#4207 - The Fireplace Bar, Everett, WA - 5/5/2021

Fireplace Bar, Everett, WA

"Established in 1940" is painted right on the outside of the Fireplace Bar (not to be confused with the "Fireside," another venerable Everett, Washington tavern). The date is repeated in some large window painting, and the bartender explains to me that the bar has been named the Fireplace since 1940, but there were bars in the space for years before that.

She is correct about the earlier bars, but apparently not about the "Fireplace," name, at least not according to Polk city directories, usually pretty reliable, and which make 1940 would seem an odd choice for an origin date. According to the Polks, "Brown's Tavern" was here since at least 1935 and into at least 1941 (some recall the name "Brown's Mug" in 1929, but of course this would have been during prohibition). This was followed not by the Fireplace but by "Morrow's Tavern," operated by Cliff and Esther Morrow, through 1947. It first appears as the Fireplace Tavern in the 1948 edition.

It's an interesting conjoining of brick and wooden buildings. I don't know then the bar expanded into the building just a couple feet to the east, but photographs inside the bar and labeled "1969" show that space operating as a beauty salon. Today the space adds dart boards and pinball machines and opens up to a covered porch. The bar also has skeeball, a pool table, and punch tabs, along with rotating taps with a nice beer selection. They also offer hard liquor now, hence the "Fireplace Bar" rather than "Tavern." and the food is "simple and consists mainly of classic bar favorites" (and you are welcome to bring in food from elsewhere).

The Fireplace Bar, Everett, WA

It is very much a neighborhood bar, perhaps a little too tidy to fit comfortably into the "dive" category, gay friendly, and the management stresses community, hosting "Sip and Paint" events, chili cookoffs, fundraisers for neighbors with problems, and memorials.

2320-22 Everett Ave, Everett, WA 98201 - (425) 259-9911
Est. 1947 or 1948 - Building constructed: 1929
Previous bars in this location: Brown's Tavern, Morrow's Tavern
Web site: fireplacebar.com - facebook 
Articles: yelp - king5 (videos) - liveineverett - tripadvisor - untappd