Exactly 25 years ago, the lesbian bar at the corner of Pike Street and 11th Avenue called the Wildrose threw open her doors for the very first time and beckoned, “Come! Come ye chilly, wandering, winter-bitten lesbians of Seattle! Warm thy dykey selves in my cheerful, beery bosom!” And so they did. And kept doing. And a quarter of a century and a handful of owners later, the Wildrose is the longest-lived and sole-surviving lesbian bar in all of gay Seattle. The history of the Wildrose begins with women who love women, sizzles with colorful characters, climaxes with a terrible explosion, and stumbles joyfully into the future. It is the story of a place that’s part bar, part community center, part cult.
“I’ve met so many people and made some of the best friends of my life there,” says Emily Harper, currently of Rhode Island. “The Rose is more than just a bar. It’s history and family and the place where so many of us discovered what it means to be a part of something. I’ll always be grateful to call it home.” Harper is moving back to Seattle partly due to the call of the Rose: “I’m not moving back only because of the bar, but it did play a part in the decision!”
The Wildrose began with a mysterious woman called Bryher Herrick, who started the bar with a collective of five equally mysterious women in 1985. They took over an old spot on Pike Street where a place called the Sundowner used to live, tossed in some pinball machines and pool tables, populated the all grrrrl staff with cute professionals and the menu with a damn fine turkey burger, and voilà! The Wildrose was born. In the early 1990s, the place was bought by a certain Joann Panayoutou, and in September 2000, the current owners liberated it from her and still own it today. Their names are Martha Manning and Shelley Brothers.
“It can be a struggle sometimes,” says Manning. She moved to Seattle 15 years ago from Narragansett, Rhode Island, and started working for the Rose’s then-owner, Panayoutou, back in 1997. “It can be difficult, being the only lesbian bar, trying to be everything for everyone in the lesbian community,” she explains. “The older folks comment on how young the crowd is, the younger say it’s too old…”
Brothers, who has lived in Seattle for 17 years, agrees: “Our biggest challenge is trying to be everything for everyone. We try to have events that will appeal to the diversity of our community, but it’s hard to keep everyone happy all the time. But we try!”
Being the only gay-girl bar in town, the Wildrose by default and by necessity has become all things to all lesbians… or at least as many things to as many lesbians as possible. And it’s done an outstanding job, with a full calendar of club nights, mixers, benefits, readings, and other events. Weekend nights are packed.
There were other lesbian bars around when the Rose was born, of course—the Easy, Tugs, some others. But one by one they died, these bars, and when the old Easy finally went tits up in 1998, the Rose was the last Seattle lesbian bar left standing. In the ensuing decade, nary a single bar or club has risen to challenge her title—and it hardly seems necessary that one should. The affection for the place among Seattle’s lesbians is bleary-eyed and borderline manic. A fond first-time remembrance from a longtime Rose-lover, Jozette Bell:
“Before me was a collection of the most gorgeous women I’d ever seen: tattoos and piercings, Mohawks and leather pants, these wild creatures were captivating. I remember standing in the corner, the new girl in town, fighting to keep back the tears. I was seeing something that night that I knew I had to be a part of.”
Similar sentiment-drenched sentiments abound—in numbers and with a pulsing sincerity of feeling that might seem bizarre for, well, a gay bar. But when I put the call out for Wildrose stories, dozens of lesbians from all over the country instantly emerged, eager to share their fond memories and love of the Rose.
“I discovered the Wildrose, and I immediately felt like I was home.”
“The Wildrose isn’t just a bar, it’s a home for people who have nowhere else to go.”
“The Rose has put on benefits to pay for patrons’ medical expenses. They’ve been there for their patrons—not just with a cold beer, but with their hearts and souls.”
And so forth. And it seems that for the women of the Rose, these sentiments are more than empty hyperbole. According to Wendy Manning of Third Place Books, who is owner Martha Manning’s ex-
girlfriend, “The fact that they’ve survived this long is a testament to the love and community that we all find there. I feel the story that best illustrates their value in the community is when Martha was in that gas-station explosion last summer.”
