As the 110-capacity Belltown Yacht Club fills up with avid dancers, impressive sweat stains start spreading on shirts, blouses, and dresses at January’s Wig Out!, a 1960s garage-rock, R&B, and soul dance party. The DJs—Maxwell Edison, Kevin Fitzgerald, Michael Chrietzberg, and Mike Nipper—drop a selection of obscure, high-energy 45s, and though the music is five-plus decades old, punters youngish and middle-age-ish return their energy in spades. The vibe here is so un-21st-century Seattle—and that’s part of its appeal.
Belltown Yacht Club—which occupies the large space adjacent to the two-year-old Screwdriver Bar, located in the basement of the historic Barnes Building—was spawned from the minds of that establishment’s three owners: Chris Jones, Dave Flatman, and Bryan Krieger. The trio have extensive nightlife experience from the (old) Comet Tavern, Crocodile, and Neumos. They’re part of a new wave of artsy entrepreneurs who have migrated from Capitol Hill to Belltown, along with the owners of Jupiter Bar, Neon Boots, Black Cat, and others. Together, they’re shifting the locus of coolness to a part of Seattle that, in recent years, had become a playground for the rich and culturally obtuse. “We’re a bunch of misfits, so we are all taking care of each other here,” Krieger says.
