Post #440035 by TorchGuy on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 8:51 PM

I live in Seattle, but can easily travel to, say, Tacoma, etc. Are there any Chinese-American joints in the area that have at least two of the following?
-- Good food. Need not be traditional, I know I'm after 1950s-1970s Chinese-American.
-- Funky 50s, 60s or 70s decor. Tiki nuances are great, but I love everything from 50s-60s modern crossed with Chinese, to 70s curved-wood-and-indirect-lighting lounge style, to dark-and-mysterious Chinese decor.
-- Some at-least-acceptably-good tiki, tropical or just unusual 'specialty-of-the-house' cocktails. In mugs or not.

So far, all I've found is Louie's Cuisine of China in Ballard, which has awesome food and seriously cool 70s decor with loads of nifty little details (amazing woodwork, funky light fixtures [note the tiny lights IN the planters on the stairwell] and the coolest ceiling fan ever, in the skylight of the back banquet room, plus a cozy gas fire in the lounge). The tender told me they stopped carrying mugs in the 80s; they DO have Mai Tais etc. but I haven't tried them yet.

There's a big place on California Avenue in West Seattle, across from Mashiko Sushi and Husky Deli, which looks great from the outside. Gotta go try that. Another with a big neon sign in Auburn that looks interesting, and a few in the International District (Chinatown) that look neat.

I thought I remembered seeing a place with a nifty-looking central fireplace in it, in downtown Auburn, so I went hunting. Couldn't find it, but I saw a place that looked 50s-ish called the Dragon Pearl. I went inside. The place was shabby, had cool light fixtures (but all of them broken), half the tables were set and half were full of junk. NO ONE in there. Smelled like 40 years of cigarette smoke. The bar was slightly interesting, but my friend and I (both in our late 20s) were put off by one of the three old-bald-guy customers, who looked up and loudly said "Who the FK are THESE aholes?!". The tender was marginally nicer, but only marginally. Their restroom could be smelled from ten feet away. We left. By the looks (and smell) of the place, I'm guessing the food is either incredibly good, or incredibly bad.

Anyone in Seattle area know what's out there to be found? I've asked before about Seattle lounge decor, but the excellent thread about California/LA area Chinese places inspired me.