Baba Yaga music venue coming to Pioneer Square, plus other openings

Ryan Granger has never seen “John Wick.”

This may come as a surprise to some familiar with the coffee-roasting rock ‘n’ roller’s plans to open Seattle’s newest music venue — one that is definitely not named after Keanu Reeves’ assassin alias in the shoot-‘em-up action flicks.

The guitarist/vocalist with local psych-rock bruisers The Grizzled Mighty has spent the past six months hammering and sanding away to build out a longtime Pioneer Square nightclub space he’s turning into Baba Yaga.

Baba Yaga is one of several new or recently opened music venues in Seattle (more on others below). Granger hopes to open the “morning, noon, and night rock and roll clubhouse,” which will serve Mexican-inspired street food, by Cinco de Mayo. As the tagline suggests, the new hangout aims to be a place where music lovers — or anyone craving tacos, burritos or tortas — can start their day with a cup of house-roasted coffee and finish it with a Rainier (well, hopefully) and a rock show.

“It’s going to be an all-day clubhouse for people to come hang and have music several days a week and be open to all the events that happen in Pioneer Square,” said Granger, a former partner and roaster at a Portland Caffe Vita. “[We’re] excited to be part of the Pioneer Square renaissance.”

It will be another month or so until Baba Yaga’s downstairs venue space, with a capacity of around 200 and a Seattle underground vibe, will start filling out its concert calendar with regional bands and national touring artists. In the meantime, the upstairs bar/restaurant/cafe portion will be able to host smaller shows.

“I have a pretty good Rolodex of bands I want to bring in here that I know and love,” said Granger, who also plays with Seattle/Mexico City garage-punk quartet Mala Suerte. “It’ll be cool to offer a unique space to bands that haven’t played down in Pioneer Square before or aren’t familiar with Pioneer Square from outside the region.”

Nathan Chambers, who’s previously booked Alma Mater in Tacoma, Chop Suey and the Sunset Tavern, will join Granger as Baba Yaga’s talent buyer.

Prior to Granger getting the keys, the multilevel space at 124 S. Washington St. was most recently home to the Box House bar and downstairs dance club The Underground, although the location is perhaps best remembered for its nightclubbing years as the Last Supper Club in the 2000s.

Granger has been busy redoing the bathrooms, floors and bar area, building booths and stages, and updating the lights and sound system for Baba Yaga. It wasn’t exactly unfamiliar terrain for the former Sunset Tavern bartender who helped with the Ballard bar/venue’s pandemic remodel.

Oh, about the name: Baba Yaga is a recurring character in Slavic folklore, alternately depicted as a child-eating villain or a kindly old woman assisting the protagonist, whom the rocker developed an affinity for during the pandemic.

“She’s a witch that roams around the countryside in her cabin that’s semi-sentient and has chicken legs,” Granger explained. “I just thought it was a cool story and thought it would be a great logo for what we’re doing down here.”

While many bands playing Baba Yaga will deploy amplified guitars, the venue’s stages won’t exclusively host rock acts.

“We’ll have all sorts of shows for sure,” Granger said. “Any quality music deserves a home and we’re happy to provide it. But my wheelhouse is in rock ‘n’ roll stuff, so definitely gonna have the tendency to lean towards that, just because that’s what I know and love.”

Baba Yaga is the second musician-run venue to open in Pioneer Square this year, following the nearby Seattle Jazz Fellowship, which is temporarily filling the old Cafe Nordo space. Grunge-era institution the Central Saloon, perhaps a more obvious kindred spirit, is also just a block or two away.

Longer term, Granger dreams of throwing a music festival in Pioneer Square (RIP Upstream), a neighborhood he sees as being on an upswing after a longer pandemic recovery, and potentially adding a recording studio in the basement.

“It’s going to be the start of something that can only grow,” Granger said, “and I’m excited that Pioneer Square is also growing up, too.”

Now open

Baba Yaga joins a few other new additions (or revivals) to the Seattle club scene. After getting the development boot from its University District home last year, punk rock pirate bar Kraken Bar & Lounge reopened in a new location in April. The crew behind the definitely-not-a-hockey-bar with food critic-approved burgers didn’t have far to lug their L-shaped wooden bar from its previous space, taking over the old Cafe Racer location just a half-mile away at 5828 Roosevelt Way N.E. The Kraken 2.0 resumed hosting weekend shows in mid-April, and this Saturday’s slate features post-hardcore destroyers Yellfire, Wipes and Fell Off.

Across town, the long-anticipated Black & Tan Hall (5608 Rainier Ave. S.) began ramping up its events this spring with biweekly Thursday jazz jams, a Black punk film, food and music weekend back in March, and a recent date with Seattle hip-hop stalwart Gabriel Teodros and sizzling newcomers Day Soul Exquisite. Named after a fabled Seattle club that was part of the Jackson Street jazz scene until the 1960s (the phrase “black and tan” referring to racially integrated clubs during segregation), the cooperative venue and restaurant purchased its Hillman City building with help from a $1.2 million city grant at the end of 2020.

With its community-centric ethos and designs of being a cultural hub through food and performance art, the Black & Tan Hall is a gentrification counterpunch that makes for one of the most exciting venues to open in recent years. On Friday, astute KEXP DJs Riz Rollins and Supreme La Rock throw a James Brown tribute party at the Rainier Avenue venue, spinning cuts from the Godfather of Soul, his band mates and disciples (9 p.m. May 3, $10, 21-and-older).