Right in the center of downtown Kirkland is this dive bar known as "The Central". It's small, but this helps it feel busy quicker.
This bar had a revamp of ownership several years ago and it seemed to take off - quite popular with a very diverse set of partrons from bikers to yuppies to rockers to business execs - the full gambit of the Kirkland community.
But since the owner (a nice woman) and her sister (another nice woman) has given a certain manager guy (Eric?) more rein, the attitude and ambiance has slowly gone down hill by virtue of the tenants voting with their feet. Previous bartender Joey really kept the party going, but Joey is no longer and Eric's less than friendly demeanor has depreciated the "anything goes" attitude of the past. Now, it's a barely busy, very smokey place to get a cheap drink and move on to somewhere else.
I hope that the Central can shake lose the current management and get some fun bar management like they used to have - as this place used to be a little hotspot in the Central of a fun town.
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