MetaFilter Mini Meet Up Now With Live Vintage Blues at the Marco Polo in Georgetown

October 19, 2008 1:32 AM

So, after many a should I or should I not, I should edges I should not just now and, so, I hereby present the concept of a mini meet up this coming Saturday, a meet up with the most excllent live vintage blues at the most excellent Marco Polo Bar & Grill down there on 4th Avenue in Georgetown, as alluded to here.

The Phantoms of Soul are playing at the Marco Polo this next Saturday. I have had so much fun at meetups talking and listening to a bunch of very smart and funny people, people who I would otherwise never have met save for meeting them via MetaFilter. It is a recharge for the imaginal batteries to even barely follow the conversations when the conversations go well. No shit Sherlock. So, since this comes in the category of something cool to share in real life, I thought that I would lay it upon my own local 'Filterrestrials.

Jack and band play from a deep book of blues standards from songster to jump. Or he will present sections of Jokermania, a tale of precocious hipster bluesmen in an alternate 1950s Seattle. The band is solid and rocking and the players come with jazz chops. I know I am not totally objective here but I have to tell you that this is the universal consensus among people I know who have heard them as well: They are really good.

The Marco Polo apparently can provide good food--including their, ahem, famous pressure fried chicken--and beverages there, too. Back in the day, the bar itself was as venerable as anything in Georgetown, which would make it venerable as anywhere in Seattle. But it sounds like they have had quite the do over and vintage it is not no more. Quite a few people seem to like it all the same.

Fine food, beverages and vintage blues at a picturesque locale: the concept has merit, says I.

posted by y2karl to MetaFilter gatherings at 1:32 AM (12 comments total)

Back in the day, the bar itself was as venerable as anything in Georgetown, which would make it venerable as anywhere in Seattle. But it sounds like they have had quite the do over and vintage it is not no more.

Karl, I can't for the life of me remember what it was called before "Marco Polo". I took some photos of the place and the surrounding neighborhood to see if it would help me recall, but to no avail.

I remember being there in the mid 1990's, and I must have driven by it about 500 times. Marco Polo may have been in business since 1950, but not at that location. Or they could simply be pulling our chain.
posted by Tube at 3:16 PM on October 19, 2008

I seem to remember seeing a Marco Polo Tavern on 4th Avenue in Georgetown in the 80s and thinking it looked like a place that had been around since the 50s then. It had a sign that looked substantially different, though, with broken neon tubes that outlined the letters of Marco Polo and single sailed sailing ships in the ancient classical or Arabian nights style. But it was tan in color in the background and not painted in green and white like the one in the picture. I can't tell if that is the same sign repainted or what in that picture. But it looks like the same place as far as the structure.
posted by y2karl at 4:00 PM on October 19, 2008

Yeah, looks like I've fallen victim to a false memory; Marco Polo indeed...
posted by Tube at 4:35 PM on October 19, 2008

Color me disappointed: your Georgetown isn't my Georgetown, which is in Washington, DC and isn't cool enough to have dive jazz bars....
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:36 PM on October 19, 2008

Sounds like fun, Karl, I'll join in. My CIA sponsored remote viewing skills tell me that the stage is 18" tall, and probably in a corner...
posted by Tube at 6:51 PM on October 19, 2008

...and single sailed sailing ships in the ancient classical or Arabian nights style

Right on ship, right on broken neon, wrong on sails and era--ah, recollection can be a tricky thing. Well, for what it's worth, I was wondering for awhile if I was the one with a false memory.

Now, on closer inspection of the picture in the first link in the post, I can see that's the same sign as the old one in Mr. Sharman's, which is how it looked before it was repainted. That's one more thing that makes me wish I had gone in the place before it was remodeled. But, at least, it's still there. Unlike Kettells. I miss that place, too.
posted by y2karl at 10:06 AM on October 20, 2008

I will be out of town that day, sadly, but with y2karl's taste in music and gift for Seattle history I would anticipate a hell of an evening. Have fun, people.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:38 PM on October 20, 2008

yeah, it was Marco Polo before the rehab too.

Save a spot for the greasiest and most deelish fried chicken y'all will ever eat. fresh outta the fryer, it's amazing. And a gut bomb!
posted by mwhybark at 3:57 PM on October 20, 2008

At work there is an old sticker on the wall for the Siren Tavern, also on Fourth. I believe my false memory was in fact a confabulation of the Siren with the Marco Polo...

Karl, you should have this post sidebarred, since the performance date and venue is already fixed.

It should help push Georgetown's cool quotient through the roof.
posted by Tube at 5:32 PM on October 20, 2008

How was the evening? Did anyone go?
posted by grouse at 10:12 AM on October 26, 2008

It was good. I had 4 chicken thighs, and they were as tasty as promised. Jo-jo's were unremarkable. Karl and I sat up front, along with two of Karl's female friends.

What is this man's mojo? How does he pull in the groovy chicks...

As I suspected, the stage was low, although I overestimated by about 6". It was centered, and not in a corner. Tunes were good, and the sound well balanced. Heck, now that cigarette smoke is no longer a factor, I might start hanging out in bars again...
posted by Tube at 4:46 PM on October 26, 2008

What is this man's mojo? How does he pull in the groovy chicks...

I told them that people from MetaFilter were going to be there. No kiddin'!

And, now with Tube as my witness, the music played was often quite danceable--Tipitina, Mardi Gras Mambo and the Meter's Cissy Strut were on the playlist--and never too loud, the saloon was remarkably uncrowded, the food reat, service excellent and amenities remarkable--an order of diet Coke came with free re-fills for the night, for example. And that was before I ordered any food.

And the company, as always, was excellent and the conversation, as always, was stimulating.

Well, sometimes the obvious must be re-stated explicitly: good food, good music and a minimum of two lovely women guests per y2karl is the sure road to meet up success. And, since Jack and band are now booked at the Marco Polo one Saturday a month, a meet up rematch at the Marco Polo in the near future is a concept with merit and so shall a Son of MetaFilter Mini Meet Up Now With Live Vintage Blues at the Marco Polo be posted thus, minus the Mini, with any justice, and soon--this is what I am thinking right now, shooting towards a meet up towards the end of this next November.
posted by y2karl at 10:47 AM on October 27, 2008