#2038 - South Pacific, Bremerton, WA - 2/10/2013

This place appears to have a colorful past, and now it seems to want to be a bit of everything: tiki bar, sports bar, D-List style nightclub. I haven't found much info online about previous bars in this space, but I got word-of-mouth info from several different people. From Jenny I heard that they used to have a two-lane bowling alley downstairs, and murals of Popeye-like characters probably done by Popeye creator E.C. Segar while he was stationed in the area during WWII. While they are clearly from the hand of a deft cartoonist, the latter story doesn't really check out, as I later found explained in a Kitsap Sun story:

"Pam Kruse Buckingham of the Kitsap County Historical Society said the facts don't support that story. Buckingham's research showed the building was built in 1913 and it housed Flieder Bros. Grocery until the late '30s. The building remained vacant until 1941, when it became the Rendevous [sic] Beer Parlor, she said. Segar died in 1938, according to his biography on the King Features Web site."

Between the Rende(z?)vous and South Pacific, it has been called "Cheers" and before that, the "Bowl and Bash," I was told. In the bar I talked with Misty, a pretty bartender from Kentucky who calls the customers "Honey," and Ike, who has been in and around the navy and coming in the place for many years. Ike had several stories about the old days of the place, including when it had a mynah that told customers "fuck you" as you walked in the front door, and a drunken night he hooked up with a women and they lost her prosthetic foot.

"Not afraid to over-serve.  I once had a Jägerbomb with each of my first nine beers and the barkeep never batted an eye." (Skattman)

Thankfully, so far it has been able to resist the people and forces that seem to think that urban renewal calls for the elimination of all vestiges of charm and character. It's not the kind of place I would be likely to go to regularly if it were in Seattle, but its jumbled themes seem to work here, and I might be here often.

218 1st St, Bremerton, WA 98337 - (360) 479-1657
Est. Dec 15, 2002 - Building constructed 1913
Previous bars in this location: Rendezvous Beer Parlor (30s), Bowl and Bash, Cheers
Web site: southpacificsportsbar.com
Reviews: yelp - tripadvisor - kitsapsun - waterfront development