Bob's Java-Jive, Tacoma

Bob’s Java-Jive is a rare old roadside novelty building with roots in the early automobile era. The property first held a gas station built in 1922, complete with two flowerpot-shaped restrooms labeled “Mom” and “Pop.” A few years later, Otis G. Button commissioned a new restaurant shaped like a giant stovetop coffeepot. Although the project began in 1927, the Coffee Pot Restaurant opened around 1929 or 1930. Its rounded body, spout, handle, and lid-like roofline still make it easy to recognise.

Its later history is just as colourful. Over the years, the building changed from restaurant to diner, speakeasy, juke joint, go-go bar, and Polynesian-themed nightclub. In 1955, Bob and Lylabell Radonich took it over and renamed it Bob’s Java-Jive, with the name inspired by the 1940 Ink Spots song “Java Jive.” One of its stranger stories involves the “Jungle Room,” where two macaque monkeys named Java and Jive reportedly lived in a glass enclosure.

The Ventures played there as a house band, and later stories link it with Neko Case, Kurt Cobain, and Northwest rock lore. Bob’s Java-Jive has also appeared in or been linked to films such as I Love You to Death, Three Fugitives, Say Anything..., and 10 Things I Hate About You. Today, it shows that local history can come with a spout, a handle, and decades of stories inside.