On September 3, 2008, a runaway car came crashing into a pump at a gas station on Broadway. Martha Manning was caught in the resultant explosion and badly injured. She spent three agonizing weeks in Harborview’s burn unit and received painful skin grafts. “The way the people from the bar rallied around me,” Manning says, her voice trailing off. “This accident and the resulting response from the community has made me realize how lucky I am to have even a small role in the history of the Wildrose. It has given me a family and community that I love.”
“When we were still together, in rocky moments, I’d get frustrated and speak poorly about the bar,” says Wendy Manning. “I ate my words when I saw how many people came to visit Martha. I witnessed an absolute OUTPOURING of affection and concern from the lesbian community. A benefit was thrown to help with bills, she had 10 to 20 visitors a day, and people came together afterward during her healing process to make sure she was taken care of. It showed me the strength of the community that Martha has built up through her position at the Rose.”
The Wildrose invites you to celebrate its 25th birthday with a bash on Wednesday, December 30. Come and raise a toast to the good old Rose—the only gay-girl bar Seattle may ever need. 
I wish I had a vagina… 🙁
i don’t have a vagina neither and i have never EVER felt less than welcome at the rose. happy birthday rose. i hope you have 25 more..
love ,
always and forever.
riz
Tugs was not a lesbian bar … never.
and
If any male really feels welcome at the Rose, well, that would be the stuff of a novel. I eat there from time to time, and the looks and “whatcha doing here” is tangible. But, then, OK by me, it is lesbian space. But, let’s not pretend otherwise.
Good luck to the Rose. Hope that old building doesn’t get torn down.
Jimmy, call me a fag ( on the Hill for 14 years )
no jimmy.. I”VE been WELCOMED there and made to feel always. i’ve invited to dj there a few times and the ‘whatchu doin here’ looks have been rare and when they have occured aren’t nearly as bad as they’ve been at the cuff or neighbors( at least neighbors back in the day)
You must be an asshole then Jimmy cause I have NEVER seen a bio male or even a trans-man treated poorly there unless it is deserved.
As a trans-man I have had so many of those “looks” you speak of at EVERY SINGLE gay bar in Seattle. The Rose is the only bar that I can stand to go to, and seemingly the only one I am welcomed in.
I feel more welcome at the Rose than any bar in Seattle. I love the bar, but more importantly I love the people.
Speaking from the perspective of a gay man who thinks there is nothing funnier than going to get Tacos and a Busch on a Tuesday at the Rose, I have always felt welcome there. There are a few bad apples in every bushel, but just because you may get a mean glance from a one or two girls shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of the bar as a whole. The food is pretty good and the staff, especially Shelly have always been great to me.
Here’s to 25 more years!
Hear, Hear! Thank you to all of the folks who have been through many more struggles than a few looks could stifle! Thank you to those who have paved the way for the Wildrose to be a place for ALL people to share!
Let’s party on December 30th to celebrate its doors and minds still being open!!
I’m a 20 something straight male, and the first and only time I went to the Rose I didn’t know it was a lesbian establishment. My gf at the time and I were new to the Seattle area (I live up North) and trying to get out of the rain and into some drinks, and the Rose was the first bar we happened across. I didn’t even look at the name of the bar! I did get some looks at once we were settled in, but the bartender was very nice and complemented my lady. No more than a few minutes later I realized where I was!
One other funny story is a friend of mine went to some summer night party there (there were wet tshirt competition or something along the lines of that..) and he was hitting on all the ladies, which of course wasn’t very productive for him. He came over after the incident and was saying how all the women were stuck up, giving him dirty looks, asking him why he was there and everything, not knowing he was at the WR. I explained it to him, and he burst out laughing. Mystery solved!
Happy Birthday Wildrose!
Jimmy = fag
I am giving you an F) in your faggetry degree for failing a) gay history, b) dyke nite awareness, and with epic proportion c) capitol hill history. Although you get a few pussyboy extra credits for a)unregistered comment limp wrist and b) sissy attempt at snark.
