#2567 Galloping Gertie's, Lakewood, WA - 6/27/2014

Galloping Gertie's Bar & Grill, Lakewood, WA

Galloping Gertie's Bar & Grill dates itself back to when Gertie Rice opened a one-woman hamburger joint in 1952. In 1959 she moved it into its current location in the Tillikum neighborhood of the city of Lakewood, about ten miles south of where the more famous Galloping Gertie shuddered itself to death in November of 1940. The lounge was added in 1972, and one has to assume looks little different, in decor or menu, than it did that year.

You might assume that Gertie's nickname was an inevitable inheritance from the great bridge disaster, but her family says that it was primarily based on her love or horses and the racetrack. The restaurant still celebrates March as the month of she first opened for business, the month in which she passed away in 1991, and the month of her favorite holiday, St. Patricks Day.

Her bar is situated in a small strip of land pressed between American Lake and the highway, in a low income area surrounded by military bases and chain fast food joints, with the only public access via the freeway. Then suddenly the neighborhood's north end is capped by the Tacoma Country Club and Thornewood Castle.

The family sold the place after Gertie passed at the age of 83, but her daughter and son-in-law soon re-purchased it and run it to this day. The family appears to share Gertie's love of the track (the entity paying taxes on the property is "Long Shot to Place LLC").  With the National Guard's Camp Murray to the south and the massive Joint Base Lewis-McChord looming just over the highway, the diner and lounge especially cater to the military crowd. The grill half is classic American diner fare, and the bar side is a 70s dive frozen in time. Neither is particularly remarkable, but on a small stretch populated by a McDonalds, a Subway, a Jack in the Box, a Pizza Hut, a Taco Bell, a Papa Johns, and a KFC, it feels like a precious respite of humane forebearance.

15417 Union Ave SW, Lakewood, WA 98498 - (253) 584-4848
Est. July 1972 (restaurant only started in another location in 1952) - Building constructed 1958
Previous bars in this location: None known
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