#2114 - Yuppie Tavern, Kirkland, WA - 3/23/2013

Amidst the malls and the chain stores that generally comprise the communities on the east side of Lake Washington, the Yuppie Tavern leaps out for the singularity of its character. A few years ago the owners of  Yuppie Pawn took about a third of their large shop and converted it into a bar, with a sort of Disneyesque, old west theme (I'm guessing this is mostly left from the Cowboy Steakhouse and Saloon that previously occupied the space?). Inside the building, you walk through the false front of a western saloon and look up past sundry knickknacks hanging from the ceiling and walls to a row of emulated old buildings and mannequins hanging above a stage where live bands play each Friday and Saturday night.

It may be titled "Yuppie," but the crowd is mostly 50-ish, and this usually includes the people in the bands. Typical patrons were a what looked like a 60-year-old, retired biker couple, sporting a bluetooth ear piece and a bedazzled top. This is not to say that the place is not fairly lively. People seem happy and friendly and ready to have a good time, and I like the place. The bar offers 13 beer choices on tap and another 50 in bottles. The menu includes some "signature cocktails" of the sugary, beach party variety, and various burgers and sandwiches.

While it was difficult to identify anything particularly "young" in the place, the "Yuppie" moniker comes with the pawn shop, which has been around for over 20 years and goes to great lengths to communicate that the shop and its clientele are cut from the cloth of east side material success. "This means Medina, Issaquah, Bellevue, Kirkland, etc. 80% of our customers come from these neighborhoods. Inside the store For those of you reading this throughout the country who are unfamiliar with our region, this means that our borrowers come from areas where the average income exceeds $50,000 per year and extends up into the higher six figure incomes." So "Whether you need money for diapers, cigarettes, a Harley, a Rolex or for stocks--we can lend it to you." After all, "Whether you make $10,000 or $1,000,000 per year, you will experience a cash flow problem at sometime during your life."

The bar portion seems like a place where pretty much anyone would have a pleasant time. And if, like me, you would like to see a bit more individuality from the shops and bars of the east side, it seems like we must give credit to a pawn shop which caters to people fond of ostentatious wealth and contains a cowboy themed bar inside.

12031 Totem Lake Way, Kirkland, WA 98034 - (425) 814-5200
Est. 2011? - Building constructed: 1979
Previous bars in this location: Cowboy Steakhouse & Saloon
Web site: yuppietavern.com
Reviews: kirklandreporter - yelp

#2113 - McCorry's on the Slough, Woodinville, WA - 3/23/2013

Update: McCorry's closed Feb 5, 2017

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To people in Seattle and beyond, the small city of Woodinville is known for its 50-some wineries and tasting rooms, Chateau San Michelle, and chic restaurants like the Herbfarm and Barking Frog. This is why it was amusing to overhear this snippet of conversation in a Woodinville bar:  "I love Pizza Hut. We don't have one in Woodinville. Burger King is awesome, I want one of their sandwiches. I wish there was one here. We don't have anything cool in Woodinville."

Of course I wasn't sitting at the Herbfarm but rather McCorry's on the Slough, which is something like a cross between a Denny's and a suburban sports bar, just up from the Sammamish River and before one of main turns into touristy areas.  Inside and down the bar is a fellow exhaustively explaining to a woman just what a funny guy he is. In between explanations of this, he includes demonstrations with zingers like "I don't even wanna go there!"

McCorry's appears to have been run here by the same family for over 30 years. Both drinks and food are approximately what you would expect from a dive bar. Clearly some people like it, but I would generally recommend continuing up the road a piece to the Horseshoe Saloon.

12801 NE 175th St, Woodinville, WA 98072 - (425) 488-0140
Web site: mccorrys.com - facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2112 - Lucky 7, Kirkland, WA - 3/23/2013

Yet another strip mall sports bar.

12715 NE 124th St, Kirkland, WA 98034 - (425) 821-7717
Est. Jan 13, 1989
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp - tripadvisor

#2111 - Viking Sports Bar and Grill, Shoreline, WA - 3/22/2013

The building here is a jangle of discordant styles, with what gives the appearance of a strip mall slamming into a two-story residential house, cut by an angular roof now fronted with wood lattice, and for some reason Tuscan columns affixed to the front side. It emphasizes sports and the Seahawks, it is named "The Viking," and actually seems to draw people mostly with karaoke seven nights a week. It is a dive bar, with a mixed ethnicity, dive bar crowd, and serves fairly typical bar drinks and food from behind a physical bar that looks like it came from a 70s fern bar. And every single one of the middle aged crowd appears to take a turn outside smoking.

