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J & M Cafe - CLOSED
Rating Details »
Categories: Restaurants, Pubs [Edit]
Neighborhood: Pioneer Square201 1st Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 292-0663
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Happy Hour:
- Yes
- Smoking:
- Yes
16 reviews for J & M Cafe
J and M! Meh. I guess we can all meet up there...
For a historical building, this place is a true dump. What people have said about the restrooms are very true. They have an endless weird funk that no amount of cleaning could get rid of. The crowd is pretty trashy sometimes. The bartenders are completely unattentive.
But, plusses include:
They do have a decent club mix here on the weekends, and sometimes, they serve jello shooters, which, although they are kind of weak, i still love that they make them here. And they open the windows in the summertime.
Not intolerable, but after a couple times, you will be wondering what other bars you can get into with the club stamp.
Woah ... closed?
First let me comment on the review below - HILARIOUS! haha. But harsh maybe.
I've been to the J&M a bunch of times. I'll admit the reason was because I knew a bartender ... had I not known him, I'd have never bothered. It's pretty divey but in a freat boy, dirty bathroom kind of way. Not the cool kind of divey I love.
Once I saw a drunk woman instigate a fight between two men and then the Police came and there was a brawl. Even one of the bouncers got arrested!
It's one of those places that's so dimly lit that once you have booze in your belly you're forgiving. Had you seen the place sober with the lights on... totally different story. Maybe it's not a bad thing that this place is gone.
I work relatively nearby and know this place primarily as a lunch destination, because of the deals that are offered on some weekdays. In particular, entrees are $2 off on Mondays (at least at lunch time), which brings the cost of a lunch (including tax and tip, minus anything other than water to drink) to around $7, which is respectable for a sit-down place. The food itself is good. Much better than you'd expect based on the look and that distant odor that a century of dampness and years of beer-soaked floors creates.
While their food may offer a respectable value, their prices on beer during non-happy hours do not. A pint of anything other than domestic swill is $5--and maybe even the domestic swill, too, as I saw some poor sap get taken for $10 for two bottles of Coors Light, which--extrapolated into a cost of just over $53 per gallon--makes even today's inflated gasoline prices look downright appealing. He objected--fruitlessly, of course, but justifiably, in my opinion. That's just unreasonable.
Most of the staff I've encountered is quite personable, although one fellow in particular continued to walk back and forth past my poor empty pint glass before I finally flagged him down and asked him if I could have another. Personally, I think that if you're going to tend bar, one of your duties is to keep a mindful eye on your customers--especially when there are only a handful over which to watch. Then again, perhaps he realizes that the pints are overpriced and is thus hesitant to push them. But I doubt it.
I wound up at the J & M on Friday night and it managed to totally gross me out, dude. The bathroom honestly smelled like someone pooped in the corner and the flies swarming everywhere in the loo did nothing to contradict the smell's intimations. A woman had all of her makeup spread out around the sinks and it was all I could do to keep myself from asking her what the hell she was thinking putting anything on her eyes that had been exposed to the germy air in that room.
Oh, and I made the mistake of ordering a beer here and was charged $5 for the pint of PBR I ordered on a whim.
It's a good spot for Lunch.
Well Monday's apparently has $2.00 off any entree. That makes pizza's around $4. They're not bad. The Burger's are really good though. I had the western burger which had some bbq sauce on it along with onion rings.
The best part about the meal were the fries. I don't know how they were made, but they're really crunchy and I would have to say that they might have been the best fries I've ever had. Well, maybe not that good, but they are pretty tasty.
The kitchen looks to be putting out some pretty good food and you really can't be the deals on Monday's. Worth a peek.
Decent music, but no one was dancing. No toilet paper in the bathroom. Lame.
Crappy bar food + stiff drinks + friendly bartenders + open before noon = alcoholic's paradise!
Met some friends here for an early lunch and we were surprised to see about half a dozen people at the bar ordering shots. Come on, don't you know the noon rule??
