If You Loved “Christmas Dive Bar” Then You’re Gonna Nut All Over “The Mystic Motel”

April 4, 2024• byMichael Strangeways

So, apparently 2024 is the year we’re supposed to get very excited about Country Music and the whole Western aesthetic…what with Dolly Parton being our perpetual Queen of Hearts and Beyoncé dropping “Cowboy Carter” and Orville Peck singing country love ballads with Willie Nelson. All things point to “country” being on point this year, especially when it comes to gay culture…frankly, I blame it on those Duncan Hines/Dolly Parton cake mixes…you eat enough of them and you turn ‘funny’ in a down home sort of way and want to spend time hanging out in the hog lot eating corn pone and playing your banjo while having lusty thoughts about your third cousin Jethro.

We’re not sure if they’re jumping on a bandwagon or just being clever enough to be on the crest of the Zeitgeist but Burgess/Hall, the owners of many of our favorite things on Capitol Hill (gay/queer night life spaces like The Cuff and Queer/Bar and bookstores and news stands and cafés and such) are going back into the “pop-up bar” business this spring after the huge success of their CHRISTMAS DIVE BAR over the 2023 winter holidays. Once again, they’re turning The Woods, the bar/event space just two doors down from Queer/Bar on 11th Avenue into a fantastic immersive experience. Their brand new project is THE MYSTIC MOTEL and it’s channeling all those current western hip vibes into a dusty yet colorful night life experience featuring all the things you might love about Palm Springs…it’s like a drunken, gay, cowboy, disco bunny from 1979 shot his design load over a bar and invited his best cowpokes and rustlers over for a night of drinking high octane fruity drinks while listening to “Jolene” for the 27th time in a row….YEEEEEE HAWWWWWW, GURL!!!!!!

The new pop up opens up Friday, April 5th and it’ll be around Wednesday through Sundays from 5pm until “late” through the end of the summer. It’ll provide plenty of fun social media opps in addition to the gallons of delicious cocktails on hand like the Cactus Cooler and Sedona Sunrise served in funky mugs. It’s also available for rentals if you have a party you want to throw.

Mr. Burgess and Mr. Hall both have comments to make about their new enterprise:

“We were incredibly humbled at the neighborhood’s reaction to CDB, which, to be fully candid, we did for ourselves as we’re huge Christmas fans and wanted a place that just screamed all the merriment of the season that we could call our own. This latest pop-up is another export of something we love – the deserts surrounding Palm Springs, which we try to visit as often as we can,” said Joey Burgess. “We riffed on photos we’d taken over the years of crazy things we’ve seen as we’ve explored down there, and we really wanted to bring something that was just absurd and completely unexpected to the hill.”

“The Mystic Motel has been so much fun to create and so very different than what we did at CDB, which was mostly off-the-shelf elements. With this pop-up, we had a lot of late nights crafting and creating some of the elements you’ll see in the space, like the indoor campfires and desert scenes,” said Murf Hall, who led the team’s creative efforts. “It’s an exhilarating challenge to take a space and truly transform it with fresh elements that create such a different vibe – and not for a lot of money either. We have such a talented group of people that work with us, and it’s exciting to see what we can collectively come up with, how far we can push things, and still actually pull it off.”

All the deets from the PR:

THE MYSTIC MOTEL | POP-UP OASIS EXPERIENCE

The main floor features a center courtyard style feature with faux cacti, campfires, and critters that call the sand home. No desert experience would be complete without the sounds and glow of a handmade faux campfire and blanket-covered bench seating.

Colored lights evoke the painted colors of desert sunsets and cozy conversations with friends.

In the mezzanine, guests will be transported through a start portal and into the Starlight Lounge, where they will be in awe as constellations, nebulas, and whole galaxies swirl overhead.

“Expect to see and hear all the sights and sounds of the desert as the scent of palo santo wafts in the air,” said Hall.

Private bookings and rentals of each space are available upon inquiry.

WHEN

Friday, April 5th thru the summer

5 pm to late Wednesday thru Sunday

WHERE

Capitol Hill Seattle | 1512 11th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

21+ only

SOCIAL

Website | https://www.themysticmotel.com

Instagram | @themysticmotel

About the Author: Michael Strangeways

As the Editorial Director/Co-Owner, Michael Strangeways writes, edits and does about a million other jobs for Seattle Gay Scene, Puget Sound's most visited LGBTQ news, arts and entertainment website now celebrating its 14th year as a media outlet. A semi-proud Midwesterner by birth, he's lived in Seattle since 2000. He's also a film producer who would like you to check out the Jinkx Monsoon documentary, "Drag Becomes Him" now available on Amazon.com. In his spare time, he gets slightly obsessive about his love for old movies, challenging theater, "otters", vodka, chocolate, "I,Claudius", Lizzie Borden, real books made out of paper, disaster films, show tunes, Weimar era Germany, flea markets, pop surrealistic art, the sex lives of Hollywood actors both living and dead, kitties, chicken fried steak, haute couture and David Bowie. But, not necessarily in that order.