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Bars where Pete has had a Drink (5,608 bars; 1,754 bars in Seattle) - Click titles below for Lists:


Bars where Pete has had a drink

Friday, October 07, 2005

Rocksport Bar and Grill, Seattle

Update: Rocksport closed in July 2012

A prototypical boring sports bar, whose saving grace for me was that they serve some of the tastiest salsa I've ever had.

4209 Southwest Alaska St, Seattle, WA 98116-4524 - (206) 935-5838
Est. 1995 - Closed 2012
rocksport.net - facebook - yelp

Sneakers, Seattle

In 1903, while the area south of Jackson Street was still largely unfilled tideflats crossed by the old planked First Avenue, George W. Hoffman saw the completion of one of the earliest masonry structures built this far south, and opened a carriage factory and blacksmith shop there. (seattlegov) 77 years later, in a narrow strip of the first floor, a joint called "Stanley's Ticker Tape" opened, with a mechanical tickertape machine displaying sports news installed above the bar. Despite being next door to the recently constructed Kingdome and the NFL and MLB teams it brought to Seattle, Stanley's struggled and lasted only a few months before he sold the business to Ron Danz and Jim Fullenwider.

Danz and Fullenwider ran a 110-seat deli sandwich shop called EATs, in the space that would later become part of the current Jazz Alley. With input from their wives, they greatly expanded the sports theme, adding a chalk board where they collected the autographs of athletes, a collection of star athlete's shoes, and -- driven by the challenge of a space "about as wide as 2 bowling lanes" -- an unheard of number of TVs, so that fans could watch games (the very limited selection before cable) from anywhere in the joint. They opened as "Sneakers" April 23, 1981.

50 days later, the Major League Baseball strike was announced, and would eventually cost 38% of the regular season schedule. Far before all the modern condos were added to the area, the new business struggled, and eventually welcomed Dick Oldham in as a third partner -- and added even more TVs. A couple years later, Fullenwider and Danz would sell their portions to Oldham. The bar continued to actively collect an idiosyncratic set of memorabilia and autographs from local players/patrons and players from around the country. Sneakers was often listed as one of the best sports bars in the nation.

When lineman Reggie McKenzie was traded to the Seahawks, he flew in a chef to teach the Sneakers crew how to make spicy chicken wings like they did back in Buffalo, NY (hence, "Buffalo Wings"). A bit later this would lead to a contest that involved a few more Seahawks players. As one owner describes it, "Back then as a marketing scheme we offered all you could eat wings on Wednesday for $12 I believe.  A bunch of Seahawks tried to beat the record of the day.  Joe Nash and Jacob Green would come in together, Jacob ate 73 once which was pretty good but the real stud was an average size guy that worked down 1st Ave at Sears, now Starbucks HQ,  he was about 5’10” 160lbs and ate 147 of our Buffalo Wings, I think he broke the old record by about 60 wings, if I had not seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it." (Jim Fullenwider, personal correspondence).

But I'll always remember Sneakers for a much more personal reason. In January of 1996, I got an unusual opportunity to sell some of the stock I had in our private company. Four years before that, my wife's breast cancer had begun metasticizing into other parts of her body. She'd outlived the estimates, but we knew she was dying. The stock sale gave us a considerable amount of money, the ability to pay off mounting credit card debts, and the chance for me to tell LeRoux "We can do anything you want to do." This was after the miracle 1995 Mariners season and the first thing she said was, "Let's buy season tickets!"

We did, and in '96 we went to every game she felt well enough to attend. And after almost all of those games, we'd head over to Sneakers for drinks and to play the NTN satellite trivia game. Sneakers would fill quickly after the games, and LeRoux's legs didn't work too well by then. So I'd sneak out to the Kingdome runway to watch the last out, then dash over and save us a seat, and she'd come trudging over after watching the end of the game from our seats.

We had a lot of fun. We got to recognize all the Kingdome vendors and other regulars who would often play trivia after the ballgames. Of course this included Ed the Tuba Guy, whom all the regulars could imitate, including his regular outburst of "I disagree!" whenever he missed a question (which was often). "Tuba," my wife once shouted at him, "You don't have your tuba!" "He explained that they didn't let him bring it into the restaurant, and a passing waiter remarked, "Well thank God for small favors." "I disagree!" said Ed.

This kind of pleasant banter and distraction is especially welcome when you could use some breaks from more depressing realities. I can't tell you how much I loved those nights and those silly trivia games. But in mid July LeRoux went into the hospital and then the hospice, where she had to follow the Mariners on the radio. On the morning of August 25th, a hospice volunteer woke me from the chair next to her bed where I'd sleep and informed me, "Sir, Cheryl has died."

October 12th of that year was the last day before Sneakers closed (eventually to be purchased by new owners and renamed "Sluggers.") I went down, played trivia again, and dropped a note to Dick, the owner, about how much the place meant to Cheryl and me. Dick came over to talk to me and invited me to a private closing party the next day. I attended of course, and Dick bought my dinner, read a letter from Mayor Rice and the note from me, and finally had Ed play inside the restaurant. And before the night was over Dick gave me two glass mugs with the Sneakers logo on them, which I now keep, as I always will, in a cabinet with the most prized glassware I own.



