#983 - Louie's, Seattle (Ballard) - 1/23/2010

Update: Louie's Cuisine of China closed on June 29, 2014

---

The Louie family have been running Seattle restaurants since the 1930s, and this one seems to serve the bland form of Chinese food that is popular with elderly white people.  But the elaborate decor and old school bar make it worth a visit.

In a previous post I opined that lounges attached to Chinese restaurants are widely bifurcated into "classic" types and "slipshod" types. The lounge at Louie's Cuisine of China was recommended as a good classic type. And indeed it is, with a very nice decor, though with a curiously limited set of baseball memorabilia somewhat conflicting with the theme, a limited, standard bar menu, and a nice little set of regulars.

The latter, on the Saturday afternoon I dropped by, including a 60-ish man with a white mohawk, and a large guy in a Hawaiian shirt who brought his prized meatloaf in thinking it was meatloaf contest night. "I worked all day on that," the guy said, "Look at my presentation!" It turns out that the meatloaf contest is next Sunday.



5100 15th Avenue Northwest, Seattle, WA 98107-3899 - (206) 782-8855
Est. ? (1976?) - Closed June 29, 2014 - Building constructed: 1976
louiescuisine.com -  yelp - citysearch

#982 - Faire Gallery Cafe, Seattle - 1/22/2010

Update: Faire closed June 8, 2012

Faire Gallery Café (from the French verb "faire" or "to make") hosts rotating art displays, live jazz, and other forms of live music, and a small but nice menu of food and drinks.

1351 East Olive Way, Seattle WA - (206) 652-0781
Est. March 2006 - Closed June 2012
fairegallerycafe.com - myspace - yelp - seattle weekly - seattlepi

The Living Room, Seattle - 1/22/2010

Update: The Living Room closed August 2012

The Living Room, which opened on Halloween 2009, has a very lovely and relaxing, two-level decor, and very good cocktails. There is a limited food menu, but the focus is the drinks, created by owner, local artist, and bartender Monika Proffitt. This is one of the better places in the area to have a drink and some conversation, and given the current embarrassment of riches along Olive Way, that is saying something considerable.

(Note: I have not incremented the number on this entry because I accidentally listed the Living Room in my starting set of bars, probably due to confusion with the Sitting Room.)

1355 East Olive Way, Seattle, WA 98122 - (206) 708-6021
Est. Oct. 2009 - Closed Aug 28, 2012
thelivingroombar.com - seattle weekly - the stranger - seattlemet - yelp

#981 - Bandits, Seattle - 1/20/2010

Update: Bandits closed in Summer 2018

---

Sort of a neighborhood bar where you don't expect a neighborhood bar.  The drinks and decor were pretty unremarkable, but the tamales get multiple rave reviews.

159 Denny Way, Seattle, WA 98109 - (206) 443-5447
Est. Dec 27, 2007 - Closed 2018 - Building constructed 2005
banditsbar.com - myspace - yelp - citysearch - the stranger

#980 - La Isla, Seattle (Ballard) - 1/20/2010

Update: La Isla was closed by fire on Oct 7, 2019

I'm not sure if they do this every happy hour, but when I stumbled in they had $2 mohitos!  Of course they also have Seattle's most extensive rum menu.  (They have also had more than their share of major league ballplayers drop in.)  Viva Puerto Rico! 

2320 NW Market St., Seattle, WA 98107 - (206) 789-0516
laislaseattle.com  - facebook - seattle times - the stranger - yelp - citysearch - seattle weekly

#979 -Hudson, Seattle - 1/20/2010

This is a cool little place with good cocktails and very good food (I had the sliders and they were excellent).  I'll definitely be coming back, for breakfast as well as the cocktails and dinner.  It's located in the Georgetown area under a big haunted house sign that's been up for two years and which I personally hope is up for another 50.

5000 East Marginal Way S., Seattle, WA 98134 - (206) 767-4777
hudsonseattle.com - seattle weekly - seattle weekly 2 - seattle times - yelp

#978 - The Eagle, Seattle - 1/17/2010

As in most large cities, Seattle's "Eagle" is a leather bar, roughly in the mold of Tom's Saloon in Hamburg. But again like most other large cities, it's considerably less edgy and the crowd more diverse than when gay life was less broadly accepted in the general public. Since it is not exactly designed with people like me in mind, rather than opine upon it, I'm going to list a few quotes I came across in the yelp reviews:

Apparently, I missed its glory days:  "The sling is gone, no free pool table, sex is not allowed and a 5$ cover for an empty bar filled with trolls." 

"The DJ leaves alot to be desired. It's a little Asian guy who wears 2 baseball hats at once. I may be a little bias, but I played much hotter music than he does. I was out on the patio one Saturday night and swore I could hear "sail away" by Enya. On a Saturday night?!! Fire him!!!"  (Okay, this is probably terrible prejudice, but I'm 100% behind firing anyone who wears two baseball caps at once.)

"The windows are blacked out, there is no sign marking it as a legitimate establishment, it kind of smells like urine, and there is a "swing" in the corner."

"Just then, a man with white toothpick legs, above-the-knees denim shorts, and a loose wife-beater tank top burst out the door and onto the sidewalk as if there'd been an explosion inside. He had dark hair, glasses, and a mustache that looked so much like a caterpillar that I thought it would crawl around.  Linda peeked in the door before it closed again. "Oh you couldn't even handle it, honey!" the man said to Linda."

"The Horror."  (That's the complete review.)

Historical notes: The Eagle dates its origin to 1980, which is not the year it was first named The Eagle, but rather the year it was purchased by James Allen Veres and Lance L. Hughes, who purchased the "Le Chateau" lounge and began it's transition to a gay leather bar. They renamed it the "J&L Saloon" in the early 80s, and "The Eagle" later that decade. The space has hosted bars since at least the 40s. It was called the "East Pike Tavern" from the mid 40s to late 50s, then was "Gordy's Tavern" by 1959, became "The Piker" around 1965, then "The Odyssey" by 1968 and through most of the 70s, and Kelly's Ring Side Pub in 1979.


314 E Pike St., Seattle, WA 98122 - (206) 621-7591
Web site: seattleeagle.com
Articles: capitolhillseattle - yelp - the stranger