Former Null Set Coffee House musicians perform at Olympia Farmers Market

Former musicians of the Null Set Coffee House gathered again Sunday to perform at the Olympia Farmers Market.

The coffee house, which occupied space on Harrison Avenue on Olympia’s west side, was open in the mid-1960s. Before the music began, former owner and author Pat Holm, who wrote a book about the Null Set, reminisced about those days at the coffee house, saying it was the only coffee house between Seattle and Portland.

“Espresso was 25 cents, cappucino was 60 cents and pastries were 40 cents,” she said. And when customers wanted cafe au lait, the server carried a pitcher of steaming milk in one hand, a pot of French coffee in the other, and both were poured at the table, Holm said.

They paid musicians $25 a night, plus a percentage of the 50-cent cover charge. In addition to musicians, Holm remembered an 18-year-old poet, Norm Sibum, who used to write every night at the coffee house. He later produced a novel called “The Traymore Rooms.”

Holm also read one of Sibum’s poems on Sunday.

Mike Dumovich of the Arlington area played the coffee house 50 years ago, and he was the first act on Sunday, playing a couple of bluesy numbers on his acoustic guitar. He said the coffee house was small — small enough that you didn’t need microphones — and while folk music had its place at the house, musicians in those days also were influenced by the blues and artists like Huddie William Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly.

It was also a place where Mike’s world view would change, saying that he had voted for then-presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964.

“The Vietnam War liberalized a lot of people,” he said.

This story was originally published August 14, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Former Null Set Coffee House musicians perform at Olympia Farmers Market."