Tug’s Belltown Tavern was a lesbian bar every Thursday aka Wymmyn’s Nite, and as one of only two men to ever work that night I can assure you it was wall to wall lesbian (apologies to Riz-I think you ran clean up a couple nights; did you sub dj too?).
Tug’s Belmont on Capitol Hill was a pale attempt to re-create the original but was frequented by shallow capitol hill fags such as yourself and failed because of said patrons.
You would think that in fourteen years on the hill, you would have bothered to learn something, but no, just another clueless baby fag who thinks their arrival on the hill is the beginning of all gay history.
Any attitude you have encountered in the Wild Rose says more about your lame ass self than anything tossed your way.
Wildrose also is the best venue to see any band play. We are so lucky that the ladies there have been willing to let us all in and treat us better than any other place in town! And Jodi is super awesome!!
xoxo
#10
Only went to Tugs on the Hill.
and
You have some bad attitude. Angry old dried up cocksucker bad attitude. Hope the New Year works better for you.
Another straight male who loves this place (though only in occasionally for music). They really have some of the nicest staff of most anywhere in Seattle, and especially on the Hill.
i used to live in seattle and the rose is the bar i always have to go to when i come back — once i ran into my 5th grade best friend, once i ran into the girl who took half my virginity, once i ran into a former volunteer at the queer youth center i went to as a, well, queer youth.
it’s the bar we all love to hate? hate to love? but you know there’s nowhere else to be for the lez.
@12 – is that from one angry old cocksucker to another? Srsly, I have seen plenty of gay boys, str8 boys, transmen, transwomen, dykes, lipstick lesbians…
Never seen anyone treated badly unless they were being shown the door for acting badly.
I was worried about whether I would still be welcome there when I began my transition. Silly me. The place truly is a community bar.
The Wild Rose is a fundamentally racist establishment.
The owner is responsible for the environment.
If you have money, you’re ok–for awhile. But this is easily the most fucked up lesbian bar I’ve ever visited in the world.
I have been in Rose off and on over the years since it opened. I have sometimes seen men treated badly/ignored, sometimes not. It depends (that was more the ’80s, when women were also more likely to be denied admission to gay men’s clubs). Service is good, the food used to be okay (haven’t eaten there for a while). But I found it was hard to meet anyone or even get a conversation going so I stopped going. I guess women don’t go to places alone, at least when I’ve been out they always seem to be w/someone or a group, so it’s hard to meet anybody. The Rose is no different in that regard.
As one of the founders of the Wildrose 25 years ago, I can tell you that we created the Rose to be a place for lesbians, for women and for the our lovers, families and friends. We created a place where everyone was welcome as long as they behaved and treated us with respect–respect for our lifestyle, for our community and for our dykeness.
My love, appreciation and best wishes to all the folks who worked at the Rose, performed, participated and played at the Rose for all these 25 years. Thanks Shelly and Martha for throwing a great 25th Anniversary Party.
I visited the Wild Rose last summer as part of a little Mecca tour I was on, including HerShe bar in Vancouver, Lesbo a Go Go at the Stonewall NYC,the Cubbyhole in NYC, the Lexington in San Fran and Le Drugstore in Montreal. I didn’t stay long, or get to talk to anyone there, so my experience was limited. But it had a happy atmostphere, and I found the venue cute and cosy.
Aesthetically, I found the Wild Rose to be the Butchiest and most hip hop of them all (but maybe it was just a hip hop night). I’d go back again if I’d stayed longer.
Maybe the bar celebrating it’s 25 years of survival should not be held accountable for the closed minded man haters that may wonder in from time to time. You can’t throw someone out for personal preferences. If only it were that easy. I find the rose to be a great place on the hill that just happens to be a lesbian bar. If I have ever had a problem at the Rose it has been because of a customer when I felt it appropriate, I let the staff know and the issue is resolved before I even make it back to my seat. Cheers to you Wildrose! Survival of the fittest.
BTW, the stuff attributed to Jozette in the above article was actually said by Emily…and vice versa. Gotta love being misquoted!