I don't know if it was Nina, but a bartender at the old Frontier Room turned out to know a friend of mine who had a small scar on his chin. "I gave him that scar!" she said excitedly. "I thought he was too pretty so I broke a beer bottle on his face."

The old Frontier Room is also where I hid out for an hour or so during the WTO riots, after buying a scarf at the nearby army surplus store to wrap around my face. It was a nice break from the tear gas.

I can't imagine any reason to go to the new Frontier Room.

Scott, You should try the new Frontier Room; its actually a refreshing change from all of the flashy places in Belltown.

The Frontier Room was a dive, that was the best reason to go. Nina rocked and was a legend (her sister was actually our UPS driver at my office too). The drinks, the jukebox and [in the early years] an "anything goes" scene. This was the 1985-1988 era before they expanded. Any of you aging hipsters remember "Maria", the flamboyant, 40's busboy from the Bon Marche dining room who would show up, get trashed and stand on his chair singing to Supremes tunes acting like Diana Ross as the crowd cheered him on?

Date Line 1987
Slow night mid week and Nina poured me a shot while yelling at the crack whore (no front teeth see - through red nylon teddy and thigh high pvc boots) "They are fags-they do not want to see your pussy!" who was descending on table of Wednesday night Tuggettes in for a stiff drink rather than beer and pot.
Said crack whore responded by mounting the bar flipping up her teddy (yes - I squealled in horror) and using her amazing vaginal grip to lift a long neck bottle of bud out of the semi passed out hand of a drunken disability check casher (the owner of The Frontier Room used to cash government, retirement, and merchant marine pension checks).
Nina's response "Can you open em that way too?" More squeeling as the foam gushed out onto the bar and Nina cusrsing her fate - "don't know that I want to touch that mess with bleach and gloves!"
With the removal of his beer and a free show the drunk revived and departed hand in hand with bottle twat girl to the cheers and well wishes of all in attendance. One of the few "Free Rounds for the House" I can remember Nina ever offering. Nina wasn't surly-just a bartender on on 1st Ave before the condo's came.

A buddy of mine once complained that his drink was too strong (I know, what the hell was he doing there?) and Nina said "what are you, some kind of pussy?" He's probably lucky that he wasn't violently 86'ed out of there.

The new Frontier does have pretty good BBQ though.

So where is Nina now? Prison?

Nina - was the she the one who was a spitting image of Jerry Seinfeld? But you, meaner.

i used to work with maria at the cloud room at the bon marche. homeslice would show evryday either with a raging hangover or still drunk from whenever she'd been the night before. all the other hispanics that worked there would call him all sorts of horrible names in spanish and make him cry..
and then i took my mom to the frontier room on a pre funk we were doing before going to tugs next door.. mria greeted my mom as soon as we walked in .. she was wearing gloria vanderbilt jeans a black camisole with a satin flower where clevage should have been and a silver pillbox hat. she grabbed my mom's hand kissed and whispered a drunken 'enchante' , which set my mom off into spastic giggles for two whole days.
ahhh the good old days.

I loved the old "F-Room" as we called it, and Nina was a classic. I miss her, and the old "dive". The restroom floor was covered with piss, Russell the waiter was also a fave. Nina's girlfriend (who would slosh all over me some nights telling me she was really bisexual) was SUPER GORGEOUS, as was Nina herself in a hot flat-chesed boy-girl way.

Favorite Nina tidbits:

Free drink "Adios Motherfucker" on your birthday. I don't remember what it had in it, but it made by brother puke.

Nina with hand in bandages, said she got it infected during a party-slash-dyke gang-bang at her place. "I got pussy-juice all in this cut I had in my hand", she said.

Rumor had it that Nina had a gun under the counter just inside the store-room door. So I'm told.

Best secret: Nina was really a super-sweetheart. Despite the necessary crust of being a dive-bar dyke-tender, she was a caring, kind, good humored person and a super friend to those lucky enough to get beyond the behind-the-bar persona.

Good barbecue and yuppie neon is no substitute for the old F-Room. No sir.

I worked the Frontier for 7 years as a cocktail waitress/day bartender and my view of life has pretty much been molded from my time there.

1. Never drink tequila, you only lose your bra (to Nina)
2. Regulars always will have your back, right or wrong
3. Dont piss off the bartender, etc

The new Frontier Room may be fine, but it isnt a dive which is always more interesting and Seattle has less every day.

And for those who are curious, Nina is my neighbor and is a contracter now, sexiest dyke in a tool belt if you ask me...

i cooked there for some years back in the bad old days, sorry to hear it's gentrified. Miss the crowd and fellow workers daily. Was a wild place with abundant stories. A true seattle landmark. Once voted by the London times "as the best place to meet a rock star"...lol

and ChkIt: i think the lady she was yelling at was colleen. She used to slink around that area in her bunny slippers.