A long bus ride can put anyone in the mood for hard alcohol, and I’m not much of a beer drinker to begin with. So when Maureen “Mo” Harger at the Sundown Tavern broke the news that they only had beer, I had to think about what I wanted. Like the reverse of an old Western movie, I ordered whiskey and settled for a $3 Heineken. It wasn’t long before Mo made her way back to me with that other movie question: “You aren’t from around here, are you?” The Mariners game on three of the seven TVs kept the other patrons busy, so Mo filled me in on the Sundown. They open at 6 a.m. because, according to my host, that’s when the fishermen used to go to a tavern for a beer or coffee, and while the early-morning patronage might not be booming, the Sundown remains a beacon of light in a sea of otherwise-closed bars. Mo and her husband, Tom, based their tavern on the small, neighborhood places they like to visit when they take motorcycle trips. They’ve got free popcorn (much like well-known biker bar the Buckaroo Tavern) and a Super Mario Bros. arcade game. With the abundance of gravel-voiced patrons—I swear I heard Tom Waits say, “Betancourt, you son of a bitch,” during the game—and Harley signs inside, I wonder just who plays that Mario game.