Washington Square Bar and Grill

The Washington Square Bar and Grill was a landmark restaurant adjoining Washington Square in San Francisco, California's North Beach neighborhood. Known widely as the Washbag, so named by columnist Herb Caen as a play on words, it was a favorite gathering place for a generation of writers, politicians, musicians, and social elite.cite news|date=January 10, 2008|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|title=Romancing the not-long-gone Washbag|author=C.W. Nevius|accessdate=2008-01-08|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/10/BAPMUC83K.DTL] [cite news|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|title=Ah, it's just like old times at the old Washbag|author=Rob Morse|accessdate=2008-01-10|date=April 16, 2003|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/04/16/MN29639.DTL]

The restaurant was opened in 1973 by local Ed Moose, a former dispatcher and reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_v21/ai_5170356|title=Moose and partners put 'Washbag' on the block for $1M|publisher=Nation's Restaurant News|date=August 24, 1987|author=Alan Liddle|accessdate=2008-01-10] along with partner Sam Dietsch. Moose organized a softball team, the Lapins Sauvages, composed of famous and influential people who were regular restaurant patrons. Caen often wrote of the team's exploits in his newspaper columns, describing its travels to play in major stadiums in various locations around the world. In 1989 author Ron Fimrite, [cite news|publisher=via|title=Ron Fimrite|url=http://www.viamagazine.com/about_via/bios/fimrite.asp] another of the softball team members, wrote "The Square: the Story of a Saloon", describing the restaurant's place in San Francisco's cocktail culture. [cite book|author=Ron Fimrite|publisher=Taylor Publishing Company, Dallas|date=1989|title=The Square: the Story of a Saloon|ISBN-13=9780878336319|ISBN=0878336311]

In 1992 Moose opened a larger restaurant, Moose's, on the opposite side of the square. [cite news|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1998/weekly/980615/welcome.html|publisher=Sports Illustrated|title=Welcome, Stranger: Golfers have never had to look hard to find a good time in Baghdad by the Bay|author=C.W. Nevius|date=June 16, 1998] [cite news|title=Executive chef-partner, new menu breathe life into SF's Moose's|publisher=Nation's Restaurant News|date=October 20, 1997|author=Alan Liddle|accessdate=2008-01-10|http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n42_v31/ai_19926837] The Washbag was sold to new partners in 2000 and eventually closed on January 1, 2008.

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