Sam’s Seaside
The Garlic Lover’s Burg-
er is blanketed with
raw chopped garlic,
grilled onions and Swiss
cheese.
Cafe
The Cheesy Jalapeño
Stuf ed Tots are a crusty
shell around little fl ecks
of diced jalapeño, cheese
and potato.
This local Seaside haunt offers value
for your hard-earned dollars
A
A friend of mine remembered going to Sam’s
Seaside Cafe back in the ’90s. She and her high
school classmates would pack into the booths
and gather around bottomless baskets of fries.
The bygone special wasn’t on the menu; it was
meant for locals. The price: just one dollar.
Now, that deal has dried up, but the val-
ues continue, making Sam’s — in the heart of
Broadway’s tourist mecca — a local haunt.
Paramount is the dollar beer special during
happy hour. From 4 to 6 p.m. every day — even
weekends — Sam’s offers beers for a buck. You
can get Pabst, and better yet, Session bottles. The
price matches — and sometimes beats — retail.
“There are people that have been coming
here for years for the sweet, sweet dollar beers,”
a server told me. “Then at si[ they À y away.” ,n-
deed, the ambiance probably isn’t keeping them.
To call Sam’s casual or laid back would be an
understatement. With booths lining the walls, it’s
dim, deep and cavernous. On one trip, a damp,
musky odor hung in the air, likely the aftermath
of a Sisyphean attempt at cleaning ancient À oors.
The building’s east wall is made mostly of win-
dows. They look across a 10-foot alley onto
the neighboring building’s cedar shakes. While
during the day they offer nice ambient light, at
night you can hardly tell they exist. The back
third of the building is a bar, which looks much
like the front, only with TVs and video slots and
livelier bursts of conversation.
At times, servers are given the unfortunate
task of covering both rooms. Despite being
spread thin, , found them good natured. ,t helps,
no doubt, to share with customers that beers are
just one dollar. As , witnessed, other patrons
were overjoyed — it really is a pleasant surprise.
The food, a little less so.
Our server recommended the ¿ sh and chips,
noting the ¿ sh was house-breaded and never
fro]en. , went with the cod 1.. The three
medium-si]ed pieces of white¿ sh were beer-bat-
tered and terri¿ cally oily. They came with a load
of hand-cut fries, and they too were oily. Quick-
ly the fries shriveled, like ¿ ngers after a long
bath. ,t seemed as if the deep-fryer wasn’t Tuite
hot enough, keeping ¿ sh and fries from sealing
Tuickly enough. (verything was edible, and my
companion particularly liked the ¿ sh, though he
Tuali¿ ed them as a “guilty pleasure.”
We both enjoyed the Cheesy Jalapeño Stuffed
Tots 4.. With a more de¿ ned, crunchy,
crusty shell around little À ecks of diced jalapeño,
cheese and potato, they are the offspring of ja-
lapeño poppers and tater tots. They were also
about as creative as the menu at Sam’s got. Oth-
erwise, it’s soups, salads, burgers, a modicum of
seafood, and hot and cold sandwiches.
The Turkey sandwich 6. was about as
simple as it gets, with lettuce, tomato, onion
and mayonnaise on white bread. The vegetarian
sandwich aka Tubular Tracy’s Veg Supreme,
6. might as well be called the hummus
sandwich, as it’s the dominant ingredient, À a-
vor and texture. The veggies — avocado, toma-
to, lettuce, cucumber, onions and mushrooms
— were of passable Tuality, but including the
mushrooms raw was a turn-off. ,t was, if noth-
ing else, ¿ lling. And at . for a half-sand-
wich with potato chips, reasonably priced.
At the advice of a regular, , tried the *ar-
lic /over’s Burger . on another trip.
The pre-formed, unseasoned patty was whol-
ly blanketed with chopped garlic, as well as
grilled onions and Swiss cheese. The amount
and preparation of garlic was at once overkill
and dulled. Roasting the garlic would’ve been
preferable, as would’ve a sharper, more pun-
gent cheese.
From the hot sandwiches, a server recom-
mended the Philly Cheese Steak 10 with
mouth
OF THE COLUMBIA
COAST WEEKEND’S LOCAL RESTAURANT REVIEW
Story and photos by THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA • mouth@coastweekend.com
Sam’s Seaside Cafe
Rating:
104 Broadway, Seaside
503-717-1725
HOURS: 11 a.m. to midnight Wednesday to Sunday.
PRICE: $ – Downright cheap
SERVICE: Upbeat and overworked.
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN OPTIONS: Slim.
DRINKS: Full bar, soda, cof ee and juice
aplomb. “Without a doubt,” she said. While
the tender, juicy, thinly-sliced, peppery beef
and grilled peppers and onions were on point,
tomato and lettuce aren’t usually found on a tra-
ditional Philly Cheese. Nor is Swiss cheese —
provolone and, believe it or not, American and
Cheez Whiz are the sandwich’s staples. Still, it
worked.
So did the *rilled Buffalo Chicken Sand-
wich 9.0, a daily special also served on a
hoagie roll. The chicken breast was thick and
moist, dripping in bright but un-spicy buffalo
sauce and slathered with a thick, pasty, blue
cheese spread. Of everything , tried, it was
probably the most enjoyable. That said, it’s not
a À avor that ,’ll make a point of coming back
for. There really aren’t any, as up and down
Sam’s menu the sourcing and preparation are
wholly anodyne.
And yet, if the timing’s right, , could see my-
self returning. With a large slice of lemon, mild
cocktail sauce and a thankfully small oyster,
the shooters were another sweet deal. Consider
the following: For you could get two oys-
ters, a beer, and leave a dollar tip. Where else is
that even possible?
KEY TO RATINGS
poor
below average
good & worth returning
excellent
outstanding, the best in the
Columbia-Pacific region
March 17, 2016 | coastweekend.com | 15
