiak, and it's a cool little place to have as essentially our neighborhood pub. It's about the only bar within walking distance, so that right there makes it more appealing than taking a cab into town!  We ended up taking a walk down for happy hour a few weeks ago for a few beers.

We came on the early side, so we had the bar to ourselves

It's predictably Coast Guard-centric with the decor, and it has a little game area with the usual suspects - pool, darts, foozeball & a shuffleboard table, among others.

The Mighty Resolute

One of the unique things about the decorations are the retired Coast Guard life rings that are hung all along the walls.  I walked around to read some of them and I found The Resolute, which is the cutter hubby served on right after he got out of boot camp before he switched to aviation.  It was signed by some of the crew and was dated 1991.  Way before his time in the CG, but it was kind of cool that his old boat is represented.

And of course, they have lots of Alaskan beers on tap & in the bottle, and they feature beer from Kodiak Island Brewing Company, too.

I really like some of the beers we've discovered from Alaskan Brewing Company, which is based in Juneau.  They have a nice Belgian White, (which The Golden Anchor has on tap, yay me) and the Alaskan Amber is good too.

Single Engine Red is another Alaskan beer we've discovered up here that's also pretty tasty.  It's another one they have on tap at The Golden Anchor.  Who wins?  WE win.

It's a red ale that's from Denali Brewing Company, based out of Talkeetna, Alaska.  That's the real deal Alaskan interior.  It looks like it would be a fun little town to visit.  In a small, rugged, mountaineer-y kind of way.  Mountaineer-y is too a word.

Talkeetna is known as the base town for expeditions up Denali, and the name Single Engine Red is a play on the air taxis that flew mountain climbers to the base of Denali.

Kind of a neat little back story to the name.  Lots of new beer experimentation up in the great white north...It's beer!  Hoooor-aaay, beer!  Ten points if you know the reference there, fellow beer lovers.  (I know, not exactly challenging)

The menu at The Golden Anchor is typical for a sports bar.  I was digging their fried pickles, and hubby can never say no to tater tots if they're available.  Not the healthiest fare, but you could certainly do worse!

I picked up a pool cue for the first time in a very long time, and I was impressively bad!

When I was younger, my brother had a pool table in the basement, so we used to play all the time.

After all that practice over my teenage years, I got to a point where I could hold my own at the pool table.  Yeah...those days are over.  It was a sad state of affairs.

Minnesota Fats, we're not!

Another nice thing about our little base bar is the view.  It's on the second floor and it's right on the water, so it's a pretty commanding view of Women's Bay and the mountains.  Not too shabby for our neighborhood joint.

All in all, the Golden Anchor is a a worthwhile spot to relax that's close to home.

I'm sure we'll go more often during the spring and summer since the walk down won't be so frigid!  And maybe after some practice, I'll get my pool game back.

Ta-ta for now.

I can't help noticing that my skin is the color of my sweater.  I'm back to being translucent again. Pale is the new tan!

Why yes, there IS a giant golden anchor outside