The Beacon Pub

This place is closed for good. Hope something new moves in that will be willing to take it to the next level. Also hope we get some more minority owned flavor. This is Beacon, not Capitol Hill. We expect flavor and unpretentious atmospheres and we willingly and loyally honor places that provide such with our hard earned/​hustled dollars. Sure, whomever opens up next can continue with the yuppie/​gentrification trend if they so desire. But realistically, no matter how much you point to the golf course Beacon Hill is still a place where people of different ethnicities come together to form the majority. Whomsoever decides to open up shop there next would do well to keep that in mind for longevity’s sake.

Walked into this bar to grab a quick beer, and ended up staying for two rounds of trivia and definitely more than one beer. I’ve only been living in Seattle for a month, but this is the best dive bar I’ve found. The people were friendly and invited us to join their trivia game as soon as we walked in. The crowd was an eclectic mix of characters and everyone was in a great mood. The beers are cheap and there are plenty of places to sit and relax; it kind of felt like someone’s basement (in a good way).
We were sad to hear that the place is closing in a few weeks. I was hoping this might be my new regular neighborhood bar. If you get a chance to check it out before it closes, you should.

It was a dark and stormy Halloween night (it was dry and the night before) when the Bloody Butcher, the Gypsy Queen, and Sandy Olsson stumbled into a neighborhood bar where they encountered a dashing Sherlock Holmes. The locals seemed quietly amused as mild mayhem took over the half of the room closest to the karaōke stage.
Things I loved:
*The drinks were strong, filled to the brim, and delicious.
*Amazing song selection. You think of it, it’s probably in the book.
*Wade F’s rendition of Creep
*Sign on the women’s bathroom (maybe men’s too – I didn’t check) warning that if more than one person tries to go in at once, you will be thrown out.
*GIANT TV screen.
*Clover A’s rendition of That’s Not My Name
*Cool karaōke system that introduces the singers and can be shuffled about. Even with a number of singers, everyone was able to sing as much or little as they wanted.
*Fake eyelashes.
*Meeting and dancing with new, cool people.
*A grown man in a Cookie Monster suit singing «C is for Cookie» to a girl dressed as a cookie.
Things I did not love:
*Uncomfortable chairs
*Lack of bartenders. While I didn’t drink enough to be bothered by it, the bar is in the business of selling alcohol – which means you need to have someone there to sell it.
*Catching a cold the next day.
However, minor complaints compared to the wonderfulness of karaōke at the Beacon. It’s the latest I’ve ever stayed out and was worth every minute. Beacon Pub, you are the one I want!

Okay– the karaōke is a million stars, and the whole point of this place is that and yes, STRONG drinks but
HELLO? Why must the bartender so rarely be behind the bar?
It’s like ‘Where’s Waldo’ but with the most important person of the night– the one controlling the flow of alcohol into me.
The math is that there are quite a few missing stars for this problem, which I have experienced many times. It’s not lack of good service when the bar is tended, it’s the regular-​ness of the lack of tending.
Perhaps if I’m there more regularly pouring money out of me which I tend to do at the bar, they could hire someone to help out and access to the goood service would improve.

Great bar. Total dive, but super fun! Karaōke was amazing, selection was incredible, and sound system was good. Great fun with Unilocalers! Bartender poured the best drinks I have had at a bar, and reasonably priced as well.

Great local pub, cold beer, large screen, karaōke. Be careful though, Recently I was in there a man fled after shooting his ex-​girlfreind point blank in the torso, and the guy sitting next to her in the leg. Miraculously, the Beacon Hill Pubsters rushed the vitims to the hospital themselves before the Police arrived. The perpetrator is still at large. Anyway, I came back the next day to pick up my bar tab, and they didn’t give me a hard time about leaving without paying first.

I went here for a quick drink when I had a few hours to kill on a Friday before meeting some people downtown.
When I walked in there were only regulars drinking at the bar. I went to the counter and ordered a the Kona that was on tap. The bartender replied, «I hate beer, don’t you just want a bottle»? I hesitated for a second, then she laughed and poured me one anyways.
The décor and the area were nice for a dive bar, and if I’m ever in the area, I’ll definitely come back for a few light beers.
This is also only a few block walk from the Beacon Hill Link Light Rail station and the #36 bus route, so it is easily accessible from downtown Seattle.

