The Central Saloon

The Central Saloon’s roots stretch back to the late 19th century, making it one of the oldest bars in Seattle still in operation. The place has outlasted decades and waves of change throughout the city — without ever moving.

On the walls, old concert photos and posters document some of what happened here, so the memory does not have to rely solely on those who lived it.

The Grunge Scene at the Central Saloon

Behind the bar and in front of the small stage at the Central, Jimi Hendrix, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and many of the bands that helped build the fabric of the Seattle scene played — long before anyone had invented a label to describe what it was.

But two moments in particular stand out as especially significant. The first Nirvana show ever played in Seattle happened here at the Central. And the last Mother Love Bone show before Andrew Wood’s death also happened here.

Mother Love Bone was one of the most promising bands in Seattle in the late 1980s, formed by Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament — who would later co-found Pearl Jam — and fronted by Andrew Wood, whose stage presence was described by those who witnessed it as something genuinely out of the ordinary. Wood died of a heroin overdose on March 19, 1990, at 24 years old. The show the Central hosted turned out to be his last.

The bar presents itself as the cradle of grunge — and the facts back it up.

The Ghosts of the Central Saloon

There is another story that circulates among regulars and staff at the Central Saloon, this one outside the realm of music: the bar has a reputation for being haunted.

Accounts of ghostly sightings come up with enough regularity that this, too, has become part of the venue’s identity over the years.

Entertaining or unsettling? That depends entirely on who you ask. 👻