Pho Bac (Downtown)

I can't find any info on the usual sites about this place, but it's pretty easy to find because it's in the Greyhound station downtown. I've been wanting to check the place out, but have been afraid for all of the obvious reasons. The space opens onto 8th avenue and has another entrance in the bus terminal. I don't remember what used to be there, but they've done a pretty nice job reupholstering the booths, painting, and decorating. The space itself is quite fascinating, broken up into a bunch of smaller areas--kind of like a series of caves. It's an adventure! Place your order at the counter when you walk in, because you can be sure nobody will notice if you're hidden at one of the tables.

The menu, if I remember correctly, is the same as their other new location on Broadway, and features pho, sandwiches, bun, rice dishes, and spring rolls. I wanted to try the spring rolls, but was feeling a bit of a pinch because I'd be spending extra money on today's sandwiches. They're $3.50, which is twice as much as my normal sandwich. And for the record, they're ok, but not as good as my regular ones.

CONDIMENTS ON THE TABLE
Soy sauce, Sri-Racha, chili sauce in ketchup bottles, and hoisin sauce in mustard bottles. Not all of the bottles are labeled, either, so there are bound to be some surprises.

BEVERAGES
They have a soda fountain, which is unusual for a vietnamese restaurant. They don't bring tea to the table, which is also unusual. 

I had bun thit nuong today, and was mostly impressed by the preparation and ingredients, even though a few bites of the pork were pretty bland. I noticed as I was ordering that they were grilling up a HUGE amount of pork. About nine square feet. So they're probably doing pretty well. The space might be bigger than they'll ever need, but the architect who designed the bus station back in the day probably believed more people would be taking the bus. Going to these places as early as I do usually gives me my choice of seats, and today I was able to score one of the two tables by the window. The intersection outside was great for people-watching, and I bet the ones closer to the terminal entrance are as well. 

I ended up there today because my normal routine relies on a very tight schedule. I get on one bus to Little Saigon, eat, buy my sandwiches, walk to my bus stop, and go to work. If anything starts taking too long, I worry that I'll be late to work. After I sat down on the first bus today, a wheelchair user got on. This normally doesn't take very long, and I don't worry, but the guy was having a lot of trouble pushing himself off of the lift and into the bus. He actually asked for help, and the bus driver told him they aren't allowed to. Who knew? The bus had been a little late getting there, and I decided I didn't want to risk it. My plan was to walk to New Vietnamese Restaurant (to be reviewed later, of course) but I don't like to go there on weekdays because their sandwiches are $4.00. (Really good sandwiches, though.) I remembered that I'd been avoiding the scary bus station place and decided to give it a whirl. Because it was so close, and so fast, I got to work 30 minutes early today, so my meal and sandwich were paid for with the overtime I earned because I ate there.

Sometimes things work out so nicely.

Elevated Security Measures

You know those signs they put up when there's a traffic revision, or at the airport during holiday rushes? They're programmable, and have 3 lines of green/yellow text. The first one you see on the way into Sea-Tac right now reads:

ELEVATED
SECURITY
MEASURES

It's a fixed-width font on the sign, and each line happens to be eight characters wide, so what the sign says currently takes up the entire sign. It's almost as though that sign was created for states of elevated security measures.

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