This is an entry on bar already counted in the
starting list for this project.
For a good period and particularly in 1986 and several years following, Richard Pauletti's hole in the wall under the monorail, the Writer Boy's Ditto tavern, was the most dependable venue in Seattle for interesting, alternative live music. Such venues were rare in Seattle in the 80s. Most bars featured cover bands playing Beatles medleys, while more original, cutting edge music had two mainstays in the Central Tavern and The Vogue (on weekdays), were temporarily joined by a churn of less consistent and/or shorter lived venues like Scoundrel's Lair, Squid Row, Gorilla Gardens, Club Fiasco, The Boom Boom Room, etc. etc.) In the mid 80s, the prevailing punk and art band ethic at the Ditto and alternative bands like Pure Joy and Chemistry Set started to make way for what we would later call "grunge." (I distinctly remember the first time I saw a band with hippy-like long hair at the Ditto -- though I can't remember which one it was -- and wondering how in the hell they even got in.)
I started seeing bands like Green River, Skinyard, Sound Garden and later Nirvana, playing the Ditto along with a huge assortment of alternative groups like Vexed, Melting Fish, Handful of Dust, Bundle of Hiss, and Weather Theater. While I confess to seeing little of this myself, the Ditto also catered to a poetry crowd. In additions to readings and slams there were a few typewriters in the place, including one bolted to the ceiling. For a small, divey place, the Ditto had a wide selection of beers on tap, well before the craft beer heyday. If the bands were playing, it was easy to find, but visually it had little hint of it's existence beyond the neon " sign in the window. The Ditto lasted from 1986 to 1998.
Richard Pauletti
The Ditto (AKA Writer Boy's Ditto Tavern), Seattle - 9/6/1986
#1076 #S633 - Mistral Kitchen, Seattle - 4/15/2010
#1075 #S632 - Mecca Cafe, Seattle - (OOO)
