I finally made it to the Pup Room, and it is everything a vintage lounge should be -- dark wood, a large fireplace, animals jutting from the walls (the sconces, in this case), and a bartender and customers that seem like they've been there since the day it opened. Indeed, Kathy, the bartender, was two days away from her 25th anniversary working for the Poodle Dog and Pup Room, and she filled me in on some of the history.
The Poodle Dog restaurant was started in 1933, originally in railcars, and still serves classic greasy spoon diner food. A bar was added in the 1940s, the building was torn down and replaced in 1949, and the structure that currently houses the Pup Room lounge in the 1960s. Since then Louis Armstrong and Glen Miller have played in this lounge, and one can only imagine how much greater it was to see them in this setting than to see the parade of warmed-over stars who today march through the soul-less casino down the road.
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Mike Shea, congratulated on winning a wager that he could
walk 4.6 miles from Tacoma to Fife in under an hour, after a
dispute arising from the 1937 Cooks & Waiters Bunion Derby
Poodle Dog, 1938 (Tacoma Public Library photo) |
1522 54th Ave E, Tacoma, WA 98424 - (253) 922-6161)
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#1093 - Pup Room (Poodle Dog Restaurant), Fife - 5/4/2010
1 comment:
Thanks for the update and best wishes for your project. My family stopped at the Poodle Dog for lunch on our way back from Grandma's in Kalama in the 60s. I'm glad it's still there. Pam W.
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