Guilty Pleasures
A Guest Blog Review for Feasting Fort Collins – Washington’s Sports Bar and Grill

We all indulge in guilty pleasures from time to time.  Mine happen to be of the trashy variety and occur more on a semi-regular basis.  I wouldn’t exactly consider myself “trashy” but will admit to engaging in some so-called trashy behaviors that may include, but are not limited to glitter, fortune telling, and perezhilton.com.  Among my Top 10 List of Guilty Pleasures is Reality TV.  I’m a regular viewer of Big Brother, America’s Next Top Model, and on occasion get easily sucked into episodes of Bad Girls Club, Jersey Shore, and any version of The Kardashians.  Most of you probably sing in your car and wouldn’t consider this a guilty pleasure.  But if you were to witness the songs that I land on when flipping through the stations, you’d most definitely label me a trashy music whore.  Yep, I’m a Ke$ha fan!  At the very top of my Guilty Pleasure List is cheeseburgers, French fries and milkshakes.  That’s right, I do indeed consider these three things as one item on my list.  One is not complete without the other two and given the choice between a cheeseburger meal deal and a 5 star restaurant, I will almost always choose the combo experience.  It’s just more satisfying to my soul.

Washington’s Sports Bar & Grill, more casually referred to as The Wash Bar, is located in Old Town Fort Collins on LaPort Avenue.  The Wash Bar has been in business since 1978 and has been a long-standing hot spot for college students.  As I stood on the front porch waiting for my lunch partner,  listening to Creep by Radiohead, I felt like a weirdo going to The Wash Bar on my lunch hour in dress clothes.  I would have felt a little more like I belonged there had I been in tight jeans, heels, glitter, and a low-cut shirt, my traditionally “trashy” bar outfit.  Spin the clock ahead about 12 hrs and I would have fit right in.

The ordering experience felt natural to me as I’m quite accustomed to ordering through a window.  Since there was nobody behind us waiting to order lunch at 11:30am on a Tuesday, we didn’t feel pressured.  I went to the appetizers first with an abiding belief that a restaurant is only as good as their appetizer menu.  My eyes quickly fell on one of my favorites, battered and fried mushrooms and zucchini appropriately titled Zuchs and Shrooms for $7.25.  They thoroughly bumped it up to “trashy” status by adding a side of Ranch dressing.  Scooting over to the next sign, I scanned the World Famous Burgers for anything with bacon.  A cheeseburger without bacon is like Laverne without Shirley.  It just doesn’t work.  I added the Howlin’ Coyote Bacon Burger complete with BBQ sauce and a side of French fries for $8.25 to my order.  With my heart set on a milkshake, I was  slightly disappointed having to settle for a Root Beer Float.  I was tempted to ask for a discount on the $3.50 when I was given my glass of vanilla ice cream and told to walk it over to the bartender for the root beer.

The Wash Bar – Fort Collins, CO

As we waited for the kitchen to make our order, my lunch partner and I took in the atmosphere of odds and ends that might be more suitably found in a backyard shed or garage.  To our surprise we weren’t the only patrons grabbing lunch at The Wash Bar on a  Tuesday afternoon, but the crowd was slim and we were glad to be able to hear our conversation and the selection of decent music as we enjoyed our dessert first. 

Zuchs and Shrooms

I loved the Shrooms but wasn’t impressed with the Zuchs.  The batter coating the zucchini slices was slightly soggy so I didn’t eat more than a couple of them.  The mushrooms were really tasty and definitely a winner.  Next time I’ll ask to modify the order and double up on the Shrooms, hold the Zuchs.

Howlin' Coyote BBQ Burger with French Fries

Unfortunately, The Howlin’ Coyote BBQ Burger was a little undercooked for my taste.  I requested medium-well and got very pink all the way through which resulted in me only eating half of it.  Topped with lettuce, pickle, onion, American cheese, bacon and BBQ sauce, I must say that this burger would have tasted amazing had it been cooked as ordered.  The least favorite part of my meal were the French fries which became more disappointing with each bite.  The fries were of the curly variety, which have never been a favorite cut of mine.  They were very bland and strangely tasted dried out. 

Although we didn’t officially have a server, the bartender was very attentive; checking on us three different times to make sure everything was alright.  I sure hope she received at least a portion of the $4.00 tip I left on my receipt at the kitchen window.  There was one piece of this experience that didn’t quite fit with the rest…the bill.  I spent $24 on lunch at a bar and it didn’t even come with glitter, a tarot card reading, or an opportunity to dirty dance to a Ke$ha song.

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