Best sledding, tubing and tobogganing spots near Seattle

Turns out, if we want lots of traffic, we should be writing about playing in the snow. We've been away on holiday for a week and not posting -- but a lot of you still visited the blog after searching for "sledding seattle" on Google.

We have a nifty little post about sledding without leaving Seattle. But we're guessing that when some of you search for "sledding seattle," you're actually looking for "sledding NEAR seattle."

Unfortunately, the Google results for the "near" search don't yield much useful info. So, here are some good links for those of you planning a drive into the mountains:

Seattle PI: Playgrounds for snow sports
Comprehensive listing with good info about what you'll find and how to find it but dated info so caveat emptor. Includes the map graphic you see on this post.

WA State Non-motorized Sno-Parks database
Sno-Parks usually are good prospects for easy access to snowy hills

Tacoma News Tribune: Pumped up on tubing
Focuses more on south part of state

Hammerhead Sleds Sled-Hill Database
High-performance sledding company maintains state-by-state listings of good hills to take a ride on its product


--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, snow, sledding, tubing

Condo 4 Sale again

Boo! The condo is up for sale again. Our non-buyer found us via a Craigslist ad we placed while we waited to officially list the property. We were a little wary having had some CL issues in past when we tried to give away a washing machine -- but the transaction was proceeding. Then Mr. CL started getting cold feet and asking ridiculous questions about the building. That was the first sign that we were about to get burned. Tonight, he's decided to back out. It's within his rights as a buyer. But he's leaving us hanging. So, file this post under plaintive whining -- we have to keep the place cleaned up for walk-throughs again!

--j

Charting Seattle's blog interest

One of the best blogs about blogging turns us onto this neat new trick from Technorati -- the weblog search engine.

Here are two 'live' charts of references to 'seattle' and 'portland' in blogs tracked by Technorati. Portland, we got you beat, sucka! Really, we're not going to gloat about the head-to-head thing -- in both charts you can see the growing swell of blogging in general. It's especially cool to be able to track this swell in relation to what we've been writing about.



Posts that contain Seattle per day for the last 30 days.



Posts that contain Portland per day for the last 30 days.

--j

One question about the Seattle Center suicides

Sure, there are bigger questions for the families or friends or witnesses. But from our perspective, we've got to ask just one -- why the Seattle Center? Is it becuase the venue is the last warm, free, public place in the city? It would be sad to see the place changed because of this. While the lame carnival rides are an embarrassment, the eclectic mix of entertainment and mall food inside the Center has created an oddly charming gathering place.

2 public suicides at Seattle Center called unusual
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
Seattle Center officials say two recent suicides in the Center House are unfortunate, but they concede there's little they can do to prevent such a thing from happening again.

Counselors have been made available to Seattle Center employees who may have witnessed the most recent suicide, which occurred Friday when an 84-year-old homeless man shot himself at the end of an evening jazz performance. The King County Medical Examiner's Office on Monday identified the man as Forest David Howe.

--j

2 restaurants for cheap eats

As we wind down our days living uptown, the combination of wanting to try things we never got to and a total lack of time has us eating out quite a bit. And our looming huge mortgage has us looking to save a penny or two even when we're too lazy to cook. Recently, Belltown's Toi and Lower Queen Anne's Marinepolis Sushi Land fit the bill.

Toi lured us in with their 'Blue-Eyed Devil' all-Monday night happy hour. Why we always fall for the happy hour thing, I don't know. Happy hours are never really that great of a deal and you end up ordering off a limited menu and missing some of the best things the restaurant has to offer. Toi's happy hour was typical -- they even have the classic happy hour menu item that is a 1/2 serving of a regular entree at the low, low price of 1/2 the regular entree! We'll let you figure it out. We did better when we happily abandoned happy hour and ordered a bowl of the spicy tom ka soup and blew away all of our happy hour value with a 10 buck Grey Goose martini. So much for being cheap.

Meanwhile, cheap is the best thing going for Sushi Land -- it is definitely a low-priced option for kaiten sushi action. With the cheapest plates at $1 a pop, the neverending flow of kaiten boats is a fun way to get stuffed. But you definitely get what you pay for. We usually joust each other with our chop sticks for the last bites of unagi -- but it turns out we've been eating at fancy-pants sushi joints with good unagi. The stuff at Sushi Land was mealy and flavorless. Better were the simple preparations like the spicy tuna or California rolls. You can get the full scoop on Marinepolis SL over at SushiFinder.com -- you'll also see a note or two over there mentioning some problems with the health department. The concerns are legit -- you can see for yourself over on the King County Health web site. There were some major issues last year and some problems as recently as this October. But this kind of thing comes up with lots of restaurants -- people just tend to think about it a lot more when it comes to eating boats of raw fish. Um, yum?

BTW, to be fair, here are Toi's inspection notes -- no such issues there. Still, the next time we're feeling cheap, we'll take our chances with Sushi Land.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, restaurants, toi, sushiland

The other side of the smoking ban: body odor

From the always sweet-smelling Stranger, comes this excellent point re: the impact of WA state's indoor smoking ban:

While the positive reviews stream in, there was one dissenter: "Something negative I did notice [at the Laptop Battle] was far more B.O. and a lot of farts and food smells," gripes Andrew Luck. "It was really gross. Bring back the smoke, 'cause people smell even worse when you get that many in a room."

-- j

Moving from Uptown: Top 5 things we'll miss

IMG_0486
Originally uploaded by chuntr.

