Phone photo 1521

 

The Olympic Club woodstove and poolroom, Centralia, Washington

From what I have been told, my grandfather basically lived at a pool table here in the 1930s-1950s. He "owned" the table closest to the stove (although I'm sure that original table has long since passed on).  This place was pretty much a seedy dive when I first visited it in the 1970s, but it has since been McMenaminized just like the Spar in Olympia and many other Washington/Oregon local icons. This place includes a family dining area in a room where I formerly observed old guys in fedoras smoking cigars and playing cards. The Wm. Hoss building is next door to the McMenamins complex.

Phone photo 1477

Back room at the Spar

Olympia, Washington

Phone photo 1474

Mural in the Spar, a restaurant in Olympia, Washington, honoring past employees. The gentleman who is second to the end on the right was the unflappable Stan. The place was McMenaminized a few years ago and maintains some of the original flavor, but I miss the eternal flame, the rolling blackboard with sports scores, and the dark cave called the Highclimber Room.