Zoo Tavern — Restaurant in Seattle

So, I found myself at a local bar, the Zoo on a Tuesday night, my first impressions were so wrong! The bartender Dylan greeted me on a obviously busy night, saying he’ll be right with me, and he was. I was served and wandered towards the pool tables, I was told it was league night, so I watched for a minute. I was immediately drawn to a guy shooting pool with one arm, not that he didn’t have another arm, so I thought he was showing off maybe. I spoke with him after, he introduced himself as “Boston” and I said “ahh you’re from California?” We were friends from that point! He shot one handed and he said because that’s how he plays best, and I have to say I may have never seen a better pool player since I have been in Seattle 25 years. He provides a great part of the atmosphere, as well as Dylan, and the other locals, who live on Eastlake Ave E like me! I've seen Boston and Dylan, and some of the others around and we always B.S and I am so glad I decided to go to The Zoo, or I would have missed out on some cool, neighborhood friends. Don’t think you can beat Boston, or a couple others in a game of pool, I did, and never touched the table, straight run first game, I removed my quarters after that, and left the pool to Boston and the crew! Thanks for taking a stranger and making him...

What was known as a "bar" in Seattle in the 70s and 80s apparently is now called a "dive" in the new, shiny Seattle where no one here has been around more than a couple years and no one plans to stay.

From the old days when there would be a line of Harleys outside until the grunge 90s the Zoo was a happening spot, always full, lots of fun, certainly very rough around the edges until the flannel wearing set rolled through in the 90s and the scariest elements seem to have found new watering holes, and never came back. Now I have never seen it with more than just a couple people around and wonder how it stays in business but it's probably the only piece of the real Eastlake that survives.

Good thing too--hard to imagine Eastlake without the Eastlake Zoo...once upon a time that was the only reason people knew that part of town was...

A great candidate for Bar Rescue? Bar has potential but is so poorly run that it's not worth going to, at least if you're looking to play games. And that's the draw for the bar really. Has a ping pong table but bartender admittedly told us that the equipment sucked. Paddles are terrible (just pieces of wood) and they had no good ping pong balls. So we tried moving to shuffleboard. Bartender told us when we asked for the shuffle boards that they usually charge but weren't because they were out of sand. I mean, the lack of ping pong equipment and shuffleboard sand is like an unsolvable equation? Just go spend a few bucks and stock your bar. Shffleboard was terrible anyway - table was a piece of plywood with 2 white scoring zones painted at the end. Would recommend...