#2296 - Just Left, Lynnwood, WA - 9/22/2013

If I were to graph how much I liked the bars in a given town against the population of the towns, I think the amount I liked the bars would start out very high at the lowest populations, drop fairly steadily with the increase in population, and then start to head back up as it got to the largest cities in the state. If there's a bar in Mineral, Washington or Goble, Oregon, there's a very high chance that bar has lots of character.  As you get to larger and larger towns, you tend to see more and more of the banal, strip mall sorts of bars, with the same old beer corporation paraphernalia, TVs, plastic menus of fried food, a few craft beers mixed in with Bud and Bud Lite, and pull tab bins. These bars can still be fun places with the right staff and crowds, but it is exceedingly difficult to find anything in the bar itself that distinguishes it from thousands of other bars across the country, as if they were all created by some nameless, giant chain. Then, as you start to get to the few largest cities in the state, a sizable portion of bars start to become interesting again in a variety of ways, from the divey character you see in small towns to fancy craft cocktail joints and unique decors and themes to separate them from the competition.

Thus the resulting graph would probably come out looking something like this:

And that nadir in the line -- the very lowest point before heading back upward through Olympia and Everett up to Spokane, Tacoma, and Seattle -- is Lynnwood.

Lynnwood is around the 30th largest city in Washington state, with a population of about 36 thousand people. There's no charming, old downtown Lynnwood, no Lynnwood Ferry Terminal, no Hewitt Avenue or Capitol Hill, no Lynnwood Bay, and indeed no shoreline at all, despite resting just a few thousand feet from Puget Sound, with the exception of one odd little sliver for the Lynnwood Wastewater Treatment Plant. There is a small handful of historical sites and snippets of interesting drinking settings at places like Old Village Pub or Harvey's just out of town, and old timers might remember the Alpine Tavern or the Owl. But at its heart, current-day Lynnwood is highways and shopping malls, and if someone mentions the "Lynnwood Performing Arts Center" they are probably referring to Hooters.

Unfortunately for people who like a bar to have a unique personality, Just Left fits right in to this scene. People are nice enough, and I'm sure there are plenty of good times had by locals and regulars. It if you don't already know and love the place, it's just not likely to be worth much of a trip, as it will strike you as just one more of the hundreds of cookie-cutter, banal, suburban, sports bars, and it would probably take a considerable amount of drinking to see it as anything else.

4308 198th St SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036 - (425) 776-7379
Est. 2001? - Building constructed: 1975
Previous bars in this location: Outabounz Sports Pub
Web site: Justleftpub.com
Reviews: yelp - beeradvocate

#2295 #1173 - Witness, Seattle - 9/19/2013

I'm not a fan of grits, sweet tea, beignets, or chicken and waffles, but I usually find something I love at southern cuisine restaurants, whether they are traditional or fancied up, like the plates at Witness, on Broadway. Here it was the Bacon and Peaches (Yakima peaches, bacon, sage, smoked balsamic) and Pork and Beans (cider braised pork belly, Corona beans). And the cocktails were excellent, starting with the Witness Cocktail (Blanton's bourbon, Benedictine, Carpano Antica, hickory smoked cherry). Vicki the bartender did a fine job helping me identify the exact drinks and food items to fit my tastes.

Witness is the creation of Greg Holcomb, who has worked for several years on Capitol Hill, at Olive Way speakeasy Knee High Stocking Co. and Chez Gaudy. His southern style menu was created by chef Jesse Elliot from Tom Douglas's Cuoco. The interior evokes a small church of the old south, with white clapboard walls, backlit stained-glass windows, wooden pews, and even a sermon from Holcomb at 10pm Saturday nights. "The church pew seats came from a 102-year-old church in North Carolina (a Craiglist purchase, says Holcomb, and packing and shipping cost way more than the pews themselves). The bar is made from another set of century-old pews, these from a warehouse in Snohomish." (seattlemet).

From cocktails to food to service to decor and vibe of the place, this is a church I can believe in.

410 Broadway E, Seattle, WA 98102 - (206) 669-3853
Est. Aug 22, 2013 - Building constructed: 1931
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: witnessbar.com - facebook
Articles ranked: seattlemet - seattlemag - seattletimes - thestranger - onceuponabite - yelp - capitolhillseattle

#2294 #1172 - Itadakimasu, Seattle - 9/17/2013

Itadakimasu ("I humbly receive this meal," a phrase used by Japanese dinner guests to thank their hosts), is a small Hawaiian/Japanese/Korean restaurant in the U District. The bar is very small, the cocktails are not particularly enticing, but the people there are nice and the beef bulgogi is excellent.

4743 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105 - (206) 659-0722
Est. Nov 29, 2012 - Building constructed: 1966
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: facebook
Reviews: wonderandrisk - dailyuw - yelp - yahoo

#2293 - Goble Tavern, Rainier, OR - 9/15/2013

Goble Tavern, Rainier, OR

The Goble Tavern is pretty much all that's left of the town of Goble, Oregon, named after trapper Daniel Blue Goble's donation lands claim in 1852, and once bustling center of a train ferry across the Columbia to Kalama, WA, where up to six trains a day stopped on the way to Seattle, and wood-burning steamboats pulled alongshore to refuel. In the lumber boom days around the turn of the century, many of the hundreds of loggers working in the area would pour into town on the weekend and dance at the Red Men Lodge Hall. The Goble Tavern, sitting about 150 feet west of the Columbia, just before the big river starts to curve westward, about halfway between Portland and Astoria, dates its founding to 1926. Of course at this point it would not have been a licensed tavern, as prohibition ended only in 1933, but it does appear to have become a bar shortly thereafter.

