#2112 - Lucky 7, Kirkland, WA - 3/23/2013

Yet another strip mall sports bar.

12715 NE 124th St, Kirkland, WA 98034 - (425) 821-7717
Est. Jan 13, 1989
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp - tripadvisor

#2111 - Viking Sports Bar and Grill, Shoreline, WA - 3/22/2013

The building here is a jangle of discordant styles, with what gives the appearance of a strip mall slamming into a two-story residential house, cut by an angular roof now fronted with wood lattice, and for some reason Tuscan columns affixed to the front side. It emphasizes sports and the Seahawks, it is named "The Viking," and actually seems to draw people mostly with karaoke seven nights a week. It is a dive bar, with a mixed ethnicity, dive bar crowd, and serves fairly typical bar drinks and food from behind a physical bar that looks like it came from a 70s fern bar. And every single one of the middle aged crowd appears to take a turn outside smoking.

This visit came just three weeks into the venue and ownership (this was previously the Zaika Indian restaurant, which in the evenings was dominated by "Mr Z.'s Lounge" and karaoke). The permanent signage and current paint job were not there yet, but there was a fairly lively crowd of locals inside.

Like a million other suburban instant sports bars across the region and the country -- with their flatscreen TVs, pulltabs, Budweiser paraphernalia, burgers and steaks and Taco Tuesdays, cheap well drinks and Jager shots -- there's not much unusual character nor anything particularly remarkable about the Viking. But people go to places like this because it's *your* suburban sports bar -- delivering the basics in your neighborhood among people you enjoy. Judging from the crowd, this one may be around for a while.

14622 15th Ave NE, Shoreline, WA 98155 - (206) 922-3764
Est. March 8, 2013 - Building constructed: 1954
Previous bars in this location: Zaika (Mr. Z's Lounge) 
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp

#2110 #S1121 - Relish, Seattle - 3/20/2013

The Benjamin Franklin Hotel, which was here before the expansion to a first and then second cylindrical tower of rooms as it became the Washington Plaza and then the Westin, once hosted the second Trader Vic's in the country. The Trader Vic's was called "The Outrigger" when it was first established in this building in 1948, then renamed in 1960 to "Trader Vic's" like the original in Oakland, and finally closed in 1991. The hotels in this location have hosted multiple restaurants and bars on both the main floor and also on the lower level that opens to Stewart Street and Westlake Avenue, with this newest entry focused on giant hamburgers. This is apparently a growing brand within the Starwood Hotels chain, but it strikes me as an odd choice for a very large, downtown hotel that bills itself as an international location (even if it had never been the location of the elegant Palm Court).

This blog is primarily about bars, and despite a menu of pretty average quality cocktail concoctions, you wouldn't really expect a hamburger focused hotel bar to be particularly inviting for drinking -- and this one is not. The upscale burgers are better than average -- and certainly taller -- but neither they nor the various creative spins on side dishes struck me with any can't miss deliciousness that I would recommend to upscale burger loving friends (as I might, say, for the burgers at Spur, or Von's).

As a lover of hotel bars, I can't help but hope that the Westin eventually replaces this with something much more traditional and romantic.

1900 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA - 206-256-7600                          
Est. March 1, 2013 - Building constructed: 1929
Previous bars in this location:  The Outrigger, Trader Vic's, Fitzgerald's on Fifth, Roy's in the Westin, Coldwater Bar and Grill
Web site: relishbistroseattle.com - facebook
Reviews: cornichon - gastrolust - meplusfood - yelp

#2109 #S1120 - Populuxe Brewing - 3/16/2013

Update: Populuxe closed December 23, 2020, citing COVID-19, their landlord, and "the city's inability to support small business."

Populuxe Brewing sits behind the doors of a bright blue facade and atomic logo, which make it look a bit like a UFO cult headquarters in the middle of a Ballard warehouse district. Inside is a cinder block tasting room, with Narboo paintings, bowls of peanuts, and three to six choices of mostly hoppy, northwest style microbrews. A hallway leads out the back to a modest patio, with picnic tables and wooden barrels for bar tables. The whole place has a vibe of family barbecue, with babies in strollers, cornhole games, and dogs loping about. It should be a particularly comfortable place to catch a beer on sunny Sunday afternoons.

826B NW 49th St, Seattle, WA 98107 - (206) 706-3400
Est. March 8, 2013 - Building constructed: 1960
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: populuxebrewing.com - facebook  
Reviews: seattlemet - myballard - beeradvocate - yelp - thestranger - thrillist

#2108 #S1119 - Hummingbird Saloon - 3/14/2013

This is a new neighborhood joint carved into a Rainier Avenue strip mall, run by Ken Anderson, the owner of Full Tilt Ice Cream. There are paintings of hummingbirds, chess boards and shuffleboard, some fairly good cocktails and home-baked Welsh pasties.

5041 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118 - (206) 349-1731              
Est. Feb 15, 2013 - Building constructed: 1940
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: facebook
Reviews: tofuhunter - eater - thrillist - yelp - thestranger

#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