Targy's Tavern holds a corner of upper Queen Anne at 600 W Crockett Street, a neighbourhood dive that has been open since 1937. It is named after a longshoreman nicknamed Targy who worked Seattle's docks, and the room has kept its low-key, regulars-first character ever since.
Who would love it: anyone who wants cheap drinks, a game on the screen, and bingo or trivia in a room that has not been renovated into something it is not. Who would hate it: drinkers after craft cocktails or a polished space, since this is a tall-boy-and-wells tavern.
The room is tight and worn in the right way, the kind of corner bar Queen Anne built its reputation on. King 5's Evening featured it as a five-star dive, singling out the cheap pours, the happy hour, and the bingo and trivia nights. Foursquare and Yelp regulars describe a friendly, unhurried place where the bartenders know the room.
Order a tall boy or a well cocktail and settle in; the value here is the point, and the prices stay low by design. There is no kitchen to speak of, so this is a drinks-and-games stop rather than a dinner one. The happy hour and the recurring bingo and trivia nights are the calendar to plan around.
The history is the hook that the cheap drinks reward. A tavern that has held the same corner since 1937 carries a kind of credibility that a newer place cannot fake, and Targy's leans on its longshoreman namesake and its unrenovated room rather than dressing either up. That continuity is why local features keep returning to it as a model Seattle tavern.
What regulars flag, across Foursquare and Yelp, is the friendliness and the price. Bartenders know the room, the wells stay cheap, the pours come fast, and the bingo and trivia nights give the week a rhythm that pulls the same faces back week after week. The same reviews are clear about what it is not: there is no kitchen and no cocktail program, so the draw is the atmosphere and the value.
Best time to go is a games night for the room at full character, or a quiet afternoon for a cheap pint before the regulars arrive. The happy hour is the value window the King 5 feature singled out. Weekends pick up without losing the neighbourhood feel that defines the place.
Who it is for: drinkers who want cheap pours and a game on the screen, trivia and bingo regulars, and anyone who prefers a worn-in corner bar to a polished one. Who it is not for: cocktail seekers or diners, since Targy's trades on beer, wells, and a 1937 room.
Targy's pairs with the Queen Anne bar circuit, an easy stop among the hill's taverns and ale houses. It works as the cheap-and-easy anchor before or after a fuller night nearby.
Getting there is a bus-or-car trip up the hill. Upper Queen Anne is served by Metro routes that climb Queen Anne Avenue, with the tavern a short walk from the top-of-the-hill stops. There is no light rail on the hill, so most regulars walk from the neighbourhood or drive and find street parking on the residential blocks nearby.
It earns a place in the city's hidden-gems conversation as one of Queen Anne's last true corner taverns. See where it lands in our guide to the best hidden gem bars in Seattle, browse the full Seattle bar guide, and compare it across the wider hidden gems guide.
