We walk into a very small bar

Triangle Pub, Seattle, Washington (Pioneer Square)
The topic of conversation was country music as we sat down at the bar. Someone was expressing a preference for old school -- up to the Barbara Mandrell, Charlie Pride years. People talked about how depressing country music could be when the songs were about job loss, romantic abandonment, and the death of pets. Mindy asked whether the loss of a truck bothered anyone, which it didn’t. In fact, someone expressed fondness for Carrie Underwood’s destruction of a vehicle.

Mindy and I aren’t exactly country music fans (Mindy has a higher tolerance for the genre than I do) but we were pleased that everybody in the place seemed welcome to join the conversation. When talk moved on to something we knew more about (Jason Bateman’s sitcom history, which moved on to Nellie “Little House on the Prairie” Oleson’s autobiography, and eventually Carrie Fisher’s challenges living her entire adult life in the shadow of Princess Leia.

The intimacy of the bar is a given; the website points out that it’s one of Seattle’s smallest bars. The bar is in the point of a flatiron building. (The original Flatiron Building is, of course, in NYC and was built in 1901. But this flatiron, built in 1910, wasn’t far behind.) The website also brags about the building once housing a brothel, but it was a bar first, and that remains (not the… other thing).

The bar is close the Seahawks and Mariners stadiums. Tracie the bartender told us that the bar is a madhouse on game days, with many people taking the five-minute walk from the parks. Plenty of Seattle fans come, but also fans from rival teams. Tracie said they try to make those fans feel welcome (rumor has it that’s not the attitude of sports bars in Philadelphia).

I noticed pomegranate cider on tap, so Mindy ordered it. I went with a rum and coke. There wasn’t much in the way of food available, though there were chips on the wall for sale.

Because conversation flowed easily, we had no trouble getting answers to our two standard questions, “What makes for a good bar?” and “Whether you go or not, what would make for a good church?”

First, we asked Michelle, who was sitting next to Mindy. “A good bar...A good bar. Where the bartender remembers your name. And what you drink.” She expressed appreciation for Tracie.

Chris, a man sitting near me, added, “A good bar is where Tracie is bartending.”

I asked what a bar should do if they don’t have Tracie. Chris said, “They should have a bartender like Tracie.”

Tracie said it’s important for a bar to have an attentive staff who remembers the likes and dislikes of guests. She actually works just one night a week at the Triangle. She knows the regulars, though, because she was one herself when she began working six months ago.

Michelle and Chris both expressed appreciation for the feel of the Triangle. Chris said a bar should be “Cozy and comfortable; not too sterile. What’s the opposite of sterile?”

Michelle said that in a good bar, you should be able to “kick back and feel like you're in a living room that is not your own.”

Another thing that Michelle and Chris appreciate about Triangle Pub is the convenience of the location. They work in the same building, and they talked about regulars and “upper echelon regulars” (who vacation with the owner).

Michelle was the only person who answered our church question, saying a good church would be “accepting and inclusive.”

Suddenly, Chris announced that it was a special day. “It’s the 85th anniversary of the end of prohibition! Jello shots! Let’s put them on Ethan’s tab!” Ethan, at a table along a wall a few feet away, didn’t seem enthused about having them on his tab, but he was fine with shots. People argued over which color of shot to take (“The blue ones are the only ones with calories”). “Cheers!”

Not one country song played from the jukebox while we were there, though “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” a celebration of unfaithfulness, did play. The regulars seemed faithful in their love for The Triangle Pub, and that love seemed well earned.