#1092 - ShuJack's Bar & Grill, Elma, WA - 5/3/2010

The sign outside ShuJack's Bar & Grill announces that it is the "friendliest bar in town." In case you don't have a handy bar count for the metropolis of Elma, Washington, that would make them friendlier than 4 other bars -- two others downtown and two on the outskirts. That may not sound like many, but it does mean they have to beat out more opponents than the Mariners do to win their division.  I've not done enough research to personally vouch for their claim, but a patron, Keevan, not only confirmed it for me even added the penultimate venue in the Elma friendliness standings (Betty's, just up the street).

From the drink side, Shujack's is your standard sports bar -- beer and the most basic liquors, with the various candy-flavored stuff you see in all neighborhood bars that cater to a significant portion of customers in their 20s.  In the back there is a darker, woodier area with a stage that looks like it wouldn't be a bad place to catch some music.

326 W Main St, Elma, WA 98541 - (360) 482-1276
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#1091 - Alibi Sports Bar, Elma, WA - 5/3/2010

I have little idea how long this space has been a bar, but the bartender, who is getting up in years, said it has been for as long as she can remember, though she couldn't recall the previous names.  One can make out "Ye Ole Saloon" in the chipping paint of the facade, and you can find enough mentions on the internet of "Rocky's Ye Old Saloon" that the new name cannot be more than a year or two old.

Pre-prohibition city guides list 5 bars between 3rd and 4th on Main, but as they do not include any exact addresses, I can't say if this was one of them. By 1937 a bar is listed at this address named "Eaton's Cigar Store," which appears to have remained until at least 1959.

There were few surprises in the place until I checked out the backroom dance area, which includes a caged area with stripper bar -- apparently the action at ye ole sports bar sometimes gets significantly more heated than it was on this lazy Monday afternoon.


314 W Main St., Elma, WA 98541 - (360) 482-5088
Other bars in this location: Eaton's Cigar Store (50s)
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#1090 - Shelburne Inn Pub, Seaview, WA - 5/2/2010

The Shelburne Inn has been operating continuously since 1896, which makes it the oldest continually running hotel in the state of Washington, according to David Campiche, who has owned it with Laurie Anderson for the last 33 years. And indeed this is confirmed in a proclamation by the state of Washington from the inn's 100th anniversary in 1996.

In 1911 the structure was hauled across the street by a team of horses and joined with another building. About 70 years later, one of David's and Laurie's remodels added the current structure of the small pub, along with the art deco stained glass windows from the late 1800s and salvaged from a church in Morecambe, England that was to be demolished.

The building, decor, and gardens are all a tad too precious for my personal tastes, but you'll find good food, good wine, and good conversation there. I had a very pleasant chat with David in the pub, ranging from art history (David has a degree in it), to his family history with the sea, to the watching his roof blow up the hill in the 140mph winds of December 2008.

4415 Pacific Way, Seaview, Washington 98644 - (800) 466-1896
theshelburneinn.com - facebook - uniqueinns - tripadvisor -

#1089 - The Sea Pearl, Ilwaco WA - 5/2/2010

There are two signs outside the Harbor Lights Motel, Restaurant, and Lounge -- neither of which include the new name for the lounge ("The Sea Pearl"), which shows up only on a blackboard resting inconspicuously in a back corner. One of these signs is hand-painted and gray -- indicating just the sort of place you'd like to spend the night and/or have a drink when visiting a small, northwest, coastal town. The other is more professional and plastic, devoid of character and charm.

Unfortunately, the Harbor Lights lounge is very much like the second sign. The space is too large and bright, and the decor too plastic and new, to result in a welcoming lounge. Then, for the first time ever, my "safe" order for a dive bar fails, and I can't get a gin and tonic because they are completely out of tonic. They are also out of the first beer I request from their taps.

While all this might have augured a total fail, the Sea Pearl came through with that most desirable of bar qualities, likable regulars and good conversation. That's the reason I'll probably go back.

