Spar Café

Fun place in the divey part of downtown. Food was good and service was great but other than the great history of the building it wasn’t great

Their fish and chips was delicious. Every aspect of the meal was perfect, from the food to the service to the décor/​atmosphere. You must, however, sample their beer!

I really enjoy the Spar for the Rubinator and the hazelnut tart. It’s my favorite place for late night eats too! The ambience is laid back and totally Olympia. The neon lights up the copper bar making it the perfect spot to relax with a good beer and friends. Always a must stop in Olympia.

Very good pizza and we were surprised since only 3 stars on Unilocal!Service was not the fastest but very polite. Had s street seating so can take the dog with you:)

We had breakfast here on our way to the Farmer’s Market. We should have waited and ate at the Market. My husband ordered hot chocolate. The waiter spilled it when he served it. Then it was like instant, watery, and it wasn’t even hot. I ordered the Greek omelet. It was full of big chunks of raw onion, almost no Feta, very little spinach and was overall disgusting. My husband also had an omelet and it wasn’t much better. Our waiter never came back to the table to see if our meal was OK. When another waiter picked up our plates, he didn’t say a word about most of my omelet still being on the plate. Before the Spar was a McMenamins it had the absolute best breakfast. Not so any more. Very disappointing.

20 minutes for horrible over priced drinks, cold breakfast, my scramble had big chunks of onion and it was supposed to be carmelized but barely cooked still crunchy. Coffee drink, cold. Chicken fried steak overdone and cold. Is Bloody Mary ever don’t ever order Bloody Mary there

Walking around downtown as it was quickly approaching lunch time with my girlfriend and we saw this café and decided to stop in. Really good, fresh food!
I ordered Maria’s Masterpiece and subbed a salad for the fries. She ordered the Cheeseburger with tots. My salad was a little on the small side but it was still great and the sandwich more than made up for the small portioned greens. Decently sized, soft bun, and a generous piece of turkey made for a well rounded meal. The sandwich was a tad bit on the dry side so I needed to add a little more ketchup to it, but overall tasted wonderful. It wasn’t the best sandwich I’ve ever had but it’s a great choice if you find yourself downtown and want a healthy and good tasting meal! Worth stopping in.

Pretty good service, the food was moderately priced. My server was friendly bit didn’t inform us of the happy hour menu or that what we had ordered was on it. Love to sit by the window and people watch. Great décor and atmosphere.

A-​flipping-​mazing. Great steak and eggs. Awesome service and literally the best fresh squeezed orange juice I have ever experienced. Super impressed.

Oyster was disgusting, taters tots were the best damn tater tots I’ve ever had. Nice kid’s
menu and they accommodating splitting drinks. Waitstaff seemed bored. Very pretty location (old pool hall, i think), nicely decorated.

Been here a few times now. Love the building. It’s old and classic with a train station feel. The mac and cheese here is awesome. Having the pancakes and blueberry tea today for brunch (adult beverage) it’s busy Saturday mornings. Had to wait a bit for waiter but it was ok lots of cool things to look around at. Great place for a date. Super casual. Good drinks. Open late too.

This was my second McMenamins experience while I was visiting the Great Northwest over New Years. I think their concept is really cool, where their locations take on the character of whatever building they’re put in. Basically there’s no visual consistency with any of them. Good thing they have a McMenamins passport to show you where their locations are.
Anyway, My aunt and uncle brought me here to explore downtown Olympia (which wasn’t much). There wasn’t much going on there on a Saturday night, but they had whiskey flights so I was a happy camper! I loved their place mats that explained the different whiskeys that you were sampling. Their whiskeys were really good, and I tried some of my aunt’s wine flight. I’m hit or miss with wines, so it didn’t make me as thrilled as the whiskey. We didn’t have any food, but my uncle said they had pretty good stuff when he’s gone there for breakfast. I’d definitely like to come back here for a meal, so I’ll have to put it on my list whenever I plan my next trip here.

I do love myself some McMenamins and we are really looking forward to them opening in Tacoma. I love that they buy old buildings and restore them to their former glory; The Elk’s and the old town hall in Tacoma is their next adventure.
Anyhow been coming to the Spar in Olympia for some time. The interior of this old pool hall/​bar is amazing one of my favorite interiors in the Olympia/​Tacoma area and I think it looked pretty much the same 60 years ago as it does now, well at least according to the pictures on the wall.
Well to the food… the food is good, Cajun tater-​tots are absolutely amazing, but pretty hard to mess up on fried food. My burger (The Wilbur) had good taste, but I asked for medium and it was well-​done that definitely effects the burger’s taste. Their beer has always been pretty good, better than some of the other local brewers, although I don’t know if I would take home a 6-​pack if they offered it. They also make wine and spirits which are actually good and probably a solid choice if your not a beer person. As for the staff these guys are great, quick service, cold beer and hot food cannot ask for more.

