Date: Sat June 4
Place: Jules Maes, 5919 Airport Way S
Time: 9:30 pm

There is part of me that's quite jealous of the residents of Georgetown. They're getting to experience the privacy and privileges that go with living in a neighborhood that's been on the cusp of becoming trendy for years, but remains unheralded (and unoccupied) to a degree that let's them keep their quirky watering holes to themselves. Case in point is Jules Maes, a dusty saloon off Airport Way that looks like a Wild West museum and feels like the warm-spirited dive bar you've been searching for your whole life. The sprawling space is a labyrinth of vintage décor, from the gorgeous vanilla and brick-red wallpaper in the main bar to the six pinball machines lining the game room-a cheerful and noisy space located just before the showroom stage in the building's rear. In a place like this, you almost feel a moral obligation to order whiskey, so I ask our foxy and fierce-looking bartender for a Jack and soda and head for the game room. It's relatively quiet at the moment, but it's not long before a boisterous crowd filters in, including a charming character named Heather Tubbs who owns Helmet Head, a neighboring hair salon. While Tubbs pumps quarters into one of the games, I notice that the owners have wisely installed cup holders on the sides of the machines, making it very easy to enjoy your whiskey while spending all your laundry quarters on "Funhouse." As fond as I am of pinball, it's the old shooting-range games that eventually grab my attention and I find myself repeatedly gripping the trigger on "Silver Dollar Saloon," an exercise in target practice that begins to illuminate the impairing effects of my whiskey consumption. I make my way back to the main bar to call a cab and pass a happy fellow who's a dead ringer for Tommy Chong, a safe that appears to be from the 18th century, and a weathered Rainier beer ad from the '70s. Clearly you'd never find a place this cool on Capitol Hill. HANNAH LEVIN