Ed Moose, a barkeeper of legend and boss of the Washington Square Bar and Grill in it’s golden days, died today apparently of complications from apparently fucked-up procedures at the hospital where he was being treated for an apparently also fucked-up routine operation.

As San Francisco days go, this was a classic of gloom. Today before even the predatory funeral people could to get their paws on  the  Moose carcass, a sign went up saying that the Washbag had been closed. At the moment, there is no evidence that there was any coordination.

Among other glories, Moose established the annual penny pitch at  Washbag at which a thousand traditional inebriates tossed their tips and made a bundle for good causes. Moose was predeceased in the Washbag by his business partner San Dietch, a classic saloonkeeper and a very good man despite North Beach sniping about him. They were both from St. Louis and learned Frisco something.

I recall a dark night of mischief back at the start of the Washbag which was then the down- home Rose Postola’s we went out for mischief and stole a cable car sign from the Muni barn and installed it in  the Washbag front room before ithe joint expanded with tables and silverware to take over the gold fish store next store.

Moose’s original partners in the Washbag were Donato and Frank Rossi of the Rossi family of Gino and Carlo and without them Moose always said he would have never got the place off the ground.

He is survived by his wife Mary Etta, one of the great woman of all times and a cook to beat the best. Theirs was a wonderful marriage, the product of  an enchanting love affair, which would be the envy of the most romantic.

– Warren Hinckle