Summer time in Seattle = Good weather & being booked with plans or spontaneous trips.
Saturday night… Drinking and watching a friend’s band who happened to be playing here.
Walked in and was pretty dead for 10:00pm on a Saturday night?
I think it’s a local neighborhood bar, so I thought it’d have a few more people other than the ones that were there to see the show???
Service was friendly and prompt.
$ 8.50 for a shot of tequila and a bottle of corona. Not bad.
Clientele was a mixture of people.
The inside was not a place where you would feel like you need to put a napkin down to sit on one of the chairs and had some cool wall decorations. They have a Betty Boop poster… A definite plus in my book!!!
Overall just a laid back place where you can be yourself, have a drink or two and listen to some live music… A welcome relief after a hectic day.
Although, I did get carded… REALLY??? I know, I shouldn’t be complaining. ;-)

This is what you want out of a neighborhood bar.
You can have a lot of fun here, watch a game on the big screen, have a political debate or come for the karaōke or live music and decent pub grub. There is also a smoking lounge out back if that is your thing. I wouldn’t have wanted to be ANYWHERE else but here for election night.
You can let it ALL hang out here! This is not the bar for a first date because there are some rather Loud, but fun regulars. The crowd is completely different night to night as well.
Beacon Pub– god bless ya

Fine for a dive bar, but lacking in charm, we thought.
Mean drunks at bar, and our beer was skunked.

I think that some other reviewer described this place as ‘a multicultural, gay-​friendly, drunken paradise’ and I think that pretty much sums it up with a few blue collars and random hipsters thrown in. I used to come over to this Beacon Hill classic dive bar even before I lived in the neighborhood and I’m happy to report that I now live within stumbling home distance. I hope to never become one of the regular bar flies, but I’m happy it’s a friendly warm place to get a cold beer on rainy Seattle night.

Went there last weekend-​a great experience!
Pros: The crowd is pretty diverse-​a blend of ages, sexual orientations, not really that ethnically diverse. The food value-​I got a chicken BLT wrap. There’s no way they made money on that thing-​it was so big, they LOST money-​it was decently tasty. The Karaōke-​the host is down to earth, genuine AND he has some pipes! (he did «I believe in a thing called love”-the darkness! flawlessly!) –the setup (speaker system) isn’t the best, but as he gets paid more money, he can buy more sh#t!
Cons: People have a little too much fun here (i.e. there are some really loud, drunk people there) Kind of a hodge podge inside-​I don’t mind a dive bar, but being inside the Beacon Pub reminded me of being in someone’s grandparent’s living room.
If you want an experience and to have some fun, do yourself a favor and grab someone (or a group) and head on down to the Beacon Pub on a Friday-​I know I’ll be back!

Aces for the Karaōke! ACES! The KJ has a computerized system and has like almost every song you’d ever want to sing. My friends and I were amazed at the selection, the set up, and the stage. It was fantabulous!
The only thing was — an old drunk dude got into with me at the bar and started flipping me off and shouting at me. I have no idea why he targeted at me. I kinda got him cut off and thrown out of the bar. Whups! Haha.

Did I go on the wrong night? Based on Unilocal reviews I went here on a Saturday night. Showed up around 10ish, bad live music and maybe 6 – 7 patrons total. Left around 11, bad live music still happening but patronage had dropped down to 2 guys. There was a pool table that we had absolutely no competition for though.

Beacon Pub on Friday nights — for a good, truly surreal bar experience.
Some snapshots:
Dad & son duo singing raunchy, mid-​90s rap to their dates who giggle into their Long Islands.
A crowd of cute girls take up the whole stage to sing «Fancy», laughing the whole way through it.
The KJ takes the mic himself every eight or nine songs to serenade the strangely mixed crowd with songs centered around Marijuana innuendo.
Two bartenders arguing over whether or not there’s pineapple juice in a Tom Collins. I order a whiskey/​coke, and tell her she forgot to add pineapple juice. She buys my drink. No joke!
A tall guy in a pimp-​suit rolls through the door and about nine people from different tables get up out of their chairs to hug him and shake his hand. Now, this guy isn’t joking. He’s wearing a fedora and a cape, wearing a lavender necktie and a diamond necklace. Later, he was telling me that my girlfriend was a great dancer while one of his buddies was guessing everybody’s birthdays.
I wonder, sometimes, if the afterlife will be like the Beacon Pub. A humble room with loud music and hazy smiles on the faces of widely varying strangers. It doesn’t matter who you are — we all know the words to «sweet child of mine», and we’ll cheer you on.