(I am grateful to James Fullenwider for corrections and additions to a previous version.)

538 1st Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
Est. April 23, 1981 - Closed Oct 12, 1996 - Building constructed: 1903
Previous bars in this location: Stanley's Tickertape
Subsequent bars in this location: Slugger's

The Mai-Kai, Ft. Lauderdale - 10/7/2005



The fabulous grand-daddy of all tiki bars.

maikai.com - critikis

(more photos)

Address3599 N Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308




























Saturday, April 23, 2005

Cowgirls Inc., Seattle



Every large city in the country now has at least one bar exactly like this, so there's no need for me to describe Seattle's version of the dancing-on-the-bar, Coyote Ugly knock off.

Sunday, June 27, 2004

The Jasmine Tree - 6/27/2004



This three-piece cannibal tiki series, originally from Portland's Kon-Tiki, is now at Thatch.

401 SW Harrison St., Portland OR

critiki

Saturday, June 26, 2004

The Alibi, Portland - 6/26/2004

Portland has the immense good fortune to have the trifecta of tiki bar types: The high end in Hale Pele, the classic, mid-range with a Trader Vic's, and the vintage divey in the Alibi.  But while the Alibi goes back to the 40s, hosts karaoke, and certainly does not have the craft cocktail chops of a place like Blair Reynold's Hale Pele, don't mistake the "divey" for some half-hearted tilt toward a theme -- the Alibi is a dark, adjust-your-eyes-and-drop-you-jaw, tiki wonderland.


The building here is said to go back to the 1880s, when it was the "Chat-n-Nibble, a stop for horse and buggies along a dirt road called "the interstate." This would later become either Patton or Maryland Avenue (these were renamed Interstate Avenue in 1917). After prohibition it was a tiny tavern called "Max Alibi, which was owned by a Mr. Peterson and quite successful for several years. In 1947 Peterson sold it to Roy Ell, who turned it into a tiki bar, emulating the experiences he had enjoyed in Hawaii. Over the years Ell expanded the place, engulfing a private home behind the tavern and a Texaco station next door to expand parking, as well as adding a restaurant section in the 50s and additional tiki touches, including the large, blacklight, hula girl bas-relief mural and Witco-style railings in the 70s.

Ell leased the business out in the 80s with the stipulation that the decor not be altered, and eventually sold the place to Larry and Karla White in 1992.  The Whites again refurbished the interior and rooftop sign in 2005, taking care to consult local tiki aficionados and preserve the vintage tiki style, despite no longer being required to do so.  Larry White passed away in early 2013.





If you are a tiki fan, the Alibi is not likely to win your affections through their overly sweet drinks, the fairly standard bar food menu, nor the drunken karaoke singers. But it is exceedingly rare to see such a long-lived institution so devoted to its tiki decor, especially one that feels so unremittingly like a bar, without concessions to the restaurant area or sunlight. You enter through a thatch hut (mostly likely acquired from the old Kon Tiki) and, as your eyes adjust to the soft glowing lamps and fish tanks in the dark, you're never sure what lies around the corner. It is this stark transition from the bright, suburban America outside -- more pronounced than you were ever experience at, say, a Trader Vic's -- which makes this one of my favorite tiki bars in the country.  Especially with the closing of places such as Rosemead's Bahooka, I feel an abiding debt to Roy Ell, Larry White, the Portland area folks who helped clean it up and preserve it, and even the karaoke singers.



(Exoticat photo)

4024 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR 97227 - (503) 287-5335
Est. 1947
Previous bars in this location: Max Alibi
Web site: alibiportland.com
Articles prioritized: critiki - roadtrippers - tikiroom - thelopeportland mercury - wweek - oregonlive - pdxbars - yelp - barfly

Friday, December 13, 2002

Saturday, May 04, 2002

The Baranof, Seattle (Greenwood) - 5/4/2002

The Baranof, Seattle, WA
The bartender in the right foreground is Dotti,
who also bartended at the Rendezvous and the
74th Street Tavern. "She was a legend" 
I believe the Baranof was, and may still be, the ultimate Seattle dive bar. I told a friend that he must go there, noting the "bands" that seemed like Saturday Night Live skits (now replaced by karaoke) and the elderly woman I met at the bar, chain smoking and drinking after coming straight there from chemotherapy. My friend ordered a White Russian, which was made with packaged dried coffee creamer. The delightful couple behind us put on a little two-person play, with Act I highlighted by "I'm not going home with you, I know your wife!"; Act II centering around the male's spectacular falling off his stool; and Act III concluding with the two staggering out together with the woman slurring, "Are you sure you're okay to drive?" Disturbing? Sure. But you don't get that kind of entertainment value at Black Bottle or Purple.

