'The Spirit Is Here': Customers Enjoy One Last Beer as Staple Columbia City Bar Closes Its Doors

A beloved Rainier Avenue bar and grill is closing up shop after 25 years.

Throughout the week, regular customers from around the neighborhood took a seat at Columbia City Ale House to drink a beer, munch on a tuna melt, and see familiar faces. After the bar wraps up service on Sept. 10, owner Emily Eberhart hopes the community will continue to thrive.

On the eve of its final dinner service, both first-timers and regulars filled almost every seat from the bar to the dining room to the patio.

"Emily's part of Columbia City," said Bruce Henderson, a regular customer of the last five years. "We'll miss her."

Eberhart, who started at the Ale House as a server and bartender, took over the business during the height of COVID in 2020. Eberhart said it was time to "explore other possibilities" when the space went up for sale this year.

"I had to learn everything from scratch, but I learned pretty quickly with a lot of help from the community," Eberhart said. "We've been pluggin' away since then and making it work."

For server Silvere Bicaba, the Ale House was the first job he got when he moved from Nebraska. Two years later, the bar feels like a second home, and he considers most regulars his friends.

"I'm only two, three years into Seattle, and the 'Seattle freeze' didn't really happen [for me]," Bicaba said. "Anybody at this bar will chat you up about anything, any time."

Among the dinner crowd, married couple Joy Del Calzo and Sue DeNure enjoyed their usual orders: a steak quesadilla with a Bodhi and a tuna melt with whatever IPA is on draft. The Ale House was their "default" spot to hang out at. But with constant news of restaurant closures around the city, the two said they could only be so shocked about its closing.

"I thought, 'What are we gonna do now?'" DeNure said. "But now I've heard the news of what it's going to become, and I think that's a really good thing."

Rough & Tumble, a women's sports bar in Ballard, plans to open a second location in the Rainier Avenue space in late October. Regulars like DelCalzo and DeNure plan to check out the new spot in hopes that it will be just as "welcoming" as the Ale House.

"If this place has to close, we're excited that it's going to become Rough & Tumble," DeNure said.

As Eberhart closes the Ale House chapter, the restaurant owner hopes to get some rest and return to her art studio.

"This is a special place, and having a space for folks to convene and commune is really all [the community] needed," Eberhart said. "The spirit is here, and I'm hoping that that will continue."