The Home Bar: Resurrection Of A Mid-20th Century Domestic Icon

Last year I wrote a five part article for the Seattle-based website, seattletwist.com, about the resurrection of the home bar. I've since consolidated the five parts into one, added a bit of text, a different image or two, and made a few corrections. Whereas in the previous articles I gave a description of each image (home bar) displayed, in this consolidated version I've discluded such information. However, all but one home bar shown (the one with Otto) were taken from Seattle home bars, past (mid-1990s) and present.

Hope you enjoy it!

http://seattletwist.com/2009/05/17/the-home-bar-resurrection-of-a-mid-20th-century-domestic-icon-revisited/

Nice piece of work. The rumpus room resurgence is really one of the strongest branches of the Tiki revival. Nice pics. Who is that lucky person in THE third B&W photo, not only possessing that amazing motor yacht bar, but also a Space Needle lamp! Must have been found in the 80s!

A purely delightful article and great pictures. Ahhhh...I love to peer into everyone's home bar even if it is just virtual...what wonderful creations.

Ah yes the 60's...
the parents having folks over for drinks, going with them to the neighbors house for cocktail partys, sippin our Shirely Temple's and Roy Rogers savoring that red cherry, hiding at the top of the stairs with friends in our PJ's... watching and listing to what was going on downstairs where the adults were and wanting to be grownup so we could be like them!!!!

Great story and the reasons why I've started building my home/basement bar...

On 2009-05-18 17:07, bigbrotiki wrote:
Nice piece of work. The rumpus room resurgence is really one of the strongest branches of the Tiki revival. Nice pics. Who is that lucky person in THE third B&W photo, not only possessing that amazing motor yacht bar, but also a Space Needle lamp! Must have been found in the 80s!

That's Ruby Montana! Seattle's Queen Of Kitsch! Or was. She certainly was a Seattle Icon, herself as an individual and the store she owned, The Pinto Pony. She now resides in Palm Springs and lives at and runs the Coral Sands Inn:

http://www.coralsandspalmsprings.com/

The bar is a manufactured nautical-themed bar of the bow of a boat. I would have to find my article I wrote about her during this photo session (from an old 'Organ & Bongos' issue -- The Home Bar Issue, Number ?), but I recall that the bar was said to have been made in the late 1940s or sometime during the 1950s. And yes, that Space Needle lamp is absolutely brilliant: brilliant and rare.

Here's an old pic from her store, The Pinto Pony, when it was located in Seattle on 2nd Avenue near Pioneer Square. (It later moved to downtown Seattle, not far from the Pike Place Market.)

http://palmspringscoralsands.blogspot.com/2007/09/ruby-montanas-pinto-ponymany-of-you.html

Here's an excellent interview with Ruby from 1998:

http://www.monk.com/display.php?p=People&id=28

Seattle -- like many cities -- no longer has the wonderful second-hand vintage shops it used to in the 1980s and early 1990s. There are some but...well, I won't comment.

The Pinto Pony has Seattle's gal-about-town, Sweetpea, written all over it. Perhaps one day 'Pea' (as I affectionately call her) may open up a similar place. Until then I'll keep my spurs crossed. I'm still waiting for Pea to establish her own home bar and lounge (hopefully a mixture of vintage Western and Tiki), so that I can feature her it on a future Seattle Area Home Bar Tour.

Ha! I remember Ruby Montana's, I've been to her store! What a cool store that was...I figured it must have been a dealer who owned that stuff. Jeff Berry has that bar, too, and my friend Dug Miller the lamp. Ruby was one of the early Tiki perpetuators up in Seattle.

On 2009-05-18 19:16, Beach Bum Scott wrote:
Ah yes the 60's...
the parents having folks over for drinks, going with them to the neighbors house for cocktail partys, sippin our Shirely Temple's and Roy Rogers savoring that red cherry, hiding at the top of the stairs with friends in our PJ's... watching and listing to what was going on downstairs where the adults were and wanting to be grownup so we could be like them!!!!

Great story and the reasons why I've started building my home/basement bar...

Yes....For me, it was the Friday Night Card games that my parents would have...they'd have friends over and play late into the night...I'd hear them from upstairs, because they were so loud, and probably....drunk. We had no bar in the house, but there was definitely alcohol involved.

The of course, there were the backyard Luaus.....