Sometimes there’s sun, it’s true! Nothing like rolling down the hospital hill and watching the sun set over this down-but-not-out timber town. Lots of people pass through for the beach or the Olympic Peninsula, and all they see from their car window is run down, often vacant store fronts, and junkies a-junkin’. But friend, I’m here to tell you this town has heart.

Two solid breweries, Steam Donkey and Mount Olympus Brewing, along with Hoquiam Brewing the next town over. They all host community events including cribbage, trivia, and legit talented live musicians.

Breakwater Seafood has good crab melts, Billy’s and Boxcar for burgers. Salvadorena for papusas, great sushi and yakisoba at Samurai. Go Get the Pho, despite breaking most of Ali Wong’s rules for naming Vietnamese restaurants, delivers banh mi and noodle soup that’s right on par with the food I ate in Hanoi and HCMC.

The good folks working at these places are super friendly with zero pretentiousness.

Lots of local lore is this Town of Missing Men, like the early 20th century serial killer Billy “Ghoul” Gohl who used to drop his victims (140, it’s said) into the Wishkah River through a trap door in what’s now Breakwater. The eponymous restaurant Billy’s keeps his strange story alive with old photos and documents. Spooky shit. Bring on the true crime podcasters.

The whole Nirvana thing is… muddled. It’s strange to see this city embracing their native son when 1. Kurt Cobain loathed this area and the angst of his lyrics reflect that and 2. He wasn’t actually born here. He was born and largely raised elsewhere around Grays Harbor County. He attended high school here briefly, dropped out, and started a band. But it was here that he met Kris Novoselic and King Buzzo of Melvins fame. And there is something about being here and feeling the primordial pulse of the music scene that grew up between here and Olympia in the last 30 years. Drop by Eargasm Records, the owner of that place will tell you some stories.

There are nicer, probably safer places to spend a night, and good luck finding a decent coffee shop open past 3, and yeah the meth, and also we can’t seem to elect anyone who knows how to fix any of this, but there are lots of folks here who work daily to make this a nicer place to live and you should pop in for a beer sometime.