#2107 - Woody's, Shoreline, WA - 3/10/2013

It's been a long time since this stretch of Aurora Avenue -- and the triangular building that now houses Woody's, just two and a half miles north of the current Seattle city limits -- was an entryway to the wholesome family pleasures of the "Echo Lake Bathing Beach." But that's what it was back when Carl Melby and his wife Lillian lived in the upstairs and ran Melby's Tavern below. The building was constructed during prohibition and Carl Melby died in 1942, but the place was Melby's Tavern from the 30s into the 70s. In the 80s, it was Joe's Tavern, then Echo Lake Tavern, and Woody's as of 2011.

Melby's Tavern c.1938, WA State Archive via pauldorpat.com

"After a new route for Aurora was graded here in the mid 1920s, Echo Lake resident Theodore Millan built the two-story roadhouse in 1928 on its triangular lot squeezed between the new Aurora and the old Echo Lake Pl. N.  Here the latter leads to the canoes, tents and new beds of Scotty’s short-lived Paradise.  With the uncorking of prohibition in late 1933, Millan rented his flatiron to Carl and Jane Melby, for their Tavern." (PatDorpat.com) 

Seattle Times March 13, 1932
Via Vicki Stiles and PaulDorpat.com

I'm not sure exactly when Melby's was established, but local history buffs have also found that Carl Melby was not content to wait until the repeal of the 18th amendment:

"Vicki Stiles, the helpful and scholarly Executive Director of the Shoreline Historical Museum (nearby at 18501 Linden Ave. N.), had heard rumors that the florist Carl Melby had more than liked his booze during prohibition as well. The sleuthing Stiles discovered that Melby had been arrested at least three times transporting mostly illegal Canadian liquor.  (We follow below with several Seattle Times clips on Melby’s career.) One night at Sunset beach near Anacortes he was chased into the Strait of Juan de Fuca up to his neck, collared and pulled ashore." (PatDorpat.com) 

In the 30s, before I-5 came rolling through, "Aurora Avenue" evoked the northern lights as it was part of the main local link in a route that ran from Mexico to Canada. Roadside resort cabins and motels to house the increasing numbers of people adventuring out from Seattle and any number of other towns as the automobile boomed. But by the time I moved to Seattle in the early 80s, Aurora had experienced at least a couple decades of decay, known more for cheap, crime-ridden motels, porn shops, small casinos, and chains of tattered strip mall businesses. "Aurora" connoted the sketchy part of town, not a romantic, natural light show.

To some extent it must be this image that Woody's new owners Elton and Heather Roundhill are trying to overcome, balancing preservation with establishing a new reputation. The Echo Lake Tavern was mellow and pleasant, but from the outside it seemed to fit in all to easily with the porn shop and ramshackle apartments next door, under a painted-over sign serving as a constant reminder that people don't care about this place like they once did. Were it in Belltown or Fall City it might become inviting by embracing it's diveyness, but that would be a cheerless approach here. And so the owners have provided some gentle touches of gentrification; it's still a modest neighborhood joint, but it's been painted and cleaned, added a patio, hosts antique car events, added some decent wines and liquor, and serves panini sandwiches. It hasn't got quite the new liveliness of Dan Dyckman's revival of Darrell's Tavern just a mile up the road; but as the larger city to the south has witnessed the disappearance of beloved old joints like the Alki Tavern, the Buckaroo, and the Viking, it's great to another of these places along the old highway happily preserved.

19508 Aurora Ave N Shoreline, WA 98133 - (206) 542-8781
Est. 2011 - Building constructed: 1928
Previous bars in this location: Melby's Tavern (30s to 60s), Joe's Tavern (70s, 80s), Echo Lake Tavern
Web site: facebook
Reviews: pauldorpat -  shorelineareanews - yelp

#2106 - Ringers Pub, Mountlake Terrace - 3/10/2013

Another formulaic suburban, strip mall bar, although surprising low on baseball caps this day. Pull tabs, sports on TVs, 12 taps, pool tables, standard pub food.

Hat count: 15 people, 13 males, 4 baseball caps, 0 backwards.

22803 44th Ave W B3 Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043 - (425) 771-6072
Web site: ringerspub.com - facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2105 - The Getaway, Mountlake Terrace - 3/10/2013

Basically the formulaic, suburban bar: Pull tabs, televisions, a decent selection of beers (12 taps), pool tables, mostly guys in baseball caps. (Hat count: 20 customers, 14 males, 12 baseball caps, 1 backwards, 1 stocking cap, 1 fedora).

