Comments

2
Dammit! This piece on great places to go and enjoy was going so well ... and then some yutz proclaimed the place where he goes for a couple of GLASSES OF WINE: "The bartenders are the best (How would he know? He drinks wine by the glass!) ... and have excellent taste in music ... 'Connect For' and 'Da Two' – CL Smooth and Pete Rock, the founders of the sound that dominated the first half of the 1990s."

Listeners of Nirvana, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, – you know – real actual BANDS, and anyone who doesn't give a shit about hiphop or rap, might rightfully disagree with his curatorial acumen of early-1990s Seattle music. As it turns out, it's just Mudede writing about topics WAY out of his league –– again.
3
The Rendezvous is "...the old fucking Seattle about which old fucking Seattle residents yammer when the subject turns to old fucking Seattle..."

Clearly you are not from here and clearly you never went to the Rendezvous before it received its extreme Yuppy Makeover. and clearly you are not talking to actual old fucking Seattle residents when the subject turns to old fucking Seattle.

Just another chump poseur from the Midwest, romanticizing about shit you don't know and haven't experienced. People complain about the Seattle Freeze. It's fictional writing like this that contribute to the freeze.

Dodi would piss on you from her grave if she read this.

5
So sad. This list is a product of youth and totally unaware of the glory that is now lost. My memories sustain me.
6
Am I missing a joke on "Sunday's Restaurant"? 620 1st Ave. N is the Lower Queen Anne Met Market building.

Thanks for this list. Imagine if, instead of spouting off about romanticized visions of what Seattle used to be, people supported local businesses that make Seattle what it is now. So many neat places in this city that sit empty for days at a time.
7
LOVE this. Lenny's, Pacific Inn, Highline, Baranof--and the department that spawned yours truly. I'm so happy in a disgruntled long-timer kind of way. (Weird that 15+ years in Seattle makes me something of a rarity these days.)

I'd also suggest Korthaus, Sully's Snow Goose, and maybe even Spud's because it just feels so stubbornly old-Seattle in Green Lake now.
8
I like the shoutout for Monorail Espresso, but the description gives you the mistaken impression that they aren't friendly, which couldn't be further from the truth. While a few jokes on the window might give it a surly vibe, the baristas really nice. It's the kind of place where they remember your order and get it ready before you even make eye contact. One of the many things I miss about working downtown.
9
What is this "Slug Hole" you speak of? I've lived in Seattle (by way of Olympia) for nearly 20 years and it's the only thing on the list I've never heard of.
10
I first went to Denny Blaine Park in 1994. For years it was an even combo of naked and clothed, male and female. The dyke thing came later, I guess.
11
don't add the Wedgwood Broiler to this list. don't go there. stay away. it's not worth the drive, let alone a bus ride. nope. don't bother. just slovenly, elderly drunks.
12
and segal, a falafel at mamnoon is like $8 at lunch.
13
Wonderful concept with some inspired choices. Stranger, please make this a semi-annual (biennial?) feature, so you can share more great and favorite places but not so frequently that we take a list like this for granted.

It's distinctive, local places like these that are the reason I love Seattle and I'm loyal to Seattle. I have my own list of favorite places I patronize regularly and semi-regularly, and then I see:
Highline: don't get there often enough
In the Bowl: haven't been there in ages, really ought to go back
Lenny's: ditto
Baranof: damn, I really ought to finally check that place out

Oh, and in my book, Monorail Espresso is hands down the best coffee in downtown Seattle and dare I say in all of Seattle.
14
Hi.
15
@14 and Ms. Sydney, "dykekiki" hasn't been a ladies beach in years. MANY years it was for a few swim seasons. Presently most of my dyke pals say it is too creppy with dudes walking around naked - which it is.

This article is so much of the "good ol' days" type bullshit that makes all the new people here laugh. I have lived here since 1988 and yet feel awkward talking about how cool Fremont was or shopping on Broadway since that too in 1988 was changing and many old timers back then were telling me "meh" to both places. @3, awesome - the older Rendezvous was scary and fun...I can still remember someone dying there from an OD and the bar kept serving drunks, er, drinks after they hauled away the corpse.
16
great list! Please add:
Tai Tung
Voula's Offshore Café
Ray's Boathouse
Ballard (yes, all of Ballard. Enjoy it before it's gone).
Montlake Bicycle Shop (locally owned and staffed by dedicated bicycle enthusiasts)

17
I like learning about new local businesses. My only complaint is the lack of attention to stuff up north. E.g., Aurora north of 90th street (and on into Shoreline) is a veritable treasure trove of discovered oddities.
18
LOL at The Stranger claiming that the "Midwest" generally accepts "rampant tolerance" whereas Seattle "looks down upon" said intolerance.

Seattle is one of the most close-minded, sheltered white yuppie enclaves I've seen in the entire U.S. Seattleites are deathly afraid of black people and poor people. The only thing Seattleites are tolerant of are other faux-liberal white yuppies.
19
Is this sarcastic? I sincerely cannot tell anymore
20
Yeah, I'm with @3 here. A lot of this list is fine, but the new Rendezvous is not the OLD Rendezvous. The OLD Rendezvous had no windows and drunks and prostitutes used to hang out in front just to get some damn sunlight because, yes, they were there (and drunk and high) in the middle of the afternoon. Then they renovated it and that's fine and all, because, honestly, that place was never gonna make it in the new Belltown. But to somehow tell people that going there now is to experience older Seattle is ill-informed at best and outright delusional at worst.

