Blue Moon Tavern

The Blue Moon is Seattle's flawlessly executed dive bar. Tom Robbins once remarked of the 74 year old bar, "The Blue Moon is to taverns what Picasso's painting is to modern culture: A frenzy of distorted joy spinning just outside the reach of the bourgeoisie horrors." In this case, the bourgeoisie horrors are Wallingford neighborhood, the area abutting the bar. Step inside the doorway, and you're in the middle of America's glorious underbelly. A sign above the bar of St. Johnny Cash says "Cash Only." The bar stools were once occupied by the great poets of the dispossessed: Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, Roethke and of course Tom Robbins. Even Kerouac, allegedly, once propped his elbows on the heavily carved bar and ordered a beer. When I was there, however, the conversation was of a less literary bent: the bartender and janitor were deeply mired in intense conversation concerning some questionable meat the bartender had eaten the night before. A few minutes later, the homeless man that had been panhandling outside with a sign reading "Homeless, no food" sat down next to me and ordered a Bud Light.

Blue Moon Tavern
Blue Moon on MySpace

[Text: Sean Moriva Video: Panzayi/Flickr]

Previously: Ace Hotel on Myspace, Let's Tea: Anagram For Seattle, Go Nuts with Dough Nuts, Here We Are Now, Entertain Us!, Seattle Karaoke Shortlist