The Lift - Fond Memories

The Lift holds a lot of fond memories for me. During college and shortly thereafter they had a doozy of a special, $0.50 cans of Olympia (It's The Water!) and $2 fish tacos on Tuesdays. $10 was enough to have a really solid evening. We were often the recipients of eye rolls from the staff as our Oly can pyramid grew ever higher. Collapse was inevitable, and in some sense foreshadowing. After a long hiatus from taco tuesdays we returned last year to find the special had ended. It was surprisingly upsetting news, enough so that I didn't return again until this week.

I must have spent 4-6 minutes waiting to turn left into their lot. The driver in front of me was not local, obviously didn't have a clue as to where they were going, and was thoroughly flummoxed by the combination of traffic and construction. I snapped this picture, honked at them, and finally made it into the lot. Some guy named Bryan was there too. I vaguely recall drinking gallons of Oly there over the years with him. May have been some other weird red headed guy though, hard to recall.

Presentation - The layout of the bar here is odd, it has a few "fingers" that extend maybe 4-6 feet out, which create three or four U-shaped seating areas that make a lot of sense. Good design, worth some points consideration. The tacos are served rather plainly, two in a paper lined tub with chips and salsa. Nothing wrong with simplicity, works just fine here and fits the place well enough. 3/5

Aroma - Things blend nicely here, cohesive, aromatic, and enticing. 4/5

Value - $8.00 for two tacos, chips and salsa. I don't recall what the drink cost, but it wasn't bad. Pretty decent for a bar. $2 each would have pushed this number up towards 10. Not quite there, but above average. 6/10

Fish - Something about this just works. The breading is perfectly greasy, it's bar food, but really good. They don't skimp either, good sized portions in each taco. Not sure what type of fish, but the flavor is nicely balanced. All around on the money. 8/10

Not Fish - Non-traditional here, pineapple and cilantro lime sauce instead of the traditional white sauce. No limes on the side, though they do have cabbage and two corn tortillas each, so not too far off the formula. Similar to the fish, they're generous. I was worried two tacos wouldn't fill me up, and I was wrong. I did get a large order of tots (only $3) after the meal, but that's mostly just because I dig tater tots. Chips and salsa aren't half bad either. 7/10

Overall Taste - I remember why I ate so many of these during college, they're damn good. Balanced, unique enough to stand out but still satisfy the want for a fish taco, just a nice simple example of the dish. Making my way through this tour they don't stand out quite as much, but still, no big complaints. 7/10

Bonus Points - Nothing standing out. +0

Overall Overall - 35/50

I'm sure the disappointment that comes with losing a special I used to love has tainted this score a bit, and thus, it could never win. Perhaps at $2 each they'd be a strong enough candidate to come out on top, but no dice at $8 a pair. Onwards.