The Spar Café has been an Olympia Institution for more than 65 years. Built in 1935 - on the site of the earlier Oxford Saloon - the old café barely seems to have changed since the day it first opened its doors. Original acorn-globe light fixtures dangle on chains from the ceiling; classic neon signs hawk venerable brands of ice cream and pop. A mahogany tobacco counter, still stocked with plenty of fat cigars, runs down one side of the restaurant. And every original lunch-counter stool still has a hook for your hat.

The Spar has always regarded itself as "working man's café." In the 1930s its customers were primarily mill workers and lumberjacks. Today they range from hip college students to state office workers and politicians - men and women both. According to one legislative employee, more deals may get done downtown at The Spar than up at the Capitol.

Olympia architect Joseph Wohleb designed the Spar in the style known as Art Moderne, a sleeker, more streamlined version of the earlier Art Deco style. Curves and strong horizontal lines - seen in The Spar's J-shaped lunch counter as well as in the rounded corners of its sidewalk canopy - were hallmarks of Art Moderne. Hard, smooth, gleaming surfaces were also typical of the style. The Spar sports a storefront of shiny glass tiles in a deep shade of maroon. The neighboring Baretich Building, also designed by Wohleb during the 1930s, is decked out in similar glossy black tiles with bands of snappy green stripes.

The Spar is located on Fourth Avenue just east of Capitol Way. It is located on the Olympia Heritage Register. The building is open to the public.

Spar Cafe. Olympia Heritage Commission photo.

Mid-1940s street scene looking west on Fourth Avenue past the Art Moderne-style Spar Café and Baretich Buildings. Electric traffic signals have arrived, but Fourth Avenue still carries two-way traffic. Postcard from a private collection.