I like my bars dark and a little dirty, the sort of bar where I can hang out by myself on a Tuesday night and have a quiet beer. Fortunately for me, I live right down the street from the Eastlake Zoo Tavern (on Eastlake and East Lynn), which completely fits the bill. It doesn’t serve any hard liquor or food, doesn’t have WiFi, doesn’t have a trivia night. It’s just a plain old neighborhood bar.

Except that it’s really more than that. It’s the only co-op bar in the city, for one [P-I], so most of the bartenders have been there somewhere between 15 and 30 years. It’s got pool tables, dartboards, and an ancient shuffleboard table. Weekday nights the bar is scarcely populated with scruffy locals, although the young professional crowd tends to pack the place on the weekends. The beer is cheap and the tables are wobbly.

My neighborhood bar isn’t glamorous or particularly clean or a very good place to pick up dates. It is, however, a good place to drink beer and get to know like-minded neighbors. If you’re in the market for a cold beer and a friendly game of pool, I’ll meet you at the Zoo.

(This is part of what might someday be a series. Part one involves the Montlake Ale House.)