24309 56th Ave W, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043 - (425) 771-8478
Building constructed: 1961
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2104 #S1118 - Fu Kun Wu (Mai Thaiku), Seattle - 3/7/2013

Fu Kun Wu was a cool "apothecary bar" in the back of Ballard's Thaiku restaurant, above what was supposed to be an old opium den basement space. They made some unusual, herb-based cocktails and were named one of the "Best Bars in America" by Esquire. They were closed in December 2011, after rising rents made continuing in this location untenable.

Over a year later they re-opened in Phinney Ridge as Mai ("new") Thaiku. They are in a much smaller space -- an old bungalow previously occupied by Gaspare -- with the Fu Kun Wu bar tinier still.

The restaurant has a more strong emphasis on authentic Thai dishes, and the bar continues to serve some nice cocktails that you aren't likely to find other places. I had a pretty tasty Yohimbe Old Fashioned, but my desire to follow that with a Yohimbe Manhattan was declined, as you are limited to one yohimbe drink per visit (the limit is ascribed to its stimulative properties, and not it's purported powers as an aphrodisiac). It's not as fun a space as the old Ballard location, and certainly not big enough for the bar to host the owner's jazz band, and probably not even my friend Selector Lopaka's exotica DJ nights. But it's very nice to have it back in any form, and a bonus to have it in my neighborhood.

6705 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 706-7807
Est. Feb 19, 2013 - Building constructed: 1924
Previous bars in this location: Gaspare
Web site: fukunwu.com - facebook
Best articles: seattletimes - thrillist - seattlemet - eater - yelp

#2103 - Aunt Charlie's, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

Aunt Charlie's appears to date back to some point in the 70s, and is the only remaining gay bar in the Tenderloin. I suppose it should have been obvious that "Aunt Charlie's" was a gay bar, but I had no clue until I looked it up after my visit. E.g. I saw no obvious hints from Bob, the avuncular, white-sweatered, white-haired, soft spoken bartender, who has worked here for 20 years. Of course it might have been different if I'd come in during the "Dream Queens Revue," the "Hot Boxxx Girls," or the "Tubesteak Connection." But while I was there the only striking demographic was that it was all old white guys.

133 Turk St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 441-2922                 
Web site: auntcharlieslounge.com - facebook
Best articles: metblogs - 7x7 - jameshosking - gaycities - coastnews - peacheschrist - blackbookmap - yelp

#2102 - Jonell's, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

On one of the rougher corners in the Tenderloin, I enter Jonell's, a bar named for the intersecting streets Jones and Ellis. Bonnie, the middle-aged Korean bartender, serves up a gin and tonic and chats with me from behind the central horseshoe-shaped bar, the ceiling swooping down to echo its shape, and decades of wear obvious in the formica bar top and the red leather sides. The place obviously had a different sort of character many years ago, with a horse racing theme and named, I would later find out, The Horseshoe. Now Bonnie, the bartender told me that she was watching the place while Jennie the owner was busy. Bonnie and Jennie are old friends from Korea. "I get done at Safeway, wait here, we go together, we good friends, we [she bumps her hands together]."

Bonnie says the bar has been around 100 years, but Jennie's owned it for about ten. The past few years have been more difficult, and she seems to be opening later every few days. Bonnie explains that liquor prices "high, high, high -- go up, up, up."

I hope she does well. From some of the reviews I ran across, Jennie seems like a pretty sassy lady. I always have high hopes for a bar with this much age and character; you can't help but feel that even stronger when the place is run by a couple plucky, middle-aged, immigrant ladies, unflinchingly handling the the junkies, dealers, and characters of these parts.

401 Ellis St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 776-8345
Previous bars in this location: The Horseshoe
Reviews: sfweekly - sfexperiment - instantcity - yelp

#2101 - High Tide, San Francisco - 3/4/2013

You want your dive bar?  This is a dive bar.

They have all your dive bar essentials -- cheap, stiff drinks, dark interior bills pinned to the ceiling and walls, random small packets of snacks hanging on clips, Christmas lights hanging year round. But then the High Tide takes it up to dive-bar eleven. It is massively dingy, clearly not meant to be seen in daylight hours. The portion of the red carpet under the pool table features a plateau of dust that must have been building for generations. The remaining portion is specked with black dots of aging miscellaneous substances. The cracked vinyl seats have some hapless attempts at patching with packing tape, and the Camel Cigarettes display case is filled with dusty origami made from dollar bills. Then there is the enshrined portrait of the old owner's mother, topless.

The portrait, it appears, is of the grandmother of local hip hop artist Richie Cunning. (7x7) Cunning's grandfather and then his father once owned the place. I came at a slow hour, on an early Monday evening when there was only one other customer with myself and Vicki, the bartender who immigrated from China seven years ago. I would like to come back and see that the tide brings in on a Friday or Saturday night.

600 Geary St, San Francisco, CA 94102 - (415) 771-3145
Reviews: 7x7 - sfist - sfbarexperiment - sfweekly - yelp