The Hi-Life

**********Unfortunately, This Restaurant Has Closed Down**********

Recommended by: Not a server, but a customer eating next to us at Porkchop & Co. made small talk and mentioned the Hi Life down the street is another great option for brunches and is a bigger space, so there’s less of a wait.

Description on the Hi-Life’s website: Located in the 106 year old historic Firehouse No. 18 built in 1911, we serve up a rotating menu that features the best of our four seasons here in the Pacific Northwest. With an emphasis on our grilled and brick oven roasted dishes, our line turns out tasty, full flavored food for breakfast, lunch and dinner each and every day.

Neighborhood/Type:  Ballard 

Address: 5425 Russell Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107

What we ate/drank:  Ballard Barrio Breakfast Burrito- A burrito full of chorizo, black beans, eggs, and cheese, topped with salsa and served patatas del desayuno,  Chorizo Scramble-Green onion, avocado, tomato, parmesan cheese with crispy potatoes and toast. 2 x Caffe Ladro drip coffee.

Comment: We’d never been to this establishment as the Hi-Life, but I did come here when it was a concert venue known as The Ballard Firehouse. In fact, I remember seeing The Fixx and The Alarm play here one weekday night many years ago. Bands such as The Kinks, Blue Oyster Cult, Anthrax, Motorhead and Modest Mouse also played here.

Well now this former firehouse is The Hi-Life, part of CHOW Food, which also includes one of our other favorite breakfast restaurants, The 5 Spot.

Based on the pic above of the Hi-Life you can definitely see the remnants such as the huge doors and open space that this building has been reincarnated from a previous life of a firehouse. It was built in 1911 and the horses were kept in stables where the kitchen is now. You can actually see one of the original fire poles from the old sleeping quarters right over the current bar. The building was in use as a firehouse until 1975 and has been the Hi-Life since 2004.  The exposed beams and brick walls give the feel from yesteryear.

Like the The 5 Spot, you enter a huge space with a bar area on the right and the dining area on the left. Many of the dishes harken back to the firehouse, such as the Firehouse Benedict, Station House #18(short stack of pancakes with bacon and two eggs) and Firehouse Mac & Cheese.

One of the better deals you can get here are the meals on the “Not-So-Early-Bird-Breakfast” menu, which is served from 8am-11am on weekdays for $7.75. Can’t beat that. One of the dishes we got off this menu was the Ballard Barrio Breakfast Burrito, which had chorizo, black beans, egg and cheese and served with potatoes and salsa.  The burrito was toasted on the outside just how we like it. We were thinking that because it was on this special priced menu, it might be on the smaller size, but that was not the case. It was huge and we took half of it home with us.

The other meal was a special of the day, a Chorizo Scramble with green onion, avocado, tomato, parmesan cheese with crispy potatoes and toast. We had originally ordered another dish and after our server left to put in the order with the kitchen I noticed the special on their black board. We flagged down our server and she graciously went to the kitchen to change the order without issue.

The Hi Life is a good place for groups and in a historical building with a fun history.

Ratings:

Atmosphere: 4.25

Service: 5.00

Food/Drinks: 4.25

Bang for the Buck: 4.75 especially off the “Not-So-Early-Bird-Breakfast” menu.

Overall: 4.50

Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.

• • Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
  • Most locals know about it
  • Locals “in the know” know about it
  • Only those who live close by know about it.
  • You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!

Servers recommendations to visit in the future: Our server, a recent transplant to Seattle, was really friendly and engaging. She tried to give suggestions on where some of her favorite restaurants in Seattle were, but she was so new to the area she hadn’t gone to a lot of places and then ones she mentioned, we’d already been to. She actually went to a co-worker who suggested Toulouse Petit.

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