COLLEGE INN PUB'S SENIOR YEAR
(Last day: 6/15/25)

Dear friends: Unfortunately, the LLC (Donohue Gonyer Howard LLC) that owns and operates the bar known as the College Inn Pub did not sell despite being on the market for more than a year. Seattle is an incredibly difficult environment in which small (and especially micro) businesses can survive, and the current state of the economy and political landscape only compound the challenges small businesses face. Small businesses in the UDistrict will be further impacted by the budgeting crisis the UW community is facing. These factors, plus the physical challenges of the Pub's space itself (no ADA access, no hood or fryer in the kitchen, an ancient relic of a beer cooler system, two aging furnaces, no street presence, and so on), were cited as reasons interested buyers passed again and again. We learned how to maneuver most of these challenges and love the Pub space for what it is – old, funky, historical, constantly breaking down, full of surprise rain showers from ceiling, french-fry-free, and a true Stairmaster workout – but our initial 5-year lease is up and our LLC, as legal membership is comprised now, cannot sign our lease extension option. Essentially the LLC operates with just one person (me) with assistance from one other (my husband Al). But there are other legal members, and signing the lease extension requires all members. Ideally we would have signed the lease extension, and as soon as Al and I were reimbursed for the money invested to rehab the space in 2020 and keep the Pub running, we could have just signed it all over to Dan and let him keep it going. That didn’t happen, so this is it. 

I can’t believe that this final close has landed on my shoulders. The first time I came to the Pub (*ahem* legally) was spring 1993 with my new boyfriend who had been a regular since ’88 or ’89 when he worked at the infamous coffee house The Last Exit just a block away on Brooklyn (now a UW facility, next to the little theater). The Pub was very much a UW institution in the 90s, but back then there were a lot more apartment buildings and single-family homes in the area, so a lot of non-UW people lived in this once-affordable neighborhood and frequented the Pub, too. Even local musicians who were enjoying world-wide success were regulars at the Pub in the 90s because many of them still lived in the area. Al and I had a favorite spot we liked to hang out – right next to the front pool table with the giant Bass mirror under the TV (fun fact: that Bass mirror was resting against a wall in the Snug room when we signed the lease in 2020. It was one of the very first things Al put back up as soon as the Kilz/primer/paint project was completed.) I befriended a lot of the team as a regular, including Mike the bar manager who hired me as a server in 1997. My relationship with the Pub changed again when I started grad school at the UW in 1999. I’m writing this now from the booth we call “B1” – the first booth in the back room where I corrected countless piles of student papers in the early 00s, and in the last five years held one-on-one meetings with team members. This is bittersweet. 

The Pub is the Pub because of the right magical combination of historical space and community fostering. The space itself is vitally important because of the talisman quality of being here: generations of patrons walked down those stairs (and stumbled back up); generations of UW students worked on their research/writing, met professors, held readings/seminars/presentations, communed with each other; generations celebrated graduations, sports victories, birthdays, promotions, losses. We purposely did not replace the worn tables or torn seats (unless they were really bad). We saved all of the original wood details we could. These physical details are so important because they harken back to whoever was here before – and current guests are leaving their own imprint for future generations. I so much wanted the UW community to have this touchstone for future generations. People had asked why I didn’t just move the Pub to another commercial space, and the answer is because the Pub doesn’t work without this historic basement right next to campus. We would have been just another bar (though Dan and I did try to see the old Flowers space last year – that’s another story). I didn’t leave my nonprofit career in 2020 to just be a bar owner; this was never a dream of mine. We did this to save the Pub specifically. Besides, as Al likes to joke, the Pub is my own nonprofit organization.

I’m so grateful for every person who has come down those stairs the last five years, patrons AND team members. Thanks to all of you, the Pub is known as a friendly, welcoming, inclusive space for everyone who is over 21. In the last five years, I have witnessed people meet lifelong friends, find romance, go through breakups, form research teams, plan world domination, and so on. We hosted two weddings: Laura and Mike in March 2022, and Grant and Amanda in August 2024 – who happened to meet here on the Pub re-opening team July 2021 and actually worked at Laura and Mike’s wedding. We also hosted two memorials for losses that gutted us all – Chris and Emmett. Anyone who spent half a minute at the Pub when Emm was either working or just here knows how important he was to the spirit of the Pub for three and a half years. Today (4/21) is the two-year anniversary of Chris leaving us; his blood, sweat, tears, and spilled Rainier are literally soaked into the physical space of the Pub since we started rehabbing August 2020 (before he became the opening kitchen manager). I’m sitting with a small glass of Rainier for him right now. Chris embodies the physical spirit of the Pub in my mind; Emmett embodies the community spirit of the Pub. They were friends on this side, so I trust they’re playing pool together over Rainier and Fernet right now.

The historic College Inn Pub will be shutting its doors for the last time on June 15, 2025. We will open at noon (with special guests, including the Seafair Clowns! We reopened with pirates; we’re closing with clowns – yeah, checks out). Come back to the Pub to revisit it NOW before it is too late. We’ve been using rhetoric on social media as if we knew we were going to close all school year, but the truth is we always were holding out hope. Now the reality is that the College Inn Pub is coming to an end. I will still try to keep the memory alive with our website and by continuing to offer shwag. 

Shout out to the opening team who helped re-launch the College Inn Pub July 2021 after being closed for 16 months due to COVID: Chris, Dan, Garrett, Bradley, Ash, Shanna, Danielle, Amanda F, Amanda Z, Grant, Kelly, Ashley, and Al. Shout out to the closing team, all who have been with the College Inn Pub for at least 18 months, and some longer than that: Dan, Garrett, Bradley, Sydney, Keegan, Mark, Mac, Ahmed, and Al (when he feels like working a shift). Extra shout out to Rene who started the school year with us but got his dream job in CA in September, Lyss who started the school year with us but got her dream visa to move to Portugal in January, and Hunter who is still on payroll but hasn’t picked up a shift in two years (but he still uses his employee discount and comes to the team parties – we love you, Hunter). And of course, shout out to every team member who graced the Pub with their presence between July 2021 and June 2025.

I would never have been able to make it these five years without Dan, the best colleague, advisor, and friend one could ever ask for. Sorry I stole him from your clutches before you could interview him in 2021, Big Time Rick. 

It's time to bring this 50+ year old cruise ship into port safely after its final 5-year voyage. Come join us for the last eight weeks of community, love, trivia, and shenanigans. 

Cheers and beers always, Jen 

 

P.S. Feel free to leave your memories, stories, and wishes below.