Cafe Racer & OBAMA Museum

Live music, a radio station, and really bad art

Before moving to Capitol Hill in 2021, Cafe Racer spent 17 years as a quirky and hip hangout for writers, artists, musicians, and kindred spirits in the University District. Current owners Cindy Anne and Jeff Ramsey are dedicated to maintaining that creative DIY atmosphere. They’re current Cafe Racer is larger but equally offbeat in décor and clientele, with live entertainment most nights, karaoke on Mondays, and locally made Pot Pie Factory pot pies on the menu.

A key carry-over from the previous space is the Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA), owned and curated by Seattle artists Marlow Harris and Jo David. In the earlier Cafe Racer location, there was just an OBAMA room. Now the bad art crawls up the stairs, covers the walls of the mezzanine, and oozes into the bathrooms. “We have some perennial favorites here, such as Black Velvet Elvis and Dogs Playing Poker. But we also have rarer pieces, such as Scary Zombie Children and Timid Orange Bulldog,” says Harris. Classics, such as Lobster Lady (a $5 thrift store find) and Boob Butt (a gift from a fan) are back on display, as is Puppy Slut and Jesus of Peeps (made entirely of, you guessed it, marshmallow Peeps) by artist Janet Galore. One wall features playful, 1960s paint-by-number puppies and kittens. Another is covered in clowns, including “some of the most frightening clown paintings the world has ever seen,” says Harris. “We have happy clowns, sad clowns, and one or two Insane Clown Posse wannabes.”

Then there are the two bathrooms. Both are open to all. In the pink one with three stalls, “We went totally Hollywood Regency, with gold gilded mirrors, chandeliers, and a dozen old-world paint-by-number pieces,” said Harris. In the brown bathroom with urinals, “We went with a darker, gloomier theme, with several brooding portraits and a few fauna horns of conquest, both real and faux.” Bad art? You decide.