Look, I miss Aric more than anyone. His sassy charm. His charming sass. I’m even a little bummed that nobody ever calls me and Rune brothers or mistakes me for the other employees any more.

But he’s gone now (abducted by wizards) and somebody has to manage this damn bar so, in a dictatorial style I’ve always known I was capable of, I’ve elected myself.

First order of business: review the beer. I want to bring in some deep cuts, flavor-wise. It’ll be only high potency micro-brews, all saint’s tears and artisinal owl pellets for us around here from now on. So I hit up the fresh sheets. Did you know they make a guide the size of a phone book just for beers I could buy? What a country!

Under my new regime, we’ll be bringing back some old favorites like Odin’s Gift and Green Goblin and unleashing a whole new mess of beers like Velvet Merlin, Sharkinator, and DJ Jazzy Hefe, whose too-clever-by-half names alone will have you reaching for a palate cleanser. And lets not forget those ghost pirates.

My second order of business? The business. Why is our menu all cluttered up with all these different prices? Who’s benefiting from all of this double-entry deviancy? After asking the hard questions and pounding on that bottom line, I’ve decided, all on my dictatorial own, to standardize pricing. That’s right! All of our 12oz beer, cider, and any pour of wine are now ONLY $5! It makes counting drinks easier for me and drinking them cheaper for you. There’s the invisible hand of the economy for you!

“But what about our Rainier?!”, I hear you crying out from beyond the vast reaches of the internet as if someone just blew up Alderaan again or something. Well never fear, I tell you! The Emperor of Beers lives on in his gold and white aluminum throne! $3 Tall Boys for everybody! May Yakima Valley Hops have mercy on us all.

So eat, drink, and be merry my lovely patrons, and know that my rule as bar manager is only just beginning.

Just wait until you see the new Tip Wars.

Here at Gamma Labs, our certified magic technicians are constantly working to design you the best experience possible.

Our technicians at work.

As the direct result of their efforts, along with extensive testing and feedback from staff and players…

We acknowledge that there have been some legitimate concerns raised about Aric‘s methodology during his portion of the testing process but I can assure you that those are being looked into and will be dealt with in an appropriate manner

…we present to you Deluxe Drafting and The New Modern (boy, it’s been a while since I’ve used that particular rebranding phrase.)

Deluxe Drafting
Starting this Saturday, February 13th, our new drafting price of $17.50 will now include a complimentary ticket that you can use a acquire any one of our most popular food and drink items absolutely free. Rainier tall boys, Jones sodas and grilled cheese for the people! Drafting will continue to be every Saturday at noon and 4pm.

The New Modern
Starting next Wednesday, February 17th, our weekly Modern tournament is going to become sanctioned and have an entrance fee of $12.50 so we can double our prize support and add in the same free food and drink tickets that our Saturday drafters are getting.

2016 is going to be a fun and exciting year for us and you can look forward to a lot of big improvements in the weeks and months to come. As always, if you have any ideas, suggestions, questions, comments or concerns, come on by and lay ’em on us. We are right here and excited to engage this community that we are so thrilled to personally be a part of.

-Eric

YES! We will be OPEN every day between now and Christmas! Including MONDAY! And! CHRISTMAS EVE!

But don’t worry! No employees will be harmed or even inconvenienced by our decision to do this because this Christmas Eve, shopkeep Eric will be coming in with his voluntary co-host Andrew to perform their Annual Holiday Show while Aric, Dominic and Rune are all safe and cozy in bed with dancing in their heads.

Yes, while the staff as the result of their highly questionable choices the night before, Andrew and Eric will be performing all of their classic holiday routines. Who knows, we may even have special guests!

There’ll be laughing, and dancing and festivities galore!

So whether you’re looking for a last minute prewrapped white elephant or secret santa gift, dropping off used games for our annual Treehouse Game Drive or just coming by to buy a great game for a gift or to play with your friends or relatives this Christmas, come on by, any time, for the next 7 days and we’ll be here for you.

Hello, I’m Aric Fehrenbacher. You may remember me from such blog posts as Aric’s Last Shift (I came back) and Why You Should Be Watching Professional Starcraft (WHY AREN’T YOU!) or you maybe more familiar with my work was “that guy who is always behind the bar who wears stripped button-ups gesticulating wildly at the beer cooler”.

I’m here today to share with you some exciting news about my personal favorite subject booze. We here at The Raygun Lounge have slowly been refining our menu to more accurately resemble an establishment that sells awesome, interesting beers, ciders, and now, meads. As much as I love Deschutes and Newcastle they are pretty basic as far as beer choices go and we live in the PNW home to hundreds of small independent breweries making amazing brew!