Postscript:  On a bulletin board in the Sea Pearl was an 8 1/2 x 11 flyer for "RedDog Tatoo & Design."  I didn't try asking any of the folks at the bar, but it does seem to beg the question of who would ever get a tattoo from someone who cannot spell tattoo?

147 Howerton Way SE, Ilwaco, WA - 360.642.3196
harbor-lights-ilwaco.com - yelp

#1088 - Raven & Finch, Ilwaco WA - 5/2/2010

Raven & Finch is a very pleasant little wine bar with a patio looking out onto the Port of Ilwaco.  It has light food items, cigars, wine to go, mahjong on Thursdays and jazz every Saturday night, year-round.

It's especially welcoming on a blustery night in the off-season, when the tourists are few and the joint seems more out in the middle of nowhere.

(more pictures)

215 Howerton Way, Ilwaco, WA 98624 - (360) 642-7009
ravenandfinchwine.com - yelp

#1087 - Pioneer Tavern, Long Beach WA - 4/30/2010

This place is along the main highway on the Long Beach peninsula and I've passed by it many times and never been particularly tempted to go in.  But when I finally did I found the best cast of characters of any of the peninsula's bars and the nicest people of any bar in -- well, pretty much anywhere.

It's a fairly typical neighborhood bar, with a card room for Texas Hold'em and Cribbage nights (it also has a weekly "chick flick night," though chicks were a very distinct minority, and chicks below 60-years-old).  It has tavern sorts of food, and both the bartender and the assembled drinkers were cheerful and wry.

102 Pioneer Rd E, Long Beach, WA 98631 - (360) 642-2302
yelp

#1086 - Charlie's Sports Bar, Montesano WA - 4/29/2010

From the hand-painted sign out front to the Nascar promotional stuff in the windows, to the cracking paint of the VFW hall that surrounds it, nothing about Charlie's prepares you for the bar you'll find inside. I refer not to the business, but to the physical bar itself, a huge, antique, mahogany Brunswick-Balke-Collender bar that runs for 20-some feet along the back wall of the surprisingly large barroom.

Tara the bartender informed me that the bar was shipped to the west coast and its current location "some time between 1910 and 1913," and the location had been a saloon for at least a few years before that. A sign painted on the VFW hall now in the adjoining section of the building states that it was constructed in 1910 for James E. Crass, features 12" concrete walls, and has housed the Crass Tavern, Brook Saloon, a theater for 30 years, a bowling alley, doctor's office, barber shop, Golden Rule store, Smoke Shop Tavern and the VFW.

My limited records for Montesano from city guides show "Sib's Smoke Shop" at this address in the late 70s and early 80s, and "Jim's Smoke Shop" here in 1994. It also shows "The Smoke Shop" at 317 Main, which I would seem to be the 3rd portion of the building that was razed and is now a parking lot, from at least 1935 through 1970. (The 1941 Polk guide list The Smoke Shop under Cigars, but not under Beer Parlors.) City guides also list "The Brook" on Main Street under saloons in 1911. A plaque near the top of the center portion of the bar states that it was patented in 1903.

The back of this photo is lableled "Approx 1917," which
would place it during state-wide prohibition, hence a
smoke shop, but not a (licensed) saloon at the time.
(Note the Brunswick bar on the left.)

Current online listings refer to the bar as both "Charlie's Tavern" and "Charlie's Cavern," but "Charlie's Sports Bar" is what the signs out front say and which Tara confirmed was the current name.

We stopped again in Charlie's on Oct 28, 2018 to wet our whistles and get some better photos of the bar. The folks there were really friendly, and I'd recommend it to anyone passing through the area, including folks from Seattle heading to the Long Beach peninsula as we often do.


(Montesano was named the 3rd "Most Redneck City in Washington" by roadsnacks.net.)

313 S. Main St., Montesano, WA 98563                              
Est. ? - Building constructed: 1910
Previous bars in this location: Crass Tavern*, Brook Saloon*, Smoke Shop Tavern*, Sib's Smoke Shop, Jim's Smoke Shop
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp

*In the same building but, probably not the same section as the current Charlie's