I recently went to the Spar with my sister for a juicy gossip brunch. We arrived and we didn’t have to wait for a table, which is a good perk of brunching mid-​week. We were seated and the first thing I noticed is only one server was working all the tables. He was really polite and was honestly working super hard, almost running from table to kitchen to bar without pause.
We ordered cocktails (mimosa for her, amaretto and coffee for me) and they took a few minutes to arrive. The bar was out of house amaretto so I was given Disaronno at the well price, which was cool. I asked for cream and sugar, but did not receive cream until my coffee was gone. I got a refill, still no sugar. I just dropped it.
We ordered our meals (she got the 4^th Ave Mess, I got the chorizo scramble). They arrived warm, but not hot. I asked for butter to go with my toast, but it took ten minutes for that to come and by that point the toast was cold so I didn’t bother. My sister took a bite of her toast and was not into it at all. The breakfast itself was pretty good.
Overall, I think the lack of attentive service was due to one server being responsible for everyone who was dining at that time, and he was working pretty hard. But the Spar is not cheap. I’ll give it another shot in the future, but I feel pretty nonplussed so far.

Visiting a friend in Olympia gave me a chance to get some stamps for my passport. We decided to do breakfast at the Spar due to a recommendation from someone and it did not disappoint. I tried the Denver omelet with hashbrowns and my friend graciously shared her blueberry pancakes. Both selections were delicious with the hashbrowns perfectly crispy and the pancakes not too heavy.
The space is nice and open with lots of tables, plus the server was very nice and attentive. They also have some games in the back and we had to get some pinball in before leaving! Seems like it would be an enjoyable place to go out to for the evening too. Overall, it is one of the more decent Mcmenamins and breakfast was good enough to come back for.

I swore up and down that when the spar was bought by Mcmenamens, I would never go there again. I was so disappointed that our local quirky restaurant, with the constant lingering smell of stale smoke and food so greasy you could feel your veins clogging with every bite.
But I have to say I actually really didn’t like smelling like cigarettes for hours after leaving and in all reality many of the food options there still can clog your arteries just by looking at them. So I’ll have to say the Spar is a pretty ok place.
They do have some interest twists in your food favorites, and surprisingly they offer a salad with spinach on their menu which I’m sure the ghosts of loggers still haunting the restaurant are not pleased with.
I do like the changes they’ve made to the décor while still keeping it relevant to the history of Olympia. That is something the Mcmenamens business has always done well and I’m happy with that.
The only down side and this is a pretty big one for me. They stop serving breakfasts at noon on weekends. Seriously? Who is even awake before noon on weekends? Ok I am most of the time but sometimes I want breakfast when I want it and sometimes that’s after noon. So, that’s something I would change. The lazy weekenders deserve breakfast when they want it, Spar!

A very interesting restaurant that is still here since 1923. It has changed hands twice. The décor really caught my attention. Or should I say on the block all restaurants has interesting décor like either skeleton or gotham style etc. I ordered the one their breakfast item. Can’t remember what’s it was called but I did share it with a friend and it did fill me up. It was bacon bits with cheese wrapped in egg. with salsa and sour crème.
Would I recommend this place yes.
One thing I recommend that you better let the server know that you have arrived before seating yourself. Or else you might just end up sitting forever without anyone really know you have just sat down. Service I have to say it was ok.
They do have a billard table at the back. Maybe at night you can come have a drink and play billard. Guess its in a town that’s not that busy so not sure how good is business.

Visited again for my 2^nd time this past weekend.
The service was much worse this time. Very long periods between service.
They ran out of champagne after I had one mimosa… on a Sunday?!
Food was still really delicious!
I was just bummed on the slow service.

I have walked or driven past this place many, many times without ever considering going inside. I’m so glad I did! The interior space is quite large and I love all the antique pieces on display. The floors are a bit uneven in places so watch your step! We had a great seat at the window and enjoyed the people watching… Which is always great in downtown Oly!
The food… I ordered Wilbur’s Jumbo Deluxe, no bun, with a salad. Such a great burger. Without the bun the egg could’ve been cooked over easy… The yolk would’ve really been great!
The drink… I ordered the wine flight and was quite impressed with all of them. I am not so much a fan of white wine but the Riesling was actually very nice… Not too sweet! I really loved the cider that was part of the flight. Excellent!
Will definitely keep this place on my list of go-​to joints downtown Oly!

The Spar is laid out like an English Pub. It used to be a cigar bar before the state banned indoor smoking, which they fought. Having lost that battle, they remodeled. The fireplace in the back is gone, as is the speakeasy style bar in the back. The cigars are still on display and can be purchased to go.
The décor features photos of the Jazz Age and Washington’s frontier days. The food’s decent if basic. Drinks are still good, and there’s a tournament billiards table where the fireplace used to be. There is a small bar over by the pool table.
The view of 4^th is nice from the front window is nice, with a few sidewalk tables in a cramped, gated in area. The music runs the gamut from jazz to the Grateful Dead.
Service is friendly and helpful. Prices are reasonable for the food they offer.
It’s hard not to like The Spar. Had they not fought the smoking ban, I’d have given them 5 stars.