Ballard Brew Hall opens at Sea-Tac Airport

Meghan Walker Ballard

Now you can sip a couple local beers while waiting for your next flight: Ballard Brew Hall has just opened up in Sea-Tac Airport.

The opening is part of a major restaurant/bar and retail overhaul at the airport, with several new businesses scattered through the different concourses. The brew hall is located in Concourse D.

A glance at the menu suggests that the restaurant serves your typical pub fare, including burgers, fish and chips, and tacos. In addition to the beer list, they have several Washington wines and a few cocktails.

Unfortunately, according to the beer menu and Seattle Eater, the new eatery falls short of representing Ballard’s extensive brewery scene.

If you’re looking for Ballard-specific beers, you’ll be left wanting: the closest you’ll get is Fremont Brewing’s Sky Kraken. The only other Seattle beers we could find on the menu are from Elysian (a brewery now owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, as Eater points out), and Pyramid, which isn’t actually locally owned either.

Other options are more regional than local, with Mac and Jack’s from Redmond, Spokane’s No-Li, and Bend’s 10 Barrel Brewing (also owned by Anheuser-Busch, however) on the menu.

There is a “Ballard Juicy IPA” on the menu, but we’re a bit suspect that it’s actually from Ballard.

So, if you need to get your Ballard beer fix before your next trip away, make sure you grab a pint before you leave the ‘hood.

11 thoughts to “Ballard Brew Hall opens at Sea-Tac Airport”

  1. No surprise. Sounds to me whoever puts the most money down on a bid gets the contract. Hence the big monopolies like Anheuser-Busch. That pissed me off when Elysian sold out to Budweiser five years ago. But if you’re in it for the wealth…wise decision.

      1. ABinbev has been running Elysian alot more than 5years.

        Um, it’ll be 5 years this coming January.

        Miller’s been running Fremont for almost 10 already…

        Even though I know this is completely false, especially considering Fremont is almost 10 years old itself, I had to do a quick search, because you never know.

        Yeah, your entire post is 100% false. Congratulations?

    2. Ivar’s is about as “Northwest” as we can get. They were forced out of Sea-tac. While it IS about the money, it’s also about a few people making choices for millions of others. Perhaps if Amazon simply bought the place……………….NOT

  2. This bugs me. I spend a lot of time in airports and when I’m in another city the airport can be a great way to get a little glimpse into what that city has to offer. They shouldn’t use “Ballard” in the name unless they are offering local brews. Even tourists have heard of Ballard these days and this paints us in a vary pale light. I recently hosted a group from Montreal and they all knew about Ballard and were excited to try local beers… glad they didn’t stop at Ballard Brew Hall first!

  3. SeaTac airport sucks anyways since it’s new venue of places to eat which is designed for the elite traveler and the sports bar is gone and Burger King and Wendy’s is gone but to find McDonald’s you have to walk a mile hidden away from the actual food court area ! I ate a a few places but the food is nothing to brag about !

    1. I actually like some of the new eateries at SeaTac. There is more variety, still plenty of grab-n-go, and now there is a Skillet. The quality doesn’t stand up to the Denver or San Francisco airports but it’s way better than New Orleans! I was stuck in N.O. for four hours recently and the highest quality food I could get was a really disgusting hot dog. Of course the quality of food is lower and price higher than outside an airport but they have a captive audience so you just have to budget in that meal when you’re going to be spending all day flying.

      1. Part of the problem with the new “tech” people in the city believe that a local culture can be experienced at a hotel or an airport. Most “real” people don’t spend their time there.

        1. First of all, your ‘”real” people’ comment is prima facie asinine. Your assumptions about ‘new “tech” people’ is equally as ludicrous.

          By making an Us v Them assumption about who thinks or does what you are contributing to the false narratives that are meant to divide.

          I travel a lot for work and pleasure. Most of my friends travel much more. Not one of us is “new tech” and all of us are very real. Perhaps if you spent a little more time experiencing life rather than trolling you would have a better grasp on how people actually behave and think and spend less time obsessing about your misinterpretations of it.

          2. elenchos2 is only slightly less bad than uncle bucky, but 100% a troll that the folks in charge of this blog seem to be okay with.

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