With the help of Orcas Distributing we now carry some of the most unique and tasty brews available to a small gaming establishment without access to draft beer. But enough jibber jabber allow me show you some of my new favorites which a few of our bar regulars have “agreed” to model for us.

Uncommon Brewing Bacon Brown

So we picked this assuming it would be a kitschy novelty beer and probably be terrible in reality. I mean Bacon+Beer? Turns out it’s just an amazingly solid bodied brown ale with a subtle hit of delicious gristle at the end. Also, yes it is actually brewed with a pound of uncured bacon.

Celt Thirsty Warrior

I cannot say enough good things about this cider, and I think drinking cider is a sin against Raugupatis (look it up). If you think you like Angry Orchard (you don’t) one sip of this will make you realize that you’ve been wasting your time and money all this time sending you into an existential crisis the likes of which only protagonists in Lovecraft stories have ever experienced. I may have gotten carried away there but trust me, it’s really good (Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn).

Lost Continent Double IPA

You think you know what a Northwest IPA should taste like? Not until you’ve laid your lips upon one of these mega-hoppy bad boys you presumptuous fool. A miracle of modern brewing that somehow treads the line between tasting like you’re chewing straight hops and being immensely drinkable. Schrodinger’s beer?

Moonlight Meads

Some people (losers) say that mead is for neckbeardy weirdos who can’t handle real alcohol. Well those people hate and , hence losers. Regardless of your feelings towards nordic subjects this mead is bomb as #$*&.  Every flavor is different and interesting capturing the sweet honey core that any good mead should have while experimenting with berries, ginger, vanilla, and currants in ways that morph the flavor into something truly unique.

Are you thirsty yet? Well then come on down to the Raygun for this weekend’s Magic Origins Prerelease or come in next week for our other amazing events which I guarantee will make you want to drink. That’s a little bartender humor for you. Stay classy Seattle.

Starcraft 2 is the greatest sport ever created by humanity. There, I said it.

Now, I know some of you out there in the blogosphere may want to dismiss the phenomenon known as E-Sports as an annoying infringement by those pesky nerds stealing the sacred “S” word from good and proper sports like curling and table tennis.

But the simple fact is that while even the NFL has seen steadily declining admissions since 2007 (side-note: go hawks) the audiences for E-Sports events have grown to Thunderdome-like proportions.

E-Sports are booming and with million dollar prize pools and swarms of rabid fans (there are fantasy League of Legends leagues…let that sink in) these games are only going to get bigger.

Now in my humble and undisputedly correct opinion Starcraft 2 is the greatest E-Sport of all E-sports.

“But Aric,” you chirp,“What makes Starcraft so amazing?”

Because Starcraft 2 is simultaneously the chess, pistol duel, and professional wrestling of the E-Sports world.

For example:

1. ) There are WWE levels of showboating.

Renaldo’s got nothing on FireBatHero.

2.) It requires an insane amount of superhuman dexterity and quick thinking.

300 APM=6 actions per second.

3.) There are crushing defeats and epic comebacks, ALL THE TIME.

If you didn’t understand what just happened, it was crushing. Trust me.

Hopefully, if you’ve made it this far, I’ve at least piqued your interest in Starcraft because now we can get to the point of this post.

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Gamma Ray Games will be hosting replays of the World Championship Starcraft Finals and the Global Starcraft League Code S (code S means the baddest players in all of badassdom) matches as it is pretty much impossible to show them live.

So come in, hang out, and let’s talk Starcraft and if you don’t know how to talk Starcraft then feel free to ask me what the hell is going on every couple of minutes because I’ll probably be providing my own live commentary anyway.

Cheers,

Aric F.

 

 

We’re proud to announce that Aric “” Fehrenbacher is moving on to a fulltime job at another of our favorite local businesses, Central Cinema. This move will allow Aric to work mere blocks from his new home in the Central District while supporting his film studies at Seattle University (alma mater of other former employees and Matthew Martell).

Aric takes with him several store records including “longest continuous employment” (3 1/2 years, no easy task, I can assure you, have you met me?), “only employee to ever manage both the shop and the lounge” (at separate times, of course, but still impressive) and, “only employee to have ever worked the shop, then the lounge, then both, then just the shop again” (that’s some versatility right there) and, I think it can be said with total honesty that, all along the way, sometimes to my consternation, sometimes to my amusement, he did it his way.

Fuck it. I’ll take the steak knives.

If you would like to pay final tribute to this Gamma Raygun iconoclast, you can visit him during his last counter shift at the shop tomorrow for our all ages Journey into Nyx prerelease event.

Or you can just catch him at the Raygun Lounge sometime. Because let’s be real, it’s not like he’s not still going to be hanging around there all of the time anyways. 😉

Aric, we salute you, wish you well, and look forward to seeing on the other side of the counter again soon.