This visit came just three weeks into the venue and ownership (this was previously the Zaika Indian restaurant, which in the evenings was dominated by "Mr Z.'s Lounge" and karaoke). The permanent signage and current paint job were not there yet, but there was a fairly lively crowd of locals inside.

Like a million other suburban instant sports bars across the region and the country -- with their flatscreen TVs, pulltabs, Budweiser paraphernalia, burgers and steaks and Taco Tuesdays, cheap well drinks and Jager shots -- there's not much unusual character nor anything particularly remarkable about the Viking. But people go to places like this because it's *your* suburban sports bar -- delivering the basics in your neighborhood among people you enjoy. Judging from the crowd, this one may be around for a while.

14622 15th Ave NE, Shoreline, WA 98155 - (206) 922-3764
Est. March 8, 2013 - Building constructed: 1954
Previous bars in this location: Zaika (Mr. Z's Lounge) 
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2110 #S1121 - Relish, Seattle - 3/20/2013

The Benjamin Franklin Hotel, which was here before the expansion to a first and then second cylindrical tower of rooms as it became the Washington Plaza and then the Westin, once hosted the second Trader Vic's in the country. The Trader Vic's was called "The Outrigger" when it was first established in this building in 1948, then renamed in 1960 to "Trader Vic's" like the original in Oakland, and finally closed in 1991. The hotels in this location have hosted multiple restaurants and bars on both the main floor and also on the lower level that opens to Stewart Street and Westlake Avenue, with this newest entry focused on giant hamburgers. This is apparently a growing brand within the Starwood Hotels chain, but it strikes me as an odd choice for a very large, downtown hotel that bills itself as an international location (even if it had never been the location of the elegant Palm Court).

This blog is primarily about bars, and despite a menu of pretty average quality cocktail concoctions, you wouldn't really expect a hamburger focused hotel bar to be particularly inviting for drinking -- and this one is not. The upscale burgers are better than average -- and certainly taller -- but neither they nor the various creative spins on side dishes struck me with any can't miss deliciousness that I would recommend to upscale burger loving friends (as I might, say, for the burgers at Spur, or Von's).

As a lover of hotel bars, I can't help but hope that the Westin eventually replaces this with something much more traditional and romantic.

1900 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA - 206-256-7600                          
Est. March 1, 2013 - Building constructed: 1929
Previous bars in this location:  The Outrigger, Trader Vic's, Fitzgerald's on Fifth, Roy's in the Westin, Coldwater Bar and Grill
Web site: relishbistroseattle.com - facebook
Reviews: cornichon - gastrolust - meplusfood - yelp

#2109 #S1120 - Populuxe Brewing - 3/16/2013

Update: Populuxe closed December 23, 2020, citing COVID-19, their landlord, and "the city's inability to support small business."

Populuxe Brewing sits behind the doors of a bright blue facade and atomic logo, which make it look a bit like a UFO cult headquarters in the middle of a Ballard warehouse district. Inside is a cinder block tasting room, with Narboo paintings, bowls of peanuts, and three to six choices of mostly hoppy, northwest style microbrews. A hallway leads out the back to a modest patio, with picnic tables and wooden barrels for bar tables. The whole place has a vibe of family barbecue, with babies in strollers, cornhole games, and dogs loping about. It should be a particularly comfortable place to catch a beer on sunny Sunday afternoons.

826B NW 49th St, Seattle, WA 98107 - (206) 706-3400
Est. March 8, 2013 - Building constructed: 1960
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: populuxebrewing.com - facebook  
Reviews: seattlemet - myballard - beeradvocate - yelp - thestranger - thrillist

#2108 #S1119 - Hummingbird Saloon - 3/14/2013

This is a new neighborhood joint carved into a Rainier Avenue strip mall, run by Ken Anderson, the owner of Full Tilt Ice Cream. There are paintings of hummingbirds, chess boards and shuffleboard, some fairly good cocktails and home-baked Welsh pasties.

5041 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118 - (206) 349-1731              
Est. Feb 15, 2013 - Building constructed: 1940
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: facebook
Reviews: tofuhunter - eater - thrillist - yelp - thestranger

#2107 - Woody's, Shoreline, WA - 3/10/2013

It's been a long time since this stretch of Aurora Avenue -- and the triangular building that now houses Woody's, just two and a half miles north of the current Seattle city limits -- was an entryway to the wholesome family pleasures of the "Echo Lake Bathing Beach." But that's what it was back when Carl Melby and his wife Lillian lived in the upstairs and ran Melby's Tavern below. The building was constructed during prohibition and Carl Melby died in 1942, but the place was Melby's Tavern from the 30s into the 70s. In the 80s, it was Joe's Tavern, then Echo Lake Tavern, and Woody's as of 2011.

