#961 - Four Seas Restaurant (Dynasty Room), Seattle (I.D.) - 12/29/2009

Update: The Four Seas and Dynasty Room closed in late 2017.

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The Four Seas Restaurant and Dynasty Room Lounge
Seattle, WA

It seems to me that the grand tradition of dive bars attached to Chinese restaurants breaks down into two major designs -- what I'll call the "slipshod" and the "classic."  In the slipshod design, the bars seem to have been improvised over a hasty weekend, with decorations from a local flea market.  Cheap Chinese cardboard mix with 50s Americana and various liquor company paraphernalia, in a hodgepodge that creates the unavoidable impression that the owners were looking for almost ANYTHING to fill wall space.  Typically, the hastily improvised lighting is far too bright for a bar and eliminates what little hope of romance might have existed.  In the Slipshod design, the only thing that seems to have been planned at all is the karaoke section.  Prime examples from the Slipshod School include Greenwood's Yen Wor Garden, Aurora's China Dragon, and Lake City's Seven Seas.

Four Seas Tiki Mug, Seattle, WA

The Dynasty Room, inside the Seven Seas restaurant, is from the Classic School.  The liquor choices are limited and the decor pedestrian, but the lighting is happily low, the decorations adhere to theme, and there are few, if any, of the cheap cardboard decorations.  It's not fancy, but you can still envision the rat pack rolling in for a few generous pours of scotch and soda or whiskey and Coke.

Slipshod Chinese Restaurant dive bars can be excellent fun due to the corresponding hodgepodge of human beings they bring in.  But Classic Chinese restaurant dive bars provide a more serene and abiding pleasure.

The Four Seas Restaurant has been running here since August 1962, constructed with the idea of taking advantage of the Seattle World's Fair, although construction delays led to it opening with just two months of the exposition to go. It is owned by the same Chan family who founded it and also Tai Tung, established in 1935 and the oldest Chinese Restaurant in Seattle. While Tai Tung serves traditional cross regional Chinese dishes, the Four Seas catered to tastes for Chop Suey, General Tso's Chicken and the classic Americanized versions of Chinese fare.

Just north of the current stadiums and a tad bit further from old Sicks Field, the lounge also hosted a number of local athletes over the years, and in Northwest Asian Weekly, co-owner Dean Lum recalled:

"I even worked the night the Seattle Supersonics (all of them) came in for dinner 30 minutes after they lost the deciding 1978 NBA Championship game to the Washington Bullets. General Manager Zollie Volchok called right after the game to say, “We’re all coming down! Get three bartenders!” and hung up. To say they were completely devastated would be a gross understatement."

714 S King St., Seattle, WA 98104 - (206) 682-4900
Est. Aug 1962 - Closed 2017 - Building constructed 1962
Previous bars in this location: None known
Website: fourseasrestaurant.com 
Articles ranked: nwasianweekly - seattle weekly - seattlemag - yelp -

#960 - Lil' Jon Lounge, Bellevue, WA - 12/27/2009

As a bar, Lil' Jon holds lil' interest.


3080 148th Avenue Southeast, Bellevue, WA 98007-6420 - (425) 746-4653                
yelp -  urban spoon

#959 - WingMasters, Seattle (Ballard) - 12/20//2009

Wingmasters, Ballard, Seattle

Update: Wingmasters was acquired by new ownership and reconfigured into "Fitzgerald's" in October 2015.

If you like fried food and guys dropping various shots into pints of watery beer, then go for it.  I've already described my opinion of boring, formulaic sports bars here.

Wingmasters, Ballard, Seattle

Historical notes:  There has been a bar at in this 1908 building since at least shortly after prohibition, with "Davented's Tavern" appearing in city guides in 1935. By the mid 40s it was "Club Two Hundred," which it remained into the 80s. By 1985 it was listed as the "Oar House Tavern," by 1990 as "Tor's Tavern," by 1995 the "Galaxy Tavern," and it was "Epp's Place" until 2005.

5811 24th Ave NW., Seattle, WA 98107 - (206) 706-9999
Est. 2005 - Closed 2015 - Building constructed 1908
Previous bars at this location:  Davented's Tavern, Club 200, Epp's Place, Tor's Tavern, Galaxy Tavern, Oar House Tavern
yelp - the stranger - gastrognome - chowhound



 

#958 - Wild Mountain Cafe, Seattle - 12/20/2009

Of course most people come here for the food (which is very good and also earth friendly, BTW).  But there is also a fairly minimal but cozy bar here, at least until the 9:30pm closing time, where 8 or so people can squeeze in.  And it seems particularly welcoming when it is damp and cold outside.

1408 NW 85th St.,  Seattle, WA 98117 - (206) 297-9453
wildmtncafe.com - facebook - seattletimes - yelp - notfortourists - the stranger -

#957 - The Lobby, Seattle (Capitol Hill) - 12/15/2009

The Lobby is the ambitiously remodeled and now fairly swanky bar in the space of the former King Cobra -- formerly Sugar, formerly The Easy, formerly Spintron, formerly Velocity, formerly Nine 16, formerly Ego, formerly X-Factor.  Good luck with this one, guys.  The owners reportedly want to capture the design -- but not the attitude -- of New York boutique hotel lobbies. 

The bar caters to a predominantly male and gay crowd.  The cocktails I saw seemed fairly ordinary and the bartender seemed relatively inexperienced, but the service was prompt and friendly, and made me want to root for their success.

916 E. Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98122 - (206) 328-6703
thelobbyseattle.com - facebook - seattle pi

#956 - The Seven Seas Lounge, Seattle (Lake City) - 12/15/2009

Update:  The Seven Seas lounge closed 5/28/2011

The lounge at the Seven Seas is a classic Chinese restaurant dive, which appears hastily assembled with various nostalgic Americana (in this case dominated by Marilyn Monroe) and drawing and odd variety of patrons. In fact, person-for-person, the light crowd in the lounge when I went may have been the most diverse set of drinkers I've ever seen; there were not more than ten people there the weeknight I dropped by, but the range included African American, Asian, Caucasian, Native American and wheelchair-bound. Debbie, the Native American representative -- a full-blooded Blackfoot, she informed me -- draws pictures as a way of getting to know people. She was chatting with me within three seconds of my entering, and had just finished a drawing of an albino giraffe on roller sakes. She asked me to name any animal. For some reason a squirrel came to mind (perhaps the recent Squirrels show at the Tractor?), and in about 30 seconds one appeared.

8914 Lake City Way NE., Seattle, WA 98115 - (206) 522-3863
myspace - 7seasseattle.com - seattle weekly - yelp

#955 - Boxcar Alehouse, Seattle (Magnolia) - 12/12/2009

(Formerly, the Roadhouse)  The Boxcar, a basic neighborhood bar, was hopping on the Saturday night I went, and had a fairly ordinary mix of people, though it included this guy, who apparently had just given some marriage advice to the guy on the right and his sister.

3407 Gilman Ave. W., Seattle, WA 98199 - (206) 286-6000
myspace - - the stranger - seattle weekly