The Hideout

free jukebox and of course the chimay always makes for a lovely time

just good atmosphere. various art… one of the best zines in seattle.

The Adam Hunter Trio has been playing there on Saturdays lately…I’m not sure if it’s an official schedule but they’ll be there this Saturday (May 27th). It’s upbeat, danceable bossa nova – Adam is a friend of mine and has a voice like dark velvet and his new sax player really rounds out their sound. Not to leave anyone out…all his players are great; the configuration changes.

^{Adam Hunter Trio at Loft Party in May 2006}

The owners are great guys and the bartenders are awesome. I highly recommend drinks with juice cause they squeeze it right there with an old fashioned press. I usually order a Salty Dog.

Oh and the art! I’m sure others have covered it but where else can you drunkenly doodle your night away? Doodles, poetry, etc can be submitted to appear in the Vital 5 Review, the bar’s homebrewed zine.

I was charged $1,334.40 for last night’s office hours festivities. I think this means I officially have a tab at this place. Yay!

The Hideout is not somewhere that I’d send a visitor to Seattle. Strange neighborhood (near hospitals) on a street with not much else on it. It attracts a small, eclectic crowd who choose to go out of their way to drink at this watering hole.

An art gallery mixed with Gaudy-meets-Americana bar vibe … but nothing is perfect about it. Some of the art is good, some of it is not so good. The service is personal yet unpro at times. The ornate mirrors don’t really mix with the 50s cooler behind the bar. But all these uneasy quirks make the place hum. That, or Erik’s regular office hour gatherings have altered my perception.

I suspect The Hideout could dissolve as fast as it appeared and like the great film you stumble into to escape a rainy day that never releases on DVD, you’ll miss it if you blink.

I did spend more money than I wanted to, but this place is worth the extra buck. I started off with an Andy Warhol (cosmopolitan + a polaroid of yourself) and was so pleased with the cosmo that I bought three more. Oh, and the server was fantastic. I was afraid the place might be swarming with Resident-types but I only heard one medicine-related conversation (phew). The server will be more than happy to call a cab at the end of the evening if you find yourself enjoying the drinks a little too much as well.

If every bar in the world was an eclectic art gallery providing heavy-handed drinks, good cheese to snack on, an also-eclectic (and free) jukebox with its own bound menu of songs, and a free publication of its patrons’ in-house creative outpourings, then this place would have to do something else to stand out. Like, they’d have to suspend gravity for a few seconds per hour or serve drinks in X-ray glasses. But they don’t have to do anything else to stand out, because every other bar in the world is unlike this one.

I learned about this place from this article, and decided to give it a try a month or so ago. It’s in a strange location: in a fairly residential area which also has several medical centers, banks, and weird food joints. But the oddities only begin there.

1. The art on the walls is listed in a little book… you can as easily purchase a drink as a painting.
2. The jukebox doesn’t have album covers in it… instead, little works of art that you can purchase for $20-$40.
3. The jukebox is free!
4. You can purchase an Andy Warhol… a cosmo plus a polaroid of yourself drinking said cosmo.
5. There are clipboards available for you to write or doodle in. They publish a small magazine of select choices every 6 months.
6. The benches are comfy.
7. There are offices above the bar, since it serves also as the home base for the owner’s miscellaneous artistic pursuits.

I urge you to go here excitedly and often.