I've only been to J&M for lunch on Wednesdays, when they have the $6 burger entree specials. My favorite is the swiss/mushroom, but they're all tasty. The homemade rosemary potato chips are heaped on, or if you prefer to have a true heart attack (and not a weak one), get the fries -- super-crunchy and 100% yum.
And yes, the tables feel sticky...but that's what plates are for! ;-)
Service on weekdays during the lunch rush is sporadic...if you don't want to wait too long, go before 11 or after 12:30 for a good table and quicker attention from the waitstaff. One hurrah for the service: if you have four people with four credit cards, they are more than happy to have four different tabs.
Recommended if you're into good burgers that won't break the bank.
No matter how many times I leave the J and M cursing the heavens or kicking over some bums shopping cart I can't help getting home and realizing what a great time I had while there.
The J and M is not your typical Pioneer Square club, it has a disgusting meat market feel with hardly 21 year old boys and girls slobbering drunk, dancing on the bar, showing the ass-ets and just having a great time in general.
The bar has been there over a hundred years and I find it hard to believe that the original founders Jameson and Moffet really ever thought that it would be like it is today. Then again if they were truly fun loving guys, maybe they did!
The J and M is a great place to find a date, get cheap drinks, meet great staff, and just have fun. Highly recommended and well worth it. Sometimes I actually think attending the J and M is part of the UW indoctrination!!
Oh and by the way, during the day the J and M is a full fledged restaurant with an amazing menu featuring everything from Smoked Salmon Pizza to Mango Stuffed Duck Pockets. Prices are great and the food is top of the line. Don't miss happy hour either with cheap wells, $2 drafts and GREAT happy hour food. Including those Mini-Burgers that are more addicting than a crack habit!!
The farthest from classy you can get (and not in any sort of good way).
Just thinking about this place makes me cringe.
You might disagree if you like STDs and humping trashy girls on the dance floor. Whatever floats your boat.
Stopped by the J&M to whet my whistle this weekend and I'm glad that we only stopped for one beer at $5 each. Ouch!! That price is way out of line for a place like this. That being said...I love the little details of the space itself. The massive (hand carved?) bar, the stained glass, the ancient looking ceiling and walls, it's a living, breathing piece of Seattle history. I imagine this place hasn't changed much since the turn of the century and I can only imagine the tales those walls could tell!
I don't think I'll be going back to the J&M, unless I have friends coming from out of town and then only during happy hour.
I went to J&M for happy hour and found the tables sticky, the drinks weak, the toilets unflushing (seriously: plumbing issues at 5pm on a thurs? I can't imagine a weekend night), and the service only meh.
Cafe? Card Room? Maybe you have to be here during the day or the name's a vestige of saloon days gone by...This was about the only place in Pioneer Square that was open late on a Sunday night, and no surprise, since the clientele consisted of the heavily tatooed, skin-bearing, boisterous 21-and-under crowd...just not quite willing to let the weekend slip by yet. But hey, if you want a taste of today's youth (and/or a pint) on a Sunday evening, then this is the place to be.
Of all the sketchy and downright scary dance clubs out there, this is the best place to go dancing....sweaty, crowded and full of the less-sketchy crowd...so it's perfect for those rare occasions when in any other place you'd make an ass of yourself and get kicked out-But at J&M, you pretty much blend in. Ok. I admit it...I've never gone to J&M sober. In fact, I am sure if I did, I wouldn't enjoy it. But, this is the best place to go in Seattle so far-they play everything from Justin Timberlake and all those pop/rap songs that you hate to admit you like when you are in the right mood.
gotta luv, the J&M regardless, original old skool bar. I was there last week and had a great time. The bathrooms have improved and the bartenders are getting better.
Wednesday burgers are a good lunch deal if you can stand the smell. Think the walls are full of dead rats and the place smells so bad I would rather drop a few bucks elsewhere and enjoy my meal. Service is not the worst, but pretty bad.