Melby's Tavern c.1938, WA State Archive via pauldorpat.com

"After a new route for Aurora was graded here in the mid 1920s, Echo Lake resident Theodore Millan built the two-story roadhouse in 1928 on its triangular lot squeezed between the new Aurora and the old Echo Lake Pl. N.  Here the latter leads to the canoes, tents and new beds of Scotty’s short-lived Paradise.  With the uncorking of prohibition in late 1933, Millan rented his flatiron to Carl and Jane Melby, for their Tavern." (PatDorpat.com) 

Seattle Times March 13, 1932
Via Vicki Stiles and PaulDorpat.com

I'm not sure exactly when Melby's was established, but local history buffs have also found that Carl Melby was not content to wait until the repeal of the 18th amendment:

"Vicki Stiles, the helpful and scholarly Executive Director of the Shoreline Historical Museum (nearby at 18501 Linden Ave. N.), had heard rumors that the florist Carl Melby had more than liked his booze during prohibition as well. The sleuthing Stiles discovered that Melby had been arrested at least three times transporting mostly illegal Canadian liquor.  (We follow below with several Seattle Times clips on Melby’s career.) One night at Sunset beach near Anacortes he was chased into the Strait of Juan de Fuca up to his neck, collared and pulled ashore." (PatDorpat.com) 

In the 30s, before I-5 came rolling through, "Aurora Avenue" evoked the northern lights as it was part of the main local link in a route that ran from Mexico to Canada. Roadside resort cabins and motels to house the increasing numbers of people adventuring out from Seattle and any number of other towns as the automobile boomed. But by the time I moved to Seattle in the early 80s, Aurora had experienced at least a couple decades of decay, known more for cheap, crime-ridden motels, porn shops, small casinos, and chains of tattered strip mall businesses. "Aurora" connoted the sketchy part of town, not a romantic, natural light show.

To some extent it must be this image that Woody's new owners Elton and Heather Roundhill are trying to overcome, balancing preservation with establishing a new reputation. The Echo Lake Tavern was mellow and pleasant, but from the outside it seemed to fit in all to easily with the porn shop and ramshackle apartments next door, under a painted-over sign serving as a constant reminder that people don't care about this place like they once did. Were it in Belltown or Fall City it might become inviting by embracing it's diveyness, but that would be a cheerless approach here. And so the owners have provided some gentle touches of gentrification; it's still a modest neighborhood joint, but it's been painted and cleaned, added a patio, hosts antique car events, added some decent wines and liquor, and serves panini sandwiches. It hasn't got quite the new liveliness of Dan Dyckman's revival of Darrell's Tavern just a mile up the road; but as the larger city to the south has witnessed the disappearance of beloved old joints like the Alki Tavern, the Buckaroo, and the Viking, it's great to another of these places along the old highway happily preserved.

19508 Aurora Ave N Shoreline, WA 98133 - (206) 542-8781
Est. 2011 - Building constructed: 1928
Previous bars in this location: Melby's Tavern (30s to 60s), Joe's Tavern (70s, 80s), Echo Lake Tavern
Web site: facebook
Reviews: pauldorpat -  shorelineareanews - yelp

#2106 - Ringers Pub, Mountlake Terrace - 3/10/2013

Another formulaic suburban, strip mall bar, although surprising low on baseball caps this day. Pull tabs, sports on TVs, 12 taps, pool tables, standard pub food.

Hat count: 15 people, 13 males, 4 baseball caps, 0 backwards.

22803 44th Ave W B3 Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043 - (425) 771-6072
Web site: ringerspub.com - facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2105 - The Getaway, Mountlake Terrace - 3/10/2013

Basically the formulaic, suburban bar: Pull tabs, televisions, a decent selection of beers (12 taps), pool tables, mostly guys in baseball caps. (Hat count: 20 customers, 14 males, 12 baseball caps, 1 backwards, 1 stocking cap, 1 fedora).

24309 56th Ave W, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043 - (425) 771-8478
Building constructed: 1961
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2104 #S1118 - Fu Kun Wu (Mai Thaiku), Seattle - 3/7/2013

Fu Kun Wu was a cool "apothecary bar" in the back of Ballard's Thaiku restaurant, above what was supposed to be an old opium den basement space. They made some unusual, herb-based cocktails and were named one of the "Best Bars in America" by Esquire. They were closed in December 2011, after rising rents made continuing in this location untenable.

