How Gracie's Sea Hag became one of the Oregon coast's most enduring restaurants

As the story goes, Gracie Strom was once so desperate for customers that she got out some kitchen utensils and started banging around on the bottles behind the bar of her Depoe Bay restaurant, playing along to old songs like “Alley Cat” and “Roll Out the Barrel.” When people started popping their heads into the restaurant to check out the racket, a new Sea Hag tradition was born.

Today, the restaurant’s co-owner Clary Grant still plays the bottles for customers, who still poke their heads in to see what’s going on. It’s a conscious attempt to keep the old traditions alive at Gracie’s Sea Hag, a classic “seafood dive” that has survived to become one of the Oregon coast’s oldest and most beloved institutions.

Found on the main drag in Depoe Bay, a small town built on the rough basalt s