On May 18, 1981, a year after Mt. St. Helen’s blew, Seattle’s first Irish bar opened: Murphy’s Irish Pub. Go ahead, check your calendar: next Wednesday, that’ll be thirty years exactly, and they’re celebrating.
When Chris Barnes and Dan Cowan originally opened Murphy’s, it stood where Starbucks stands today, a half a block to the east (a Radio Shack stood on the corner of 45th and Meridian, where Murphy’s is today). Dan left shortly after (and went on to open The Tractor Tavern in Ballard), while Chris slowly built a Seattle institution.
For years, its stage was host to the nationally syndicated Sandy Bradley’s Potluck, a sort of Prairie Home Companion of Seattle, featuring “traditional old-time American music, ragtime and blues to movie cartoon sound tracks and novelty songs”.
Being the first Irish pub, it managed to log a few firsts along the way: the first bar in Seattle to start a St. Patrick’s Day tradition (the lines start forming at 10 am now), the first bar in Seattle to pour micro brews from the tap (Redhook opened in Fremont in 1982), and first in the hearts of its patrons all the way.
So much so, that when Chris decided to sell the bar in 2003, the new owner, Shah, was the source of some distrust and fear. Needing a break from the world of high finance, and an avid beer drinker, he found himself a new home at Murphy’s.
“There were all sorts of rumors flying around about what the new owner was going to do: I was going to knock down walls, put up walls, install a pool table, turn it into a nightclub,” Shah told us. “So the first night after I bought it, I walked in and sat down at the bar, near tables 17 and 18, where the regulars sit. And they were looking at me and whispering to each other, and then one comes over and asks me if I was the guy that bought the place and I said, ‘yeah, that’s me,’ and he says ‘we’re the regulars, don’t fuck with this place’.”
And he didn’t. What you’ll find today is pretty much what Chris had in mind 30 years ago: a bar in the Irish tradition, where you can shoot some darts with friends over a Guinness, listen to some live music a few nights a week (Irish music jam session on Mondays), and just relax after a long day.
Come celebrate their 30th anniversary this coming Wednesday, May 18th. There will be 30% off all their regular prices (excludes happy hour) and much merriment.
And if you’re one of those Facebook people, go ahead and like ’em on Facebook. As of this writing, they’ve only got 38 people liking ’em, which is just a cryin’ shame for such fine institution.
(Murphy’s is a Wallyhood sponsor. All photos from Chris Barnes’ fabulous collection of historical Murphy’s photos on Flickr.)
I’m pretty sure Mt St Helens blew in 1980, not 1982.
doug’s right. st helens blow was on may 18, 1980.
Whoops! Thanks!
I just can’t believe that 1981 was 30 years ago *sigh*
I can’t believe there wasn’t an Irish pub in Seattle until 1981. Crazy.
I would love them more if they didn’t have the stingiest corned beef sandwiches in town–tried it on St. Patrick’s day a few years ago and haven’t tried to eat there since. The beer is fine.
What did Sandy Bradley’s Potluck feature? Looks like a section of the article was dropped.
Thanks all, corrected the Mt. St Helen’s date. Also, finished the Sandy Bradley Potluck sentence. Proofread, always proofread! And this was AFTER Margaret fixed my “it’s” => “its” errors.
I haven’t been able to find much on Sandy Bradley’s Potluck, just that it was a sort of Prairie Home Companion of Seattle, with more of an emphasis on music, I think.
Ask Jere Canote, he was a vital part of it, works at The Folkstore, http://www.folkstoreseattle.com. Teaches a string band class. IMHO, Garrison’s show is more like a Sandy Bradley’s Potluck of Minnesota . . .
