Angie’s Tavern

I am still missing this place a year after it closed. Had a lot of friends that hung out there, don’t know where they are hanging out now. All the other places in Columbia City are just not happening. Thanks all you new people in the neighborhood for asking for the closure of a classic dive bar where everyone that went in there was family. Hope you’re happy now! The drugs, shootings and robberies didn’t go away did they?

I am a baby. No, I am a puppy.
I have lived in Seattle my whole life and spent about half of that being very afraid of Angie’s, like the boogy man. All I ever heard was that I do NOT want to go in there. Even my black friends wouldn’t go in there.
Then I actually moved to Columbia City, about a block away from this mysteriously feared destination. The first day I was there, I swallowed hard and walked through the door. The rap music was boom-​boom-​booming in the joint and I quickly realized I was the only honky in sight. The looks from the gentlemen from the billiard area was not the looks I was expecting. They did not say «I’m going to rip your heart out of your chest and eat it», they just seemed to say «Dude, are you lost or something?» Fair enough.
By the time I went in there a few times, they seemed to get the drift that I wasn’t going anywhere and I believe I was taken under their wing. The black ladies saw me walk in the door and it was like some one had a puppy or a baby with them. «OOOHH! Child, look at you! Look at his hair! Oh! Come and sit right here next to me!» I had to admit, that was pretty nice.
In a short period of time I came to be not only comfortable at Angie’s but very comfortable. No one tried to kill me, the atmosphere was warm, the crowd spanned age and class, the people were loud and enthusiastic (watch the Lakers play the Celtics there sometime, hoo-​boy.) and I always had a good time.
Cash only. $ 2 Miller on draft. Mickey’s big mouth bottles, 22oz Old English. Yes, yes and yes.
After years and years of threats, Angie’s was officially put to rest in June 2010. Padlock on the door and an eerie emptiness where was once a hotbed of lively activity. Goodbye Angie’s.

Angie’s is a classic neighborhood dive housed in a structure built in 1905 that has been home to a bar since shortly after prohibition, which is apparently closing after Saturday June 20 2010, as the state refuses to renew their liquor license.
The structure was originally a barber shop and pool room — there were no saloons in the town at the time, as Columbia City was a «dry» town until it was annexed by Seattle in 1907. It became a tavern named The Pink Poodle after prohibition, and renamed Angie’s Tavern in 1985.
For many, Angie’s happily preserved a bit of the old Columbia City, as the other side of the street became increasingly gentrified. (The racial difference of patrons of the respective sides of Rainier Ave is pretty remarkable). I went on what seemed like the perfect night, catching the last half of game seven of the NBA championship. The crowd seemed pretty evenly split between Celtics and Lakers fans, and I can’t imagine that Staples Center was any louder than Angie’s on that night. («Get your ass up off the ground!» «Here they come! Here they come!» «It’s irrelevant! It’s irrelevant!»)
Angie’s made Mike Seeley’s list of Seattle’s 10 Most Intimidating Dive Bars, and the state liquor board is refusing to renew the tavern’s liquor license due to the number of problems with drugs, fights, and gunfire. I don’t know how much the existence of Angie’s contributed to those problems, but it’s a shame to see this place go.

What Ariel said. :)
Its a dive bar in the middle of boutiques… its kinda cute in that divey sort of way. Beers are cheap, cash only, funny little asian barmaid singing along to the pounding music and the patrons playing pool talking louder then music and just plain having a good night, as I did.

Amidst all the increasing boutiqueness of Columbia City, there is Angie’s — an old school dive bar. When you belly-​up to the bar, you’ll see yourself on the closed-​circuit security tv screen by the booze. You’ll notice the Famous African Kings Budweiser mirror over the bar. You’ll take in the two pool tables, the filthy floor, the bars on the back door, and you’ll think «Damn, Angie’s had a rough time of it.»
Then you’ll get your first stiff drink, and you won’t really worry about it any more. You will, however, get a laugh out of the sign on the women’s room that reads «ONE AT A TIME!!» Again: Angie’s has had some rough times, you can tell … but it’s great antidote to the overpriced yuppitude of some of Columbia City’s newer establishments. It’s a dive bar, and happy to be so.
Highly recommended after a movie at Columbia City Cinemas!