It’s impossible for me to write about Salted Sea, the new seafood restaurant in Columbia City, without first talking about the business that it replaced, Angie’s Tavern. Angie’s was my favorite dive bar in town, a welcoming and comfortable place where I could reliably drink cheap beer (pitchers of Bud for $5.50) and cheap booze, and scarf down the occasional bowl of instant ramen with friends, many of whom have long since moved away. The music was good and loud and, as far as I could tell, the volume level was never so high as when there was a basketball or football game on.
But Angie’s also had its share of trouble, and it closed in 2011 after 26 years when the state liquor board refused to renew its license. Eventually, the single-story building that housed Angie’s, built in 1905, was torn down and replaced by a mixed-use structure, where Salted Sea now operates on the first floor…
