Moon Temple

Brian J. Barr

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• Van Hagar

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When I first moved to Seattle, a guy I worked with delivering baked goods at 4 a.m. told me all I needed to know about the Moon Temple: "When I asked for a gin and tonic, [the bartender] reached down and pulled up this plastic milk jug. He started pouring liquid from it into my glass, and I said, 'What the hell you pouring in there?' He says, 'Gin,' like there was nothing weird about it." Regardless of the gin's origins, my buddy assured me his drink was a stiff one and I needed to go to the Moon Temple. Since then, it's been one of my favored spots on the 45th Street strip. It's a classic Chinese dive, tucked in back of a Chinese restaurant. That you have to pass through the restaurant lobby to get to the bar lends a speakeasy vibe to the place, and indeed it's one of Wallingford's best-kept secrets. A couple can get drunk for less than $20 easily, which is why it was the perfect spot to take our jobless friends who just relocated to Seattle from N.Y.C. They ordered cranberry and vodkas (95 percent vodka, a dribble of cranberry juice). By the time they drank through a handful of those, they were greased enough to play air guitar to the Van Hagar blasting from the jukebox. 2108 N. 45th St., 633-4280.