This story originally aired on April 21, 2018.
When the print edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer came to an end in 2009, the reporters who worked for the paper scattered off to other careers. Some picked up other gigs covering news, others went into public relations. Veteran reporter Mike Lewis bought a bar.
Specifically, he bought his bar, a dive called The Streamline Tavern, where he and other reporters used to adjourn to after quitting time at the paper.
“I took my severance and bought myself a minimum wage job,” says Lewis.
The Streamline, in Seattle’s Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, was small, dark and old. With a little tender loving care and a new, full liquor license, business picked up. But, not too long after Mike Lewis and his partners got the Streamline headed in the right direction, outside forces came into play.
In this story hear how the South Korean Government, the Seattle real estate market and one man’s love for an old watering hole all collided. Sometimes, progress means fighting hard to preserve the past.
