Three bars in Pioneer Square claim 'oldest in Seattle.' Now, one is closed indefinitely

Three bars in Pioneer Square fashion themselves as "Seattle's oldest" watering hole in some way.

But the future of one looked uncertain again.

A visit to the J&M Cafe and Cardroom's website is greeted by the message, "Welcome back to Seattle's Oldest Bar" — but a trip this past week to 201 1st Ave. S reveals "CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE" signs.

In an email to SeattlePI Thursday, the owner said, "We will reopen," within the next week, but provided no further details.

The building that houses J&M Cafe, the J&M Hotel, was approved for public sale in July 2019 as part of a receivership sale in King County Superior Court. After years of defaulting on loan payments, shorting contractors and other shady business practices, court documents showed the couple who owned the property sold the building to the credit lender, iBorrow, a private commercial real estate lender. They credit bid on the property with $5.9 million, a portion of what they were owed by the owners.

The owners, Kurt Fisher and Brittany Shulman, bought the property in 2014 through an investment firm they created called Seneca Ventures. They had plans to remodel the building by bringing the decrepit upstairs hotel back to life, keep a bar and restaurant on the ground floor and take customers back to the 1920s with a speakeasy in the unfinished basement.

Fisher and Shulman have not responded to requests for comment.

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But the work languished for the next few years; the most that was done was a ritual to remove ghosts and other paranormal presence from the hotel. Crosscut reported on the 2015 ritual, where Fisher invited a member of the Salish Tribe to wrangle the souls in the J&M Hotel building.

In 2017, SeattlePI reported that contractors stopped working on remodel plans shortly after they started because they weren't being paid — one told the P-I that he was stiffed out of $95,000.

The P-I also reported on other woes that befell the project. Seneca Ventures offered investors opportunities to buy into a remodel of the J&M Hotel, but failed to properly register with the state and disclose financial risks to investors.

It was unclear what the future of the actual bar, J&M Cafe and Cardroom would be, but they abruptly closed last week and with a post on Facebook said "Closed til Saturday for maintenance !!! Sorry for the inconvenience!" But as of Oct. 30, the bar was still closed.

Attempts to contact the bar's owner were unsuccessful.

What is Seattle's oldest bar?

The bar's claim to "Seattle's oldest bar," could have been true. According to its website, the bar was established in 1889, the year the building was built, but didn't settle on the name J&M until 1892. And while it has history of changing ownership hands over the past few decades, the bar's facade has held the name "J&M Cafe and Cardroom" throughout the years.

The year 1892 clashes with another of "Seattle's oldest," The Central Saloon, just two doors down from J&M. It advertises itself as "Seattle's oldest saloon" with a neon sign on the front window.

But another bar in Pioneer Square shares a similar sentiment to both bars. Merchant's Cafe and Saloon bills itself — on the front of its building — as "Seattle's oldest restaurant."

It too was built just after the Great Seattle Fire which torched most of Pioneer Square in 1889 — a reason all three of these bars were built within three years of it.

Merchant's Cafe embraces the haunted spirit of Seattle's underground city, and frequently makes itself a part of the various underground tours.

"We've become really good friends with the people at the underground tours,"  said Jose Ricardi, Merchant's manager who helped the owner open the bar back up nine years ago. "The tour comes by and we give them discounts. The underground part of our bar is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during the summer."

A bit of the allure for the underground tour is that Merchant's is rumored to be haunted. Ricardi said that eerie stories of children who died in the 1889 fire have possessed the bar for years.

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"We're one of the most haunted bars in Washington," Ricardi said. "We've had a bunch of different paranormal companies and TV shows come in including 'Dead Files.'"

Merchant's also has a history that's preserved. A former brothel, the rooms that were used in the 1900s are used much differently now as they're kept up and rented through AirBnB.

Ricardi said he believes the place was even a speakeasy during prohibition — a claim J&M made on their website as well, saying they sold "soft drinks" in 1921.

But Jules Maes Saloon in Georgetown quietly claims it's older than all three. The pub on Airport Way doesn't have a sign saying "Seattle's oldest bar," or any such claim. Below the bar's title is a line that just says, "Since 1888."

So which of the four are telling the truth? Is it one of the haunted bars in Pioneer Square, the one that may not be open anymore, or the saloon in Georgetown that seemingly predates them all?

Because of the change of owners over the years in both the bars and buildings, and the fact that the King County Assessor's online records show each building was built in "1900," the answer may never be truthfully answered.

SeattlePI reporter Alex Halverson can be reached at alex.halverson@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlexHalversonPI. Find more from Alex here.