The cocktail lounge of the Horseshoe Cafe in the centre of Bellingham, WA is one of the bars that made me love bars. Western-themed murals adorn the walls, the drinks are shockingly inexpensive overpours served in tiny juice glasses with a splash of mixer on top, and the clientele is a mix of unwashed University of Western Washington students and old timers, with the occasional hash-brown-and-sausage-gravy scarfing gaggle of drag queens. We’ve seen the jukebox go from CDs to mp3s, the drinks rise in price from $1.75 to $2.50 (or $3 for the Sunday morning bloody mary including breakfast special), and an exponential growth in the popularity of the mutton-chops-white-man-fro-and-toque look, but the Ranch Room has remained essentially the same since our first visit. We can only hope it stays that way – ready as always to be the first or last stop on the Bellingham Debauchery Trail.
Visited: 1990-present
