Cafe Metropolitain

Want to feel like you are outside when you are inside at a bar? Well, this is the place to feel that! The layout and atmosphere of this place is awesome! Decked out with trees, lights, wine barrels, couches, and pool tables, this place is pretty sweet.
Their prices are really great, happy hour is awesome, and it’s great for a large group of friends. I am not sure what night’s they do this, but I have seen them playing movies certain evenings on a screen inside. Worth checking out. Chill and fun spot!
The bartenders could smile more often but overall, I’m a fan of this place because of the prices, drinks, and the décor. Worth checking it out!

Went with my girlfriend last night and sat at the bar to order a pitcher (finally a place with pitchers!) except I was getting thoroughly ignored while the bartender would occasionally help someone who walked up. Turns out that two feet to my right and up above there was a sign that said «Order Here.» It wasn’t busy by any means, and I was sitting at the bar. Im SO FREAKING SORRY for sitting at the bar (the empty stools were misleading) and deserved the passive-​aggressive punishment for failing to notice. Sorry, but I was new. I know I shouldn’t exactly expect good service in this city, but there are plenty of other places to go that hold the attitude.
We left. Had a great time at the Bus Stop.
Two stars for the wide-​open layout that breaks from the Capitol Hill «usual» and the fact there are pitchers of beer available.

Late night happy hour — what more can I ask for. This place could get buy with charging more, but they don’t :)
Interesting décor. It’s the best type of place to go if you will already be meeting friends, and like inexpensive late night happy hours.

I went here with some friends who frequent the Metropolitain and found the place to be very neighborhoody. What’s ‘neighborhoody’?
1) bartenders are chatty with the regulars and otherwise friendly
2) a person can strike up conversations with random people
3) drink are not expensive
I also had no idea this neighborhoody place was a ‘gay bar’. It didn’t seem any more gay than the rest of Capitol Hill. I think anybody should feel welcome hanging out at the Metropolitain.

The final stop on our E Olive Way crawl… bar #11.
And wow, this place was alot different than I had expected. Looking at it from the street it just looks dark and small. But you go inside and the whole place is furnished to look like you are on an outside patio. Bistro tables, umbrellas, etc. Pretty unique. I think brick on the floor too. The best part… $ 1 PBRs from either ten or midnight until close. Check up on that fact as we were in no condition to remember exact facts.
I would also like to note that if I visited this bar during the daylight hours I would probably not have thought the décor was so cool. I’m giving it four-​stars mostly because the place really surprised me with how large it was. We had a great time too… but I’ll need to go again to reevaluate the décor.

We went here for Happy Hour. The drinks were strong and well made. I ordered a margarita. Yummy! He mashed the limes, lemons, and oranges right in front of me! No sour mix in this Margarita (thank you!)
The bartender was nice and seemed to know what he was doing.
We ordered Nachos. They were TDF! I LOVE nachos! Yum yum.
The place was EMPTY on a Tuesday for Happy Hour. So, if you live around here, I’d highly suggest heading over here.
Just a word of note, and this is why it gets 4 stars instead of 5, the nachos took FOREVER to get to us. But it was well worth the wait.

Love this place! The décor is amazing, you can use the «Red Velvet Room» for birthdays & other parties, they have annual Halloween parties, Fashion shows, it’s a blast.
I’ve tried most of the food & it’s pretty good. Really like the Carmel Apple Martini’s, they are the best ever!
This is definitely the place that my friends & I always meet up. It’s the one place we can all agree on :)

Café Metropolitain is a kick in the groin. Totally not what I expected. I have walked past this place thousands of times and always dubbed it a small divey bar that I need to check out.
The opportunity arose to go to Café Metropolitain and I walked in and was stunned at the size of the place. From the outside it looks like the size of a shoebox. Not so. To the left is a small bar and sitting area and then to the right is a space with a pool room, café, and another room with «Rouge» in the name. It was reminiscent of a forum in an old Las Vegas casino.
You must order at the bar and when my drinking companion and I sauntered up there was a slight wait. One bartender was cleaning a glass the other was speaking to someone about ordering another kind of glass. We stood patiently and as soon as I was going to utter a «Hello!?» we were asked what we’d like. Since it was Sunday it was happy hour all day which meant $ 1 pints of PBR. Holler.
We gathered our brews and sat down. I browsed the food menu that sat on the table and it consisted of the usual pub fare such as nachos and burgers.
The only interaction we had with an employee after the bartenders was when one put a candle on the table. Don’t expect great service here and you’ll be fine.
Café Metropolitain was alright. Typical bar with cheap beer and lots of seating room.