Marie's Cafe and the Greenwood Room
(Photo courtesy of Gerald Nielsen)
The history of the Baranof is evident in the produce section of grocery stores around town and around the country, as it is the origin of Marie's Salad Dressings. Marie's Cafe operated at this location from 1940 or possibly a little earlier, until 1982. It's possible this was in a different building as county tax records indicate that the current building was constructed in 1942 and Marie's is listed here by the 1940 Polk Guide. For most of that time if not all of it, the bar in the back of the restaurant was called the Greenwood Room. At some point owner Marie Nordquist hired Harold Smith as a cook, and Smith's blue cheese salad dressing recipe became so popular that they began bottling it, with revenues eventually greatly exceeding those of the bar itself. In the late 50s Smith bought out Nordquist and expanded the salad dressing side, eventually selling both the dressing business and the cafe/bar. The change to the Baranof name and the nautical theme appears to have taken place in 1982.

Today, the Baranof bartenders are diverse in gender and age, whereas several years ago they seemed to be exclusively elderly women (I once heard a patron explaining to one what goes in a Martini). Since replacing the Bill Murray style cover acts with karaoke, the Baranof is much more populated by younger people and hipsters, which may compromise the pure divey-ness, but add a different element of fun. The Baranof remains a classic old school diner in front, and one of the city's best dive bars, as well as one of its more popular karaoke destinations.

Here are a few anecdotes about the Greenwood Room and early Baranof that I've collected from folks who worked there and/or drank there:

The fellow to my right is Doug. Doug claims to have
been hired and fired by the Baranof 29 times over the
past 30 years (starting when it was still Marie's).
The Greenwood Room was a "smokey dingy strong drinks dive bar" -- John White

"I worked at Greenwood Safeway across the street, graveyard shift, and we all got off work at 7am and would head over to the Greenwood Bar in Marie’s that had a line up at 7am to open the bar, and the dance floor was busy by 8am. I was only 21 then, but it was blast from the past." -- Michael Messer

It "became Baranof when Richard Newby bought it." -- Pat Simon





"Richard bought it after the night he came in there with fellow fishing boat owners to have a meeting. It was about ten and the surly bartender was tired and tried to kick them out. After a long argument he agreed to leave but promised to come back, buy the bar, and fire her...and he did! That bartender was Wanda. He soon found out she was the only one who knew the workings of this bar and had to hire her back." -- Bonnie Delys
8549 Greenwood Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103 - 206-782-9260
Est. 1982 - Building constructed 1942
Previous bars at this location: The Greenwood Room (Marie's Restaurant)
Articles: seattlepithe stranger - yelp - thrillist

Sunday, December 17, 2000

Mercury, Seattle - 12/17/2000

Mercury (Machinewerks), Seattle, WA

Long running, members-only goth club




































Mercury (Machinewerks), Seattle, WA




















































































1009 E Union St, Seattle, WA 98122

Sunday, December 05, 1999

The Rickshaw - 12/5/1999

Ground zero for Seattle karaoke and the greatest cross-section of Americana outside of a David Lynch film.

322 North 105th Street Seattle, WA 98133 - (206) 789-0120
Est. July 7, 1976 - Building constructed 1950
web site: therickshaw.net - facebook 
reviews: thestranger - surlygourmand - thestrangeryelp

Friday, January 01, 1982

The Java Jive - Tacoma (Nalley Valley) - 1982

For the most part, the Java Jive has retained it's glorious divey greatness from the mid-50s and 60s, when Bob Radonich purchased the Coffee Pot Restaurant and turned it into a bar and jungle-themed restaurant.  It's still a great ramshackle, neon-spray-painted wonderland, and a fine place to catch a punk-ish band on the weekend, or just have a beer and share stories with the regulars.  But when I was first taken there in 1982, it was even more grand, with live chimpanzees "Java" and "Jive" living in the back bar, and "Maestro Bobby Floyd" manning the keyboards.


Floyd seemed to play mostly 70s television themes, mixed in with Beatles covers and local high school fight songs.  He played with a sort of rocking motion, and on this night was accompanied by the drummer "Steve and his Sexy Sticks," who would sometimes sing the guitar parts of the songs.  When Bobby took a break between sets, he dine on spaghetti with fried onion rings mixed in.

Mary, the friend who first took me there, was underage, but had been there many times before, and assured us she would have no problem getting in.  As the waitress went around our table, getting to Mary last, Mary simply told her, "You already checked mine," and the waitress walked off satisfied.

The Jive is nestled in the "Nalley Valley" industrial area of Tacoma, approx. 50 miles from Seattle.  The restaurant was built in 1927, and purchased by Bob in 1955 and converted into a music club.  It is said to have been a speakeasy at some point before that.  Before they made in big, The Wailers played there several times, and The Ventures played as basically the house band.  Harold Lloyd, Clara Bow, and Bing Crosby are all said to have hung out there during the early years.

The Jive narrowly escaped a fire in 1998, and when inspectors found a load of code violations in 2007 and the Jive was threatened with closure, neighbors and contractors volunteered to do the work necessary to keep the doors open.

It is just an epic bar.




2102 South Tacoma Way Tacoma, WA 98409 - (253) 475-9843
Est. 1955 - Building constructed: 1927
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