Descend the stately brass stairwell from the door on 6th Avenue and you’ll find yourself not in elegant, if old-fashioned, Morton’s Steakhouse with white tablecloths and french doors that formerly occupied the space, but in SPiN a concrete warehouse space with street-art murals pulsing with bass from the DJ booth. It’s crowded, and the wall of sound confronting a new arrival is intimidating; this is surprisingly high-pressure for ping pong, a game generally played in your buddy’s garage.

Along with the industrial vibe, SPiN (1511 6th Avenue; 206.686.3593; seattle.wearespin.com) is preserving Morton’s elaborate speakeasy bar to complement the row of regulation-size ping pong tables stretching the length of the main room. Through a doorway is the VIP room featuring a smaller bar and more ping pong tables. 

 

The downtown Seattle location is the latest in a succession of ping pong bars opened by SPiN since it was founded in 2009 and opened its first location in New York City’s Flatiron District. Co-founded by Johnathan Bricklin and Franck Raharinosy, SPiN now has additional venues in Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, and other major cities.

Soon a crowd gathered around the reserved table where former South Korean table tennis player and model Soo Yeon Lee was handily dispatching challengers. As the event’s hosts kicked off a series of performances and matches, they tried to raise the energy in the crowd. The tepid response was classic Seattle; even among this group of party-ready socialites at an opening night event, we are not a city of enthusiastic participators. 

After a brief, disappointingly non-ping pong-themed breakdance performance, we were on to the first exhibition match of the night. Our competitors—whose names I missed in the garble of crowd noise—were a young woman “representing the United States” in a generic red, white, and blue team uniform and a forty-ish man “representing Japan” wearing a sequined hat and pants along with a black boa, fishnet forearm sleeves, and no shirt. It needed to be seen to be believed. 

He was easily the more interesting character, but from the host commentary and his arrogant way of comporting himself, it was clear we were supposed to be rooting against him. He was, in the parlance of professional wrestling, a heel. The audience followed this perfectly, rooting against him even as he lost points and responded by removing more and more clothing until he was competing in just black underwear with a prominent front zipper. It was a fascinating dynamic, the artificial qualities of wrestling personas contrasted with the very real ping pong taking place.

Opening Night was attended by an odd mix of people. Some were the expected “influencers,” while others were ping pong enthusiasts who have shown up daily to play (for $40/hour) since SPiN officially opened on Jan. 6. 

This mix was, like the venue and the very concept, an encapsulation of the Seattle’s current odd cultural moment, as the old and the new butt heads, as social media stars mingle with table tennis dorks, and as a game I associate with long, bored nights during summers in high school has suddenly become the hippest thing to do in a downtown still struggling to provide anything to do for a new generation of wealthy transplants.

See more photos from the event, featuring co-host and defense end of the Seattle Seahawks Cliff Avril, Nate Robinson, Cedric the Entertainer, and Alex Codd. Courtesy of SPiN Seattle, below.

 

Clarification: A previous version of this story referred to Susan Sarandon as a founder of SPiN. Sarandon is a co-founder of SPiN Global and promoted the brand when it launched, but is not affiliated with this club.