#2189 - 5th Avenue Bar and Grill, Metaline Falls, WA - 5/25/2013

5th Avenue Bar & Grill, Metaline Falls, WA

The 5th Avenue is placid little small town cafe and bar -- the sort of place where, after making a really minor error on one of our burgers, the gave us free pie to make up for the mistake. Along with the fairly standard small town diner food and drinks, we enjoyed a chat with regular customer Markku, whom everyone in town just calls "Swede." Markku was born in Finland and raised in Sweden, and as a young man joined the merchant marine as a cook to see the world, living mostly in Australia. When we asked him what brought him to this area, he told us "a mistaken decision" -- which turned out to be a girl in Aberdeen. Markku is retired now and lives within a short walk of the bar. He told us that it was a town scandal when the bar raised the drink of cocktails from $2.50 to $3.50. He thought Trista was pulling his leg when she told him how much she pays for cocktails in Belltown.

People have been living in the Metaline Falls area for at least 8,000 to 11,000 years ago, with the Kalispel tribe there when Europeans first started to arrive in the early 1800s. The exposed minerals led the Europeans to call the place "metalines," and they eventually established the town of Metaline on the western bank of the Pend Oreille River in 1859, and Metaline Falls on the east bank in 1911. Gold was discovered in the area in the 1850s, then mining interests turned to lead and zinc, which sustained the area in the 1970s. Today the population of Metaline Falls is down to around 200 people, largely supported by hunting, fishing, and other tourist and outdoor activities. The town is just 13 miles south of the Canadian border, and if you check out Gardner Cave, the limestone cavern named for the bootlegger who discovered and hid his product there, it's a short walk to the border.  (Historylink)

Hoogy's Steakhouse, Metaline, WA
It's not so easy to find current information online for some
of these small towns, and Trista was much amused when we
drove up to this place in Metaline where I planned to have dinner.

Trail to Canada near Gardner Cave

Gardner Cave, just north of Metaline Falls, WA

214 E 5th Ave, Metaline Falls, WA 99153 - (509) 446-4234
Est. 2011
Previous bars in this location: Heidi's
Web site: facebook
Reviews: roadtrippers - yelp - tripadvisor