The Blue Moon Tavern

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712 NE 45th St.
Seattle WA 98105
bluemoonseattle.com
206 675-9116

"A grubby oasis just outside the university's one-mile-limit Sahara, where poets, pedants, painters and other assorted wildlife make overtures to each other."

The Blue Moon, a U District landmark and the oldest still-operating tavern, first opened its doors in April, 1934. The tavern provided a haven for harried UW professors (such as Joe Butterworth) caught up in the Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist purge. In the Blue Moon’s heyday—the ‘50s and ‘60s—you could easily find yourself quaffing a frosty beer beside such literary luminaries as Tom Robbins and Theodore Roethke, Richard Hugo, Carolyn Kizer, Stanley Kunitz, and David Wagoner. Visitors included Dylan Thomas and Allen Ginsberg.