My favorite memory of the latter is watching Gary Larson’s mom sing wacky songs when it was still at Murphy’s, circa 1989. Although when Jack Hansen told his dogs to get off the couch over the airwaves was pretty darn funny. Until recently, there was an annual reunion show at MoHAI. Sandy is still at a morphed it; perhaps Paul Dorpat can chime in. In the present, I recommend taking the String Band Class: http://www.canote.com
THIRTY YEARS! Sandy, an old friend, is an immortal, which among other advantages means she is still alive and living well in the pastures and wetlands of the the Willapa habitat. Perhaps once a year she calls for her devotees – the Bradley Bunch – to come on out to her farm and make music and cook together. Another proper sign of her immortality – and an early clue – was her answer long ago to a question (of mine) that I now cannot remember. (That is an indication of my own mortality.) I asked her – something like. “Sandy, you know that first electric album of Dylan’s, Blonde on Blonde – what do you think of it?” Her answer came from the heavens. “Sorry Paul but I don’t know that album.” You see immortals are not necessarily omniscient. Sandy has been a folk specialist immortal from before – perhaps – the early Dylan. Here’s another sign. For my 65th birthday party I was vain enough to persuade 500 persons to attend and to also BRING presents if they felt inclined, Sandy came in from Willapa with sacks of fresh oysters which she shucked on the spot for those who wished them. And she never ran out. Here you are encouraged remember the bible story of the loaves and fishes. All Wallingfordians owe some thanks to Sandy – and the twins – for putting our neighborhood in proper perspective – for teaching us some humility. Her weekly show on KUOW presented from the small stage at Murphy’s signed on with a line that was something like . . “And now from Wallingford, the Gateway to Ballard . . . ” At some point in its long run – as I remember it – the show would do an annual Christmas season production from the stage at MOHAI *Museum of History and Industry” in Montlake. These were well attended and often a long episode of streaming delight. (Here I’ll interrupt this Bradley canonization to hopefully remind Wallingford readers that they can see about 25 parts of their neighborhood as year-long timelapses in the MOHAI exhibit “Repeat Photography” which is now up at the museum – directly on top of the former Potluck performance stage – and will be until JUNE of NEXT YEAR. Frankly, I am tired of waiting for a Wallyhood review and so give that show big credits here on my own, in a padded demonstration, perhaps, of my own mutability.) Long before the Potluck show Sandy was part of a string group that played regularly in folkee-taverns around town – especially in Pioneer Square. This was even before the reasonable – if still hysterical – taboo on cigarettes, and the combination of youth, smoke, the smell of old beer, and string music was intoxicating. And here is the last, for now, evidence of Sandy’s immortality. Between then – in the early 1970s – and now she has not changed one penny.
Paul
My husband and I lived a few blocks from the “old” Murphy’s Pub. It was a great improvement over the previous Andy’s Tavern, apologies to Andy’s fans.
I remember there was a group of Irish guys who used to sit at the same table most afternoons. We tried to engage them in conversation once. They were not very forthcoming. We always wondered if they were illegals, (some illegals are white by the way) or IRA guys hiding out in Wallingford or just shy. They didn’t make the move to the new location.
There was also an Irish band called Copperfield that played on some weekends. Don’t remember if they were from Ireland or Americans. They packed the place and the crowd would sing along to some of the songs – “Somebody yelled McIntyre!” The fire dept. made some of us leave one night because we had exceeded the “Maximum Occupancy”. Many people just stood outside singing and dancing! Good times, good times!
I also remember Sandy Bradley would say “We tune because we care.” when her band was tuning up for the next number.
Hi…nice article but a few factual errors. First, I believe Murphy’s was the first Irish “pub” as much as a pub is distinguished from Irish “bars”. Seattle has had many Irish restaurant/bars…the downtown “Dublin House” for example and F.X. McRory’s was already a huge success on Queen Anne in 1981. Second, Dan was not my original partner. That person was a friend whose middle name provided the “Murphy’s” moniker. We had an early falling out and together we involved Dan, in 1983 who had been a competent bartender and interested investor. Dan in turn departed for his own green pastures in 1987. Third, we certainly cannot claim to be the first with a St. Patrick’s Day tradition. We are among a number of fine institutions with a long history of celebrating the feast of St. Patrick.
Some interesting comments…”Copperfield” in fact has a piece of Murphy’s history in so much as they were the first band to ever play there. William Pint still plays around the area in fact with his wife, I think on the Kitsap peninsula mostly. The “Sandy Bradly Potluck” of course brings back many memories. Sandy had played Murphy’s many times by the time she approached me about the chance to host a show on premises Sat. mornings as an experiment. I agreed out of my love for Sandy but groaning at the prospect of a big event Saturday mornings right after what were then very big Friday nights. At first a few folding chairs were sufficient but soon it became THE Saturday institution for five years!
Thanks Wallingford for your patronage for so many years.
OOps, myself…I meant to say “Jake O’Shaughnessy’s” on Queen Anne, of course.