Same for the old Frontier Room, where the old labyrinth of low-ceilinged hallways led to a bar tended by a heat-packing lesbian who took no shit from no person, then another labyrinth led to a sketchy pool room in the back. Putting the new Rendezvous on this list is akin to putting the new shiny, high-ceilinged Frontier Room (if it still existed), which would be a joke (albeit a pretty funny one).

Pacific Inn, though, kids. Y'all need to go there for fish 'n chips, cheap beer, and a healthy delivery of attitude.
21
Sign me up for a well-worn complaint....where the hell is the South End? Mt. Baker, Columbia City, Hillman City, Seward Park, Rainier Beach, Brighton, just...anything at all in the valley? I'm a little surprised there's not even a token restaurant to represent that vast swath of a huge geographical and cultural backbone to this city.
22
lemme give some props to the honey hole. love those sandwiches, love the owners.
23
@18: it sure sounds horrible. good thing you left.

you left, right?
24
The most old-Seattle thing you can do is eat at the various restaurants inside of Broadway Alley (where Americana/Laughing Buddha/Tacos Chukis can be found) it's pretty much 100% free of new-era gloss, there's a seedy smoke shop, the korean place in the back is pretty good, and it reminds me of my youth.

The highline is the best. Vegan metal bar with tons of sludge metal bands coming through? Bout as Seattle as you can get, plus I saw my first dildos and stuff at the castle that used to be underneath. Memories!
25
ZOMG, never tell people to go to Padelford Hall unless you want them to be trapped in an endless horrible labyrinth. No joke.
26
@12, Mamnoon is no longer open for lunch.
27
Betraying my West Seattle bias here, but I worry about how long we'll have Husky Deli and Easy Street Records. Come visit both before it's too late . . . .
28
I either don't get a joke, or am not cool enough to know wtf the slug hole is.
29
Love for places you love is great and appreciated! Thanks. If you leave out the "old real Seattle" angle maybe the comments won't have to bicker about that?

(And, if any places you just like to know they exist but you never go there? Don't try to list those, because you won't actually know about them and would sound like a poser.)
30
Ok, when was the last time you went to the bathroom at In The Bowl? The bathroom has been completely removed of all its former wonderfully tacky tranquility. Obviously you haven't been there in a while.
31
• Leroy Men's Wear! at 201 Pike!
Motown gold records on the walls, Seattle Mafia stories and the best suits this side of Detroit.

Slug hole is a dumb joke. C'mon people, you can do better than that.

Love that you did not link to the Seattle Times. Now that is funny.
34
Also, the Ansel and Charles recommends are SOLID.
35
@30 I've been there in the last week, but haven't used the facilities in a while. That's a shame.
36
Are you trying to get a job at Buzzfeed? This reminded me of their "101 Reasons New York City is the Best" list, 5 of which were the subway - but that was better because it was laughably bad, not just awfully bad. Please rewrite a list that doesn't make me hate living in Seattle.

Also, I'd like to point out I made an account just to post this comment; hat's how compelled I was to share with you that this is garbage.
37
should have named this a list of the "50 places you've scored coke at during the early 2000's"
38
@18: Shortly after I landed in Seattle I met a friendly local who asked from where I'd come. I casually mentioned that I'd come from Chicago. He wrinkled his face a bit and said "Oh."

Oh?

"I just can't imagine why anyone would want to live there."

This struck me as an odd pronouncement from someone who by his own admission had never been within a timezone of the city by the lake, but I eventually realized that a certain segment of the local identity consists of talking with each other about how great Seattle is and how awful most everywhere else is. At first it seemed almost laughably provincial -- which it is, of course -- but now it's just another of the city's endearing quirks.
39
Twice Sold Tales is the one place still left on Capitol Hill where if it closed, I'd cry.
40
Starbucks? Is this real life?
41
Magus used books, in the U district
Aladdins Gyrocery, on the Ave
The Sands, in Ballard :)
Any movie theater
Fantagraphics comic bookstore in Georgetown
42
Lots of great places to spend money. But it's the free stuff we take for granted. Like carkeek park, at sunset, in July, with food and a friend or two.
43
Hutch has it right. This article is a joke. Sunday's Restaurant?!? Do you guys do *any* fact checking? A friend sent me this link, and I thought perhaps it was from twenty years ago. Quite sad. I'm calling shenanigans that Arlo actually lives in Seattle currently.
44
Jesus, there are a lot of people here getting butthurt over other peoples' personal taste and humor. I realize that some of you only have the whole "I've been here longer than you!" thing to desperately cling to anymore, but damn you all whine a lot.

Yes, the Broadway of the 90s was different than the Broadway of '05 which was different than the Broadway of today. The oldest version of the place you remember doesn't necessarily make it the best either - just different.
45
Pike's Place Market? Pike's Place? Jesus fucking Christ, how did the #1 "not from around here" tell get past the editor?
46
Thank you, Kouya-san. After seeing that faux pas I couldn't finish the article.
49
Open Books may not be around much longer.
http://www.wallyhood.org/2016/03/open-bo…

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