This place does seem to have a bit of Multiple Personality Disorder. Maybe that’s why I felt so at home here. All of my multiple personalities had a place to call their own:
Casual Alli was happy to see that there was plenty of space to stand/​sit around and chit-​chat.
Luxurious Alli enjoyed the red velvet room, though was sad she didn’t have her elbow-​length gloves and fur coat (faux fur, of course).
Biker Alli had one eye on the pool table the whole time, but never got the chance to play. Plus she was wary of the «Adults Only» poster hanging on a side door in that room.
Rave Alli grooved to the techno beat.
And all of those Alli’s, plus those not mentioned above, really enjoyed the PBR.

I went in again with a friend last night. My friend was horrified that I was going here. It was because, I was yet again, invited out by a different misguided friend.
I thought maybe my review of this place was to harsh, so I took a stroll through weird town/​bar/​café/​pool hall/​snack bar/​midevil?/cocktail lounge? to find that no indeed I was right on the mark.
What a weird and wrong little place and filled with what appear to be decent folk just led astray. Could it be the odd free weird popcorn? I imagine that is where the bad smell is coming from.
Here is my suggestion met caf.
Simplify.
Pick a theme and go with it. Lose the cafeteria seating, your a bar for crying out loud get some booths going. You do have a good location and you have customers now seal the deal and make your bar make sense.

I’m actually surprised that this place is rated less than four stars. Maybe its because of the usual clientele on a busy friday or saturday. However, for these chill Wednesday it was more than welcoming for two sojourning souls. I particularly liked how the bar/​restaurant was divided into different areas where people can sit in a variety of setting depending on their mood. There was the Red room for people looking for something more sexy. There was the main middle area for people looking for a simpler ambiance with a small fountain off to the side. Then there was a pool table area for people wishing to shoot pool. There was also a prominent area by the bar were people who just wanted to get there drink on were mostly located.
I think this place would a great place to hold a Unilocal event in the future. The place is big enough to hold everyone (which is important), but it is also different enough to welcome people of different tastes (which is probably more important). There appetizers are pretty cheap at 5 dollar half hummus places, 6 dollar quesadillas, and 7.5 dollar nachos. Pretty reasonable compared to other places in the area, also the kitchen opens late, until 1 AM.
Great place, definitely recommend you to check it out. They have a late night happy hour that starts around 11pm that has 3 dollar well drinks and 1 dollar PBR. If you can get better than that… then why arent the eff you here? Check it out atleast to say that you have checked it out before. Good place I tell ya.

After $ 5 worth of PBR you’ll think you’re actually sitting in a Parisian café! No, but seriously, there ain’t nothing wrong with $ 1 PBR. It’s pretty much the main selling point of Café Met. Although, I do remember back when they first opened it was only 25 cents! …Then 50cents… and now…$ 1. Oh well. They do have daily drink specials (at $ 5) that are frightfully strong.
It’s close to home and has been my go-​to bar for a long time now. Try to get a seat in the «parlor» area with all the plush couches, otherwise you’ll be sitting on benches or hard chairs. Sometimes they have interesting art in there.

I didn’t want to give Café Met just 3 stars but I rounded up to 4 because it’s more like a 3.5
In fact, I like this bar a lot but sometimes feel like a lot of annoying people are attracted to it. So maybe the bar itself has a 4 star review but sometimes the customers are kind of douchey.
Here’s what’s good:
–Location (1 block from my house!)
–Drinks — $ 1 PBR and they have Absinthe!
–Inernet Jukebox so you can play ANY tune you want
–Food is decent and reasonably priced.
–Bar is large so you can have a party or ask tons of friends to join you.
So I guess the only downer is that there are always some odd, loud drunk people. I know — it’s a bar. but I think this bar just attracts more of them than usual. You have to make your way through a maze of drunk smokers outside blocking the entry. Then once you’re inside it gets better. The bartenders are polite too!

