#1234 #S742 - King St. Bar & Oven - 9/15/2010

The Seattle Times describes this place as having a "sports-lounge atmo with antique-y touches."  If you use words like "atmo" and "antique-y," then maybe this is a swell place for you.  It offers nothing of interest to me -- the decor, drinks, and food are all utterly boring. But I do commend the owners for shutting down the nightclub portion which brought in large crowds and not a small amount of morons and fights.

170 S King St., Seattle, WA 98104 - (206) 749-9890
kingstreetbar.com - facebook - seattle pi - seattle times - yelp

#1233 - Cedar Inn, Olympia, WA - 9/15/2010

9030 Martin Way E, Olympia, WA - Tel: (360) 459-5509
yelp

#1232 - Log Cabin Bar & Grill, Shelton WA - 9/15/2010

Shelton is a town with a number of great old bars, and perhaps the liveliest and oldest is the Log Cabin Bar & Grill. New owner Lori showed me photos not only of the remodeling and fixing they did, but also old shots from the 20s and thereabouts, when the place was a filling station as well as the Ray Mitchell Tavern, on a dirt road.

Lori believes it was a tavern even before December 1933 (i.e. before prohibition ended) -- and who knows, maybe it was?  I do not know when it became known as the "Log Cabin," but it was sometime before 1960.

The attitude at the Log Cabin is brassy, from the menu boards above the bar to the bartenders.  The liquor is pretty much the basics, and the food offerings include affordable steaks and fried sides including "Ugly Sticks" and "Fried Worms."

The "Boys" and "Girls" rooms are in a separate log shack out the back door. The place was fairly buzzing when I went, which was not a typical busy hour for bars.  It seems like a pretty fun place and its great to see someone revitalizing it.

(more photos)

1749 Olympic Hwy S, Shelton, WA 98584 - (360) 427-5646
facebook - yelp -

#1231 - Ernie's Fir Cone, Shelton WA - 9/15/2010

Conversation snippet from Ernie's:
Bartender 1: "I'm going to be thirty."
Bartender 2: "I remember thirty."
Bartender 1: "Well if my birthday goes right, I will NOT remember thirty."

The Fir Cone, now Ernie's Fir Cone, is yet another fine old bar in Shelton -- and a bit of a competitive shuffleboard hub.  The drinks are cheap but generous pours and the bartenders are nice (and Ernie admits he hires women only).  There was an interesting mix of customers the day I dropped in, some appearing rather professorial, and including an old coot of at least 80 in a plaid shirt playing pool with a 20-ish gal in a plaid shirt.

I had a nice chat with Wendell, who doesn't drink, but still hangs out there, and who told me about how the bars crowded the downtown streets back when he was a boy and the town was a thriving logging community (which it was from approximately 1855 to 1975).  The annual Forest Festivale parade was epic, back in the day, Wendell told me, until they clamped down on it due to excessive drunkedness.

When asked what to do in Shelton of today, Fnarf responded, "Probably the most entertaining thing you can do is to to the Wal-Mart up on the plateau and watch the 18-year-old girls with three kids and their mulletted, jams-wearing boyfriends shopping for shotgun shells and cases of soda."  But it seems like you could have some pretty pleasant evenings if you avoid that outer corporate development that has happily left the old downtown area largely intact, and stick to the old bars like the Fir Cone.

I do not know the age of Earnie's, but a tavern and cigar shop named "Smith's Cigar Store" is listed at this address in 1960.

(Second picture = Shelton ca. 1925, University of Washington Digital Collections)


114 W Cota St, Shelton, WA 98584 - (360) 426-2221
Previous bars in this location: Smith's Cigar Store (1960s)
yelp

#1230 - Bob's Tavern, Shelton WA - 9/14/2010

Bob's Tavern is a classic old dive, apparently established in 1942. Contrary to popular opinion, the bartender Dottie has not been there even longer, though she has been there for 30 years, and at 71, can still do a crackerjack job trading friendly barbs with the customers. And it has not been "Bob's" for all of that time -- e.g. the 1960 city guide lists "George's Tavern" at this location.

In addition to Dottie, the bar interior is dominated by a semi-circular bar, and the outside by a large painting of a chicken. The drinks are pretty standard, and the patrons pleasant and humorous,often with a card game going on in the afternoon.

320 S 1st St, Shelton, WA 98584 - (360) 427-9940
Previous bars in this location: George's Tavern (1960s)
yelp

#1229 - Golden Pheasant, Shelton WA - 9/14/2010

Update:  By my visit in May 2014, the Golden Pheasant had closed, and been replaces by a private Moose Lodge.

---

The Golden Pheasant, which is down the road a piece from downtown Shelton and just north of Golden Pheasant Auto Wrecking, was my first clue to the series of antique bars in the area. The main sign is maybe 30 yards west, along highway 101, and can give the illusion that the tavern is actually located in a small storage shed.

Once they got over their suspicions of a city slicker taking photos of the place, the patrons and staff were both quite friendly. In between noting how stupid various projects on the local roads and parks were (they assumed each one was "an Obama thing"), they informed me about the other bars in town and the old bowling alley with floors that shifted when the tide came in.

There's nothing fancy about the drinks, but they are quite reasonably priced and options do include several microbrews on tap.

The bar, I am told, has been around since 1939, though "Uncle Elmer was probably selling liquor someplace" well before prohibition was ended. Some of the patrons recalled when he used to have outboard motors attached to the bar as he worked on them. When I noted that the freezer door looked like it dated back to the origin of the place, they informed me that it was older than that, as it had been relocated here from the city morgue.

930 W Golden Pheasant Rd, Shelton, WA 98584 - (360) 426-2808

#1228 - Starlight Lounge, Shelton WA - 9/14/2010

I took a small trip to Shelton, WA to pick up a craigslisted bearskin rug, and decided to have lunch and a drink at the Little Creek Casino, across the street from the designated bear rug exchange point.  I had never been to Shelton before, and would not have wasted precious drinking time among the lifeless casino denizens had I any idea of what a rich supply of fine, historic old bars the town featured.  I paid a tiny amount ($2.25) for an even tinier gin and tonic -- in one of those micro juice glasses that senior citizens are used to for exotic rarities like orange juice.  In fact, as I later discovered, it was Senior Citizens Day at the casino, which probably took the average customer age up several years over the usual 80.  And even though it was a lazy weekday afternoon, the place was packed, though I suspect it emptied considerably just before the O'Reilly Factor.

In any case, the town of Shelton is populated with several lovely old bars surviving from the 30s and 40s, when a booming logging industry filled a long string of bars along First Street (and a bowling alley on the river, whose angles would change as the tide came in).  So if you ever find yourself in those parts, don't make the same mistake I did -- head straight for the bars with history and character (and characters), and don't waste time and liver space on the gawdawful casino bars.

91 West, Highway 108, Shelton, WA - (800) 667-7711
little-creek.com