Though they will be competing with each other they will also be contributing to the building of a scene or destination spot that will make a trek to White Center from anywhere else worth it. (This same critique could easily be applied to The Cuff, btw, who benefit from location first and everything else second and below.) The bars in White Center will do well. Pony (in a repurposed car garage from the 1930s) is the type of gay bar that has reached a level of popularity where most denizens of Seattles LGBTIQ+.
Upon entering it felt a little uneven with not a good sense of direction. Even driving by on any night it looked more like a cute, neighborhood restaurant than a bar from the outside. As a service industry vet and restaurant owner Outwest appeared to me to be a place that suffered a bit from an identity crisis. One of the very few stand-alone bars on Capitol. Frankly, there wasn’t anything really special about OutWest or its marketing. Seattles most popular gay dive bar is a tribute to the great West Village and Castro bars of the 1970s. They really need to have one thing they do well. OutWest was always a destination venue but without anything else to do in the immediate area(eating, another bar, etc.) it wasn’t worth expense of a cab or uber/lyft to come from anywhere else.Destination places need to be something quite unique to draw in theīusiness on off days.
