Linguistic garnish is usually the domain of Realtors, who can make a dingy garden shed sound like the Taj Mahal—with better plumbing. But calling this place a “Village” stretches language and logic to a level of absurdity once reserved for political attack ads (back when those were still a thing).
Overlake “Village” is really a patchwork of warehouse units, low-key restaurants, high-key restaurants, hotels, stacked-box apartments, and Microsoft. And yet, if you squint past the imaginary Tuscan villas, sun-kissed beaches, and the village idiots, you’ll spot a pub/restaurant/café clinging to the sidewalk like culture trying to survive on a damp bathroom wall.
Jack Sprat is a well-known English nursery rhyme that no one seems to have actually heard of—and also the name of a lesser-known pub/café. The sleek images on its website give off a curated Instagram vibe, the kind that makes you worry you’ll end up as the ugly background character in someone else’s perfect shot (or worse, you’ll be asked to move).
All the beers are listed as “KEG”—so we’ll assume that means they’re on tap? (At the time of writing, they all showed as “Out of Stock,” but I didn’t think you could put stock in beer. Ah—never mind, they’re back in stock again.)
They also offer a surprisingly broad selection of non-beer drinks and even non-drink drinks. The place itself is actually quite cool, in a young-hip-and-Microsoft kind of way. On a sunny summer afternoon, it’d be an excellent spot to sip an Organic Chocolate Stout and contemplate the malts—while everyone else is stuck at work contemplating clouds, or whatever it is they think about at Microsoft.
From the station, head south and turn left on NE Shen Street and climb the mile high set of steps to reach cool town on the left.