It’s funny I’ve had three different people tell me I really need to check out Café Metropolitain because they all thought of me when they walked in. Well I finally made it there the other night and had to scratch my head for a second, I’m still trying to figure out what made them think of me…
This place reminded me of the French Quarters area at Disneyland; it was on the brink of being over the top cheesy. They even brought the outside in. I was actually half expecting to look in a mirror and see a ghost from the Haunted Mansion looking back at me, fortunately I didn’t because I might have pee’d my pants if I did.
After you get over the ‘décor’ the place isn’t bad and if I lived in the area I could see it being a place I end up at by default and I don’t mean that in a bad way.
They have Stella on tap and mac ‘n cheese on the menu so I was happy. The mac ‘n cheese are a bit on the cheesy soupy side but I liked it, it was comforting. And for the vegetarians out there they have veggie dogs here for you to nibble on while pretending you’re at Disneyland.

By the time my friends convince me to go to Café «Meh“tropolitain, I’m usually pretty soused.
The décor always confuses me, as well as the layout, though it has cute nooks to help seperate the quieter folks from the drunken masses. The crowd seems pretty eclectic, but not necessarily in a good way — which does sometimes leave me with a «not-​so-​friendly» feeling by the end of the night.
The doormen are always sufficiently nice and the bartenders are pretty alright as well.
Another Capitol Hill bar that gets a «meh» from me.

3.5
Very cool guy at the door. Anyone who can handle both my jokes *and* Will L.‘s in one night… well…I think that’s got to be a rare quality.
Interesting layout. but it actually works here.
The crowds were lively, even some crazier than a bunch of Unilocalers.
The über-​cheese décor is fabulous. Drunken Unilocalers describing each fake storefront to you in their *ahem* best French accent certainly added to the charm.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t drink anything here. At least I don’t think I did. So I’ll reserve that for an update or a memory recall.
I do remember a pretty kick ass neck massage though. I think I about fell asleep in my chair I was so relaxed.
Good location for the hill. On my list of ‘go back and experience more” fo’ sure.

This tacky fake European décor makes me think I’m a fake Hemingway.
A clean, well-​lighted place. The drinks are good and strong. The fine beers are economical, especially the PBR. The food smelled good. The Drum & Bass music playing over their stereo was not so fine. The closer closing time gets, the less good-​natured the crowd gets. It seems to fill up with frat types, which, much like the D&B, is not fine.
The Café Met is good and fine. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sometimes all it takes to make a place great for me is a cool bouncer. As of this writing’s last night, the feller at the door was named Dustin. Dustin was a cool guy – he put up with my drunken idiot jokes with good humor, swapped stories about random crap like being mistaken for the doorman at other places (we both wound up checking IDs and taking money), and through it all kept on an eye on the folks coming in and the goings-​on around us. And he was pretty good at Sudoki.
I was pretty toasted by the time I was in this place. What I remember is that I suddenly thought I had been transported to the Paris Casino in Las Vegas. Cheesy, bright decorations, appeared bigger than it was, and blackjack tables, craps, and slot machines!*
*No blackjack, craps or slot machines, actually.
Bar seemed cool, but small. However, they’ve got a fricken GONG to announce Happy Hour!!! Sweet baby jesus I thought our drummer Stu was ending our version of Gilligan’s Island for us!
Water and water cups were available (which explains why I didn’t have a headache this morning) over by a coffee/​espresso stand, which meant two things:
1) You don’t have to fight other patrons or stand in line to hydrate and avoid the hang-​over
2) There’s coffee so you can be drunk AND awake!
And we didn’t get thrown out when we made a Unilocaler sandwich (see photo)
***EDIT*** The room in back is really comfy, and can be rented out or reserved or what-​have-​you for parties and events. They’ll even make a custom drink you can name whatever you want.
And purely for folks searching for the following keywords: There’s also a pool/​billiards table in a separate room.

I don’t know why I go here so much. Yet I find myself drawn here night after night. Prolly because I can’t think of anything better and it’s a hop, skip, and a jump away. Tres convenient. They have an all night long drink special and happy hour from 11pm –1 am.
The bartenders are nice and friendly, the crowd is nothing special (sometimes downright sketchy), and the ambience is kinda neat, though a bit confusing. I told the owner he needs to replace the tacky, ugly yellow neon sign, but he loves it.
The mac ‘n cheese and their cheese/​cracker plate are surprisingly good.

Thank goodness the lights are dim because the décor is awful. Awful awful.
I went on a friday night around 11. in time for happy hour. There’s hardly any seating, so my friend and I were left standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. It took approximately 14 days to get drinks, which on the upside were strong, but not strong enough to make us want to stay.