Known widely as the Washbag, so named by columnist Herb Caen as a play on words, it was a favorite gathering place for a generation of writers, politicians, musicians, and social elite.

Moose organized a softball team, the Lapins Sauvages, composed of famous and influential people who were regular restaurant patrons.

[5] Caen's decades-long buddy at the San Francisco Chronicle, Pulitzer prizewinner Stanton Delaplane actually wrote many of his columns while sitting by the Washbag's piano, and then dispatched them to the paper via messenger.

[6] In 1989 author Ron Fimrite,[7] one of the softball team members, wrote The Square: the Story of a Saloon, describing the restaurant's place in San Francisco's cocktail culture.

Ed and Mary Etta, with Sam Dietsch as a silent partner, opened a larger restaurant, Moose's, on the opposite side of the square.