For most everyone who’s not a resident of Fall City, Preston-Fall City Road is mainly a means to get from Interstate 90 to Snoqualmie Falls. Sitting atop the majestic falls is Salish Lodge, known to Twin Peaks fans as the Great Northern, the hotel owned by villainous town tycoon Benjamin Horne.
Down the hill from Snoqualmie Falls is the Fall City Roadhouse, whose exterior was used as the fictitious Roadhouse in David Lynch’s one-of-a-kind television series. In the show, the Roadhouse was portrayed as a large, tipsy, working-class saloon, with a stage for live performances. In reality, the Fall City Roadhouse is a reasonably-priced family restaurant that closes at 9 on weekends.
While it’s considerably smaller, The Last Frontier Saloon, located across the street from the Fall City Roadhouse, provides a much closer—albeit decidedly less creepy—approximation of the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks. The name is perfect, there is live music on select nights, and the clientele is predominantly local. In short, Jacques Renault would feel right at home behind the bar, although it’s anyone’s guess as to how the regulars would take to his French-Canadian accent and predilection for drug smuggling.
On a recent Saturday night, two guys in ballcaps posted up at the far end of the bar, with one remarking that “there are as many lesbians as available women in Fall City.” (Never knew the two were mutually exclusive.) Meanwhile, the jukebox churned out a seemingly endless supply of Rolling Stones songs, and about half a dozen strategically placed television sets were tuned to sports. The bartender—a red-lipped, retro-burlesque lass who could have been cast in the movie Swingers—cheerfully served up pitchers of Labatt’s and a plethora of other draft beers. The only employee on duty, she also manned the grill, devoted primarily to simple, mouthwatering cheeseburgers.
Off-color, blue-collar flotsam permeates the log cabin–like interior. In the men’s bathroom, there’s a portrait of Kristi Yamaguchi touching her toes as she did for the “Got Milk?” ad campaign. Only this portrait is doctored to give the ice skater/Dancing With the Stars champ a pair of exposed Triple-Z jugs. Not to be outdone, the women’s lavatory has a pair of size 20 basketball shoes mounted on the wall meant to signify…well, you know what they say about men with big feet.
