Uncategorized 30 Jul 2005 11:37 pm
Last Exit on Brooklyn
Via Mike Whybark’s blog, a loving reminiscence of the Last Exit on Brooklyn at Seattle Wiki.
I spent a lot of time there as a highschooler in the late eighties, just quietly sipping my espresso and watching the crowd.
The Exit was the first place I saw anybody do latte art.
I’m glad I got a chance to hang out at the Exit while Irv was alive. I still miss it. Overcome by nostalgia now.
You know what else I miss? The Jean-Paul Sartre Memorial No Exit Rooming House. I never knew anybody there, but it was near my house and I got a kick out of the sign.
on 31 Jul 2005 at 12:01 am 1.citrine said …
its espresso menu included a wonderfully indulgent concoction Irv called a Caffé Medici, whose ingredients included chocolate, whipped cream, and fresh orange peel.
Hah! No wonder I’ve never been able to find them anyplace else (in 15 years?)
I used to meet two of my friends there one day a week for breakfast and we were all desperately unhappy with our situations. Once we just stayed there ALL day, like, breakfast stretched late enough that we each had to call in sick to work or school or whatever and then we had lunch there and then we stayed until some kind of dinner like snack.
It was right by the ACC and a lot of people would kind of filter up and down, which I’m suprised that Wiki author didn’t mention.
It was one of the first places in Seattle that I felt comfortable going to, mostly b/c of who I would go there with and how much I didn’t feel like I fit in where I was working/going to school.
on 31 Jul 2005 at 12:10 am 2.Cam Sculpin said …
No wonder I’ve never been able to find them anyplace else
I could have sworn that there was something along those lines at Diva Espresso. (Five years ago, anyway.)
how much I didn’t feel like I fit in where I was working/going to school.
Heh. You, me, and a significant percentage of all Exit regulars.
on 31 Jul 2005 at 2:02 am 3.oddangel said …
Oh man, I’m getting nostalgic.
One thing I used to die for were their espresso floats. They were THE chocolate/coffee sugar bombs before frappucinos were invented (and still far better, IMHO.) The Last Exit used to serve them up in these charming, black-and-white, ceramic “Irish Coffee” mugs. In fact, I still have one. I bought it at a garage sale after the place closed down.
on 31 Jul 2005 at 10:23 am 4.amy s. said …
I was there a total of once–when I visited Seattle (for 24 hours) a few years before I even moved here. I miss it too, I liked it that much.
on 31 Jul 2005 at 11:19 am 5.ferneyes said …
You know Mike too? Gee, he must be one of those “connectors” like Malcolm Gladwell wrote about.
on 31 Jul 2005 at 12:31 pm 6.Cam Sculpin said …
Josh knows him; I only check out his blog occasionally.
on 23 Jan 2007 at 10:26 am 7.Paul said …
I posted a myspace group about the Last Exit. Thought you might me interested. Gp here http://groups.myspace.com/TheXit
on 16 Apr 2007 at 5:27 am 8.Max from Alabama said …
Irv hired me out of curiosity because I had come from Alabama to spend a summer in Seattle, in 1983. My sister drove me by the place and said “That place is really cool but you’ll never get a job there.” I did, I think because Irv thought my accent would be another novelty at the Exit. I returned to work the summers of 84 and 85. Irv allowed the waiters to take money out of the cash register on an honor system when the shift started. You grabbed a wad of cash and put it in your left apron pocket, a handful of coins in the middle apron pocket, and went out and waited tables. Whatever tips you made, you plced in the right apron pocket. You did not have to count how much cash you put into your left apron pocket or the amount of coins into the middle, at the start of the shift, because the point was honesty. I asked Irv once how he would know if someone was stealing money. He fidgeted with his moustache as he often did, and said he would know because he mixed up works schedules, and if someone was taking money, he would not know immediately who it was, but by mixing schedules, he eventually would. But no one was ever fired any summer I was there, so I guess no one was violating the honor system. Monday was open mike night. There were some great musicians and some bad ones (I was in the latter group). The U district then was a safe place to be.
on 18 Mar 2009 at 10:07 pm 9.Maxwell said …
Thanks for the beautiful memories. I am so sad to hear it fell apart. Does anyone know why it moved up the Ave?
I went to the Last Exit 10-15 times during the late 70′s and early 80′s as a creative writing student at UW. No, I didn’t go there to read or write poetry, I went there for one thing: THE PIE. For the measly sum of about $1.50, I purchased enormous pieces of apple pie heavily embued with cinnamon and covered by a very large scoop of vanilla ice cream. When I smell cinnamon today I can still picture the pitted grey marble tables and wondering if the the pee was really cleaned out.
The Last Exit was a great place to take a date- sharing the pie was an enticing sensual romp within my means. Or it was a good place to go if I was feeling lonely after she broke up with me.
The whole chess, music, smoke, and poetry thing was a bit heavy for a shy kid like me from Colorado. But I will never forget the pie.
on 13 Jun 2009 at 6:22 pm 10.David Johnson said …
The building was owned by the UW. There had been many attempts by the U to close the Exit. After Irv died they issued the eviction notice and the new owners would not allow me to leak this info and to work up a movement to save the exit. Check out the seattlewiki article on it.