Talk about leaving your element.
On my first trip to Seattle, after checking into our fairly nice hotel, where do I go? –The most hole-​in-​the-​wall bar in Seattle. A friend of ours (a Seattle resident) recommended that we go there on a Friday night. I knew something was fishy when the cab driver said that he had never actually dropped people off here…
From the outside, it looks like an out of place residential bar. The inside… oh brother, it looks like a house party turned into bar.
Stepping in took me back to my days in Detroit. We definitely had our guard up as we OBVIOUSLY did not fit in. Eyes were glued to us and comments begin to fly about how great we smell/​look/​etc.
Next scene: While playing pool with one of the locals, my friend was told that his opponent had killed over a game of pool and served 9 years for it.
Meanwhile, I was being courted by a man who made hydrogen for a living.
Next, as it was Karaōke night, my other suitor (close to 60 with a few missing teeth) dedicated a lovely song to me. By the end of our time there, everyone had warmed up to us, so saddened by the fact that we had to leave, offering us reasons to stay including large piles of green plants and other goodies, trying to jump in our cab with promises of a great night.
In all seriousness, take it with a grain of salt and check it out. The diverse clientele make for an interesting night out.

The thing I love about the Beacon Pub is really the clientele mix. You always leave with a story — whether it’s an older black gentleman chastising your friend for disrespecting women by singing «I’m in Love with a Stripper» or hearing someone yell at their friend on the dance floor -«Dude, your baby is crying in the car!» Ah, good times.
May I also direct your attention to the awesome art work featured in this bar — with the piece de resistance being the velvet and rhinestone 8 ft long NYC cityscape above the bar. A thing of beauty.
Another great point is that there’s generally not a ton of people angling for the mic, so you can usually get in at least 3 songs. My one word of caution — they must use the cheapest liquor here cos I always end up with the worst hangovers!

Ah, the Beacon, our new favorite Friday destination. Yeah, it’s a dive. The bathrooms are strange and sketchy, the soft drinks come in bottles, the patrons can be loud, the furniture doesn’t match or sit straight, and the Coca-​Cola sign is the main identifying feature. Beacon Hill hasn’t been completely gentrified yet.
But that’s part of why it’s a friendly dive. The Beacon is a truly diverse neighborhood bar. We show up fairly early (a bit before 9) for karaōke on Fridays, and we’re some of the only white people there. As the night wears on, a younger, whiter and often more-​lesbian crowd trickles in. The selection is decent and the singers tend to be decent. The stage is in a corner near the front, but there’s also the pool, darts, etc; you don’t have to sing if you don’t want to.
It gets crowded by the end of the evening, but it’s still possiblie to find a chair and to muscle up to the bar. If you show up early, you might even get five songs in. Or you can just sit with your beer and watch the huge variety of people in the bar. on the stage and out on the street.

Come out to beacon hill and experience one of the last *real* dive bars in seattle. This isn’t the comet, you’re gonna run into some strange characters here sometimes. But everyone gets along (mostly), and my kareoke friends love it, saying it has one of the best selections in the city. This is also a real neighborhood bar. we came in on christmas eve and they were having a luau, complete with a roast pig and a full buffet.
Also, the beacon has probably the best outdoor smoking area in the city of seattle, if that’s your thing.

This place was GREAT! I was in Seattle on vacation, and my friends and I decided we wanted to go to karaōke, so I went on Ask Metafilter and asked about the best places to go on Fridays. This was the place people kept mentioning, and they were right. It’s a total dive bar with a really diverse crowd, from seedy and down and out to educated and swanky. The books are big with every song I could think of singing. There was a lot of crowd participation and dancing, too. I highly recommend you travel up Beacon Hill for a fun night out.