In a prior post I began highlighting some of the local eateries in the Old Town portion of Renton, including a notation that I had not yet been, but had plans to go, to Fin N Bone. Well, Michael’s recent April birthday provided a prime opportunity for us to go use our Passport Unlimited card and try it out.
If you’re going to use your Passport card, you’ll want to do so soon because we learned that they’ll be stopping their affiliation with it as of this summer. Apparently a lot of folks who are local tend to not use the Passport card to allow a splurge for other items such as a bottle of wine or an appetizer, etc. instead just coming in for a low cost meal – while I can see that as an okay thing it’s tough for owners of a business to support those clients when there aren’t others offsetting the difference. Since it was Michael’s birthday and his grandma sent him some money to enjoy his birthday, we did take advantage of a splurge opportunity. And, boy, did we enjoy it!
Scott, the bartender, was friendly and helpful with the menu. He also did a fine job with wine selections, as we chose a Balboa Syrah. Balboa is an up and coming winery within Washington State.
For dinner we ordered one of the Prime Rib platters and one of the Lamb Chops. There are 2 sizes to order from for the PR and I ordered the larger (16 oz) to have plenty to take home and eat the rest of the week. Apparently, Scott, the bartender, told the owner (who is also the chef) that I had mentioned that when I’ve gone to either El Gaucho or Daniel’s in Seattle I have never been able to get PR because they always sell out ahead of time. Well, Jerry decided to give me a treat and my PR was closer to 20 ounces! Unbelieveable! And, it was goooood!!! Thanks, Jerry! I won’t expect that every time, but what a treat for a first time in. I got to sample Michael’s lamb chops and they were very succulent and had great flavor too.
One of the things we’re looking forward to doing on another visit is to sit at the Chef’s Table right in front of the kitchen. It seats 4-6 comfortably and would be a great spot to see Jerry and his team in action.
We’ve started thinking that this could be our new version of our former Ballard favorite, Market Street Grill, where we know the owners John and Kendall Sellers. Alas, I heard they did finally sell the place and it closed at the end of March. They were the first to bring really good food back to downtown Ballard so it’s sad to see that go away, but I wish them both well and hopefully they’ll go have some fun!
But, back to the restaurant of the moment…. We did get a chance to chat with the owners of Fin N Bone, Jerry and Yelina Jackson, since it was a pretty light weekday night at the restaurant (which is a shame and needs to change). We had so much fun talking and getting a tour of the restaurant that we didn’t realize they’d been closing up and we were the last people inside. We found out that we all have a deep love for our pets and we discussed a lot of the funny things that these furry additions to our lives do.
In addition to our fun talk we learned that Fin N Bone has party rental spaces for corporate type events as well as social events, music on weekends, and happy hours for the before and after main dinner hours.
We also talked a lot about Renton and business in general. Jerry would like to see the older part of downtown Renton called a specific area, such as Old Town, and I would tend to agree with him. It’s a really cute area and there are many of the older and more historic buildings of the original downtown where many restaurants and fun shops are located. It’s definitely set apart from newly minted The Landing, where we expect more chain restaurants to populate. Michael and I jokingly think they should call the older part of Renton the French Quarter because we’ve started our own slogan for Renton – “Vive Le Renton!” – because of friend’s reactions to our move down south. Oh, ahem, to the Eastside as some in Renton would prefer us to say.
Vive Le Renton! Vive Le Fin N Bone!!!!!