Goble Tavern in the 1930s (from tavern Facebook page)

The place had a substantial remodel completed in 2008, which was probably good for business, though I personally would have preferred the version that was a bit more ramshackle -- or "a shithole," in the vernacular of a bartender at the WigWam down the highway, with low ceilings, a 7-inch drop off in the old floor, and more than its share of old rockers and drugs. Lenny, the bartender we chatted with, preferred it then. But it's still a great place, with lots of historical links and gewgaws, and an emphasis on music.  People claim that Hank Williams once played here in the 40s, and that a teenage Willie Nelson hung around the area when his mother was a bartender here. A check of Willie's wikipedia page does indeed note that as a teen he hitchhiked his way from San Diego to Portland because his mother, who had left the family shortly after his birth, was living in the area. Willie got a job at KVAN in Vancouver and cut his first record from there.

Goble Tavern, before remodeling (Chris Updegrave photo)

Music is still a big part of the tavern, with guitars and various other instruments hanging on the walls, a stage for live music (where Lenny sometimes joins in on harmonica), an ever larger performance area in the sizable patio area out back, and an annual "Goble Warming" festival each August. They preserved a few warps from the old floor and cut out and hung a mural painted on the old wall, one of several done by an old local artist in exchange for his booze. The parking lot includes an a rotting wood boat and antique tractor, and occasionally has to be cleared of a tree dropped by local beavers. They have a full bar with some good beer choices, and a menu of pretty typical bar food -- burgers, fish and chips, and various fried foods. It was nice stopping by on a lazy afternoon drive up Highway 30, but I'd also love to swing by some Saturday night when the music is playing and the place is hopping, and hope to even make it for Goble Warming.

Goble Tavern, Flood of 1948 (photo in bar)

Goble Tavern, cut-out section of mural painted on old wall

70255 U.S. 30, Rainier, OR 97048 - (503) 556-4090
Est. year - Building constructed: year
Previous bars in this location:
Web site: gobletavern.com - facebook
Reviews: portlandtribune - letitpour - yelp - tripadvisor

#2292 - Wig Wam Tavern, Portland, Scappoose, OR - 9/15/2013

Wig Wam Tavern, Scappoose, OR

If you're driving from Seattle to Portland or vice versa, and you have a little extra time, one of the ways to make your route more pleasant is to take Highway 30 up along the eastern side of the Columbia, rather than soul-less I5 on the other side. What makes it more pleasant is not spectacular scenery, but rolling through small towns like Scappoose, and by small businesses like the Wig Wag Tavern.

In Scappoose you will also pass the World Peace Candle, which looks like an old silo with an electric flame on top -- which is exactly what it is -- but which was once listed by the Guinness book as the world's largest candle. The structure was once coated with actual wax, with a real wick, and lit by the governor of Oregon with a 60-foot long match.

The Wig Wam Tavern is a comfortable, old dive, with Coors and Budweiser on tap, free pool, bar food ("best gizzards in Columbia County"), and native American items that appear to be collected over many years. On some nights the Wig Wam has karaoke or live music, but on this rainy afternoon we just chatted with pleasant bartender Heather. The place appears to be fairly old, a business here during prohibition, was the Wig Wam back in day, later run as "Duffy's" and under a couple other names before becoming the Wig Wam again.

52499 Columbia River Hwy, Scappoose, OR 97056 - (503) 543-8362
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp - urbanspoon

#2291 - Interurban, Portland, OR - 9/14/2013

Interurban is a manly place, with bearded staff serving classic pre-prohibition cocktails from a woody, old western saloon sort of setting, with animal heads on the walls along with pictures of trains and steel bridges. Or at least, its about as manly as you could be while nibbling on polenta croquettes and whiskey chicken liver mousse. It is still Portland, after all.

The drinks are well-made, and the two story space is particularly pleasant in warm weather when the patio out back is appealing option.  But at any time it seems like a nigh ideal place to sit back and sip some old whiskey-based cocktail.

4057 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97227 - (503) 284-6669
Est. Nov 18, 2011
Web site: interurbanpdx.com - facebook
Reviews: seriouseats - oregonlive - eater - foodlandiapdx - yelp - urbanspoon - barfly - thedrinknation

#2290 - Crow Bar, Portland, OR - 9/14/2013

I like this place, and I get the sense that if I had been here with the crowd on a Friday or Saturday night, I would probably like it even more.

"Yes, there is a fine Jazz series at the Blue Monk on Sunday nights and it’s possible to go to both, but for your own musical pleasure and discovery do not miss the little funky rag-tag club basement with black couches and benches in the Crow Bar. In order to get a drink, you have to go upstairs where music (distinctly not Indie-Jazz or any other kind of Jazz) is blasting out over the speakers (and sometimes down the stairs to the club basement." (oregonmusicnews)

"The oldest bar on the street, The Crow is as divey as a bar can get on Mississippi Ave. " (facebook)

3954 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97227 - (503) 280-7099
Est. Dec 31, 2002
Web site: crowbarpdx.com - facebook
Reviews: oregonmusicnews - yelp - insiderpages - portlandmercury - barflymag