The Art of The Dive Bar
A GOOD DIVE BAR is like a warm bath. No matter your occupation, place in life, or time of day, you can slip in, take your time, and leave feeling like the world maybe ain’t quiet as bad as people are saying.
This week Anxiety Club sat down with the owners of one of Seattle’s best dives, Tim’s Tavern.
Tim’s Tavern is a “good-time” dive bar, in the words of its owners, Matt and Mason. It wasn’t always that way. It took a good deal of cleaning and oversight to make take it from just another “shit hole” (their words, not mine) to a place where you would actually want to stop in, have a drink and taco, and stay a little while for the show.
Did I mention that they do music 7 days a week, and Anxiety Club’s own Karl Benitez is often featured on that same stage in one of his seemingly 13 bands? Way to go Karl!
I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t too stocked on the idea of this interview. I mean what’s there to learn about a bar that we all don’t really just kind of get by going there. Turns out I was wrong. Owning a bar is not all whiskey dicks and lose women but rather a hell of a lot of hard work, business acumen, and years of on the job training.
As they talk about in the episode, Matt and Mason come from a musician background. They’ve been in bands since 13. It’s during their time on the road that they learned the difference between just another bar and a really good dive bar. We all know all bars aren't created equal. Especially dives like Tim’s. A quality dive bar is a mixture of cheap drinks, welcoming atmosphere, and that special sauce that’s oh-so-hard to put your dirty little finger on. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a mixture of age, modesty, good entertainment, and sour regulars who keep newcomers and staff from going too far off into unchartered waters. But even that is just the guess of an outsider. For the real story, the inside story, check out Matt and Mason of Tim’s Tavern in the brand new episode of #Anxietyclub