Over a year later they re-opened in Phinney Ridge as Mai ("new") Thaiku. They are in a much smaller space -- an old bungalow previously occupied by Gaspare -- with the Fu Kun Wu bar tinier still.

The restaurant has a more strong emphasis on authentic Thai dishes, and the bar continues to serve some nice cocktails that you aren't likely to find other places. I had a pretty tasty Yohimbe Old Fashioned, but my desire to follow that with a Yohimbe Manhattan was declined, as you are limited to one yohimbe drink per visit (the limit is ascribed to its stimulative properties, and not it's purported powers as an aphrodisiac). It's not as fun a space as the old Ballard location, and certainly not big enough for the bar to host the owner's jazz band, and probably not even my friend Selector Lopaka's exotica DJ nights. But it's very nice to have it back in any form, and a bonus to have it in my neighborhood.

6705 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 706-7807
Est. Feb 19, 2013 - Building constructed: 1924
Previous bars in this location: Gaspare
Web site: fukunwu.com - facebook
Best articles: seattletimes - thrillist - seattlemet - eater - yelp

#2103 - Aunt Charlie's, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

Aunt Charlie's appears to date back to some point in the 70s, and is the only remaining gay bar in the Tenderloin. I suppose it should have been obvious that "Aunt Charlie's" was a gay bar, but I had no clue until I looked it up after my visit. E.g. I saw no obvious hints from Bob, the avuncular, white-sweatered, white-haired, soft spoken bartender, who has worked here for 20 years. Of course it might have been different if I'd come in during the "Dream Queens Revue," the "Hot Boxxx Girls," or the "Tubesteak Connection." But while I was there the only striking demographic was that it was all old white guys.

133 Turk St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 441-2922                 
Web site: auntcharlieslounge.com - facebook
Best articles: metblogs - 7x7 - jameshosking - gaycities - coastnews - peacheschrist - blackbookmap - yelp

#2102 - Jonell's, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

On one of the rougher corners in the Tenderloin, I enter Jonell's, a bar named for the intersecting streets Jones and Ellis. Bonnie, the middle-aged Korean bartender, serves up a gin and tonic and chats with me from behind the central horseshoe-shaped bar, the ceiling swooping down to echo its shape, and decades of wear obvious in the formica bar top and the red leather sides. The place obviously had a different sort of character many years ago, with a horse racing theme and named, I would later find out, The Horseshoe. Now Bonnie, the bartender told me that she was watching the place while Jennie the owner was busy. Bonnie and Jennie are old friends from Korea. "I get done at Safeway, wait here, we go together, we good friends, we [she bumps her hands together]."

Bonnie says the bar has been around 100 years, but Jennie's owned it for about ten. The past few years have been more difficult, and she seems to be opening later every few days. Bonnie explains that liquor prices "high, high, high -- go up, up, up."

I hope she does well. From some of the reviews I ran across, Jennie seems like a pretty sassy lady. I always have high hopes for a bar with this much age and character; you can't help but feel that even stronger when the place is run by a couple plucky, middle-aged, immigrant ladies, unflinchingly handling the the junkies, dealers, and characters of these parts.

401 Ellis St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 776-8345
Previous bars in this location: The Horseshoe
Reviews: sfweekly - sfexperiment - instantcity - yelp

#2101 - High Tide, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

You want your dive bar?  This is a dive bar.

They have all your dive bar essentials -- cheap, stiff drinks, dark interior bills pinned to the ceiling and walls, random small packets of snacks hanging on clips, Christmas lights hanging year round. But then the High Tide takes it up to dive-bar eleven. It is massively dingy, clearly not meant to be seen in daylight hours. The portion of the red carpet under the pool table features a plateau of dust that must have been building for generations. The remaining portion is specked with black dots of aging miscellaneous substances. The cracked vinyl seats have some hapless attempts at patching with packing tape, and the Camel Cigarettes display case is filled with dusty origami made from dollar bills. Then there is the enshrined portrait of the old owner's mother, topless.

The portrait, it appears, is of the grandmother of local hip hop artist Richie Cunning. (7x7) Cunning's grandfather and then his father once owned the place. I came at a slow hour, on an early Monday evening when there was only one other customer with myself and Vicki, the bartender who immigrated from China seven years ago. I would like to come back and see that the tide brings in on a Friday or Saturday night.

600 Geary St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 771-3145
Reviews: 7x7 - sfist - sfbarexperiment - sfweekly - yelp