At the end of May and beginning of June, I took a trip up to Seattle to see family and friends. It was great to get back to the city where I grew up and see so many old sights and friends. It was also exciting to see how Seattle has changed too. The light rail continues to delight me as it makes it so much easier to get around the city provided you stay at a hotel near to a station. I was also excited to check out some of the dive bars I had read about in “Seattle’s Best Dive Bars” and see what other adventures would come up through serendipity.
Seattle’s Dive Bars
Fresh off reading “Seattle’s Best Dive Bars” I was interested to visit some of the spots mentioned by Mike Seeley. Top of my list was Jules Maes in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. This is a classic spot in the busy neighborhood business district that lines Airport Way as it runs through Georgetown. Jules Maes feels more like a saloon than a dive bar given its location in a historic brick building from the turn of the 20th century with high ceilings and a massive bar that dominates the space. Yet Jules Mae, and the surrounding district, have a very contemporary feel too, like a small western town transported to a major west coast city.
Jules Maes and the rest of the bars along the stretch were mostly filled with hip 20-somethings out for a date or night with friends, though there was a smattering of construction workers that showed that Georgetown is still something of a working neighborhood. The night I was there a rock band was setting up for a show later that night and the kitchen was serving up southern BBQ burgers stacked with onions rings. It was good to see that the Georgetown bar, night and art scene remains alive and active after COVID.
The day after Jules Maes, I was traveling down 5th avenue on my way to Green Lake when I stopped to do a quick drawing of another dive bar on Seeley’s list. The Reservoir Bar is a pretty minor entry in Seeley’s book, but its saving grace in his opinion was its vintage exterior and I would have to agree. The 1920s sign and distinctive white and green paint job making this a spot that is hard to miss. They were closed when I did my drawing, but it gave the sense of the neighborhood watering hole. Seeley might be disappointed with it, but it was a good spot to get in some drawing while watching the seniors playing pickle ball in the park that was built over the reservoir across the road.
The other dive bar from Seeley’s list that I really wanted to visit was Mike’s Chili Parlor. This spot caught my attention as it sits right next to the off ramp from the Ballard Bridge, which I must have taken 100s if not 1000s of times. Yet this spot had never registered in my mind. Likewise, the Up House is just around the corner from this spot, so I have been in this neighborhood plenty of times. So it was with great joy that I went to some place I had never been to due to lack of attention. The chili did not disappoint, but I did not get in a drawing here as I arrived near closing and they were only doing to go orders. I will have to come back another time for a drawing.
Seattle’s Comic Bookstores
The other unintended theme of this trip to Seattle was comic bookstores. I had not intended to visit comic bookstores along my way, but comic bookstores kept coming up on this trip.
The first was at Fantagraphics Books in Georgetown. I was on my way to Jules Maes, but Fantagraphics is a few blocks over and I passed it on the way. Fantagraphics is always a pleasure to visit. Its tall ceilings give the store an airy feel filled with the smell of paper and vinyl. Fantagraphics shares the space with a record store. The result is a space that feels cool even on a hot day.
Fantagraphics had a display of beautiful, original prints from a European cartoonist I was not familiar with. The artist used a monoline technique that gave their prints a very cartoony look and allowed for very stylized drawing. Someone bought one of the prints while I was there, so the proprietor was filling them in on the prints and telling them about the latest books they had launched. A zine in the store was actually from an 8-year old, which was impressive.
I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to buy at Fanatgraphics. There was a new book from Jason, which was surprisingly thick. Usually Jason’s books are on the thinner side. Drawn to Berlin looked interesting too, telling the story of a series of comic book workshops for refugees in Berlin. Beta Testing the Apocalypse and Artichoke Tales looked good too. I finally settled on a small book titled What is Art. Fantagraphics seems to have a thing at the moment for very self-reflective and philosophical comics like this.
A second unexpected comic bookstore trip came when I met up with a friend who was working at Outsider Comics in Fremont. I met her at the store’s close to hang out after, but came a few minutes early to browse. I got a copy of Waves as I had recently checked it out from the library and really enjoyed it. They also had a bunch of comics left from Free Comic Book Day, so I got a bunch of free comics too.
As I had done a quick sketch of Fantagraphics, I went back to get a quick sketch of Outsider Comics the morning I was leaving Seattle. I recently picked up a small sketch book at the Eugene Saturday Market that I have been using for these quick sketches. I have been enjoying this as I can get in a lot more drawing and not feel like I can only produce one or two drawings over an entire trip. Instead I can produce a lot of these smaller 20-minute sketches. It is like sketching snap shots that I can enjoy making and reviewing. It also makes it easy to scout spots where I might want to do a more dedicated painting.
Sketchy Traveler 