The new house is bought. The downtown condo is sold. Our days in Uptown are numbered. So it's time to start numbering our thoughts about the neighborhood. List journalism is the sincerest form of nostalgia.

Top 5 Things We'll Miss
5) Seeing the PI Globe neon flicker on
4) Greater Seattle Soccer League team home field: Memorial Stadium in the shadow of the Space Needle
3) Fishing on the pier in Myrtle Edwards park
2) Walking to Macrina Bakery way, way too often
1) Elliott Bay sunsets

More lists to come including things we won't miss and ideas for what should happen to this blog.

--j

Sounds like Moxie is open

We've been looking forward to Moxie join the mix in the area in Lower Queen Anne. We haven't walked by yet, but sounds like it's open for business.

--j

Embarcadero-izing Seattle

Embarcadero
Originally uploaded by Cocoabiscuit.

The Stranger's slog has high quality post about the Seattle City Council's recent visit to San Francisco to see the development of the Embarcadero first hand. We've been flip-flopping on the tunnel concept -- looking forward to leadership talking about possiblities beyond bridges and tunnels. The Embarcadero might not be the model for us. But pretending it doesn't exist is folly. If we wait much longer, like SF, we might have a decision handed to us by good ol Planet Earth.

--j

Seattlest beats us to it - Velocity is good shopping

Check out Seattlest's We Shop in Belltown - Velocity Art & Design for a love post to one of the coolest stores in the city. It's pretty rare for J to walk into a store only to 'browse' -- he's usually more goal-oriented -- but Velocity is worth a visit even if you're 'just looking.'

-- j/k

Downtown Seattle is no place to raise a kid and that's... ok

family shopping trip
Originally uploaded by poopoorama.

Having just surrendered on starting a family while living in Seattle's downtown, we feel well-qualified to call bullpoop on Peter Steinbrueck's plan to attract families to live in the city's core. We hate being negative on this. We are pro-growth, pro-hippie dippie utopia types. You have to really work to turn us off a seemingly progressive agenda. But we've seen what Seattle's downtown real estate market is like up close and personal. And nothing in this 'plan' will change it. And maybe, nothing should -- but more on that lower in the post.

First, from "THE STEINBRUECK PLAN"
-snip-
The plan seeks to reach three key objectives:
• Create a downtown where a wide variety of residents would want to live,
including families and those of moderate income. A key goal is to have people
living closer to where they work.
• Expand affordable housing opportunities for downtown workers and families
• Create a more neighborly downtown by creating more reasons for residents to
spend time in the neighborhood, such as developing quality park and community
space
-unsnip-

But a summary of the specifics illustrates just how few teeth the council can put into the plan. Here's what Peter's plan calls for:
* Doubling the money contributed by developers into an affordable housing fund;
* Preserving the historic character of downtown Seattle. An Historic Resources Survey will assure our downtown core keeps it's historic distinction;
* Creating a livable residential environment in the Denny Triangle by decreasing proposed building height limits for office towers in the Denny Triangle yet, allowing increased heights in the central business district where commercial office towers currently exist;
* Committing to creating a family-friendly park and community center for Belltown, near downtown where 8,000 residents currently reside;
* Creating a more family-friendly environment by working with Seattle Public Schools to site an elementary school downtown.

Note there is nothing in this that will stop developers from building one Cristalla after another. Why not build them? The Cristalla is sold out and the demographic that can afford it is lining up to buy more. Maybe Cristala is what Steinbrueck means when he says 'affordable family housing.' It's a ridiculous notion. Cristalla units reportedly sold for around $540 per square foot -- that's $650 grand for a 1,200-foot unit.

But I'm not here to say stop the Cristallas. I've given up on that. In hindsight, it's a silly idea. There is a big market for Cristallas -- I don't know who these people are who can afford to pay more than $600K for 1-bedroom condos but they are out there. Maybe the same people like to own 6 or 7 units to match their moods.

And I'm not here to say don't build a park in Belltown. Build it, please. We love grass and trees.

I'm saying that THE STEINBRUECK PLAN won't help families live downtown. Things like community development and elementary school projects should work with reality and make that reality better. That means putting energy into the areas where families really can afford to live. Don't give up on making downtown attractive to families (and everybody, for that matter) -- go forward with improvement plans like parks and solving transportation issues. Families will come, Peter. They most definitely will come. Just don't expect them to live there.

Full disclosure: We just bought a home on Capitol Hill (we're lucky to be able to afford to live so close to the city's center). For those of you that might take a jab because we're giving up on developing downtown for family living so more resources are available for our new neighborhood, it's hard to argue with you. And, while not everybody is going to be able to buy or rent on Cap Hill, I'm guessing that we're part of a trend.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, housing, realestate

Best of 2005: Yet another people's picks list

We're suckers for end-of-year countdowns. Heck, we're suckers for any countdowns but really love the approaching new year because it gives all sorts of sources an excuse to count stuff off. NWSource.com (which is run by the 'Seattle Times Company representing the Seattle Post-Intelligencer' -- whatever that means) joins the parade with the tried-and-true 'best of your city' formula -- NWS 2005 People's Picks

Unlike a lot of the 'Best of' lists in Seattle which leave us wondering how many people from Bellevue vote, NWS's 2005 list actually has some intelligent, thoughtful picks. Usually, we can only depend on the non-vote-driven Stranger list for legit 'best' choices but NWS seemed to get a smart response pool this year. We'll take their word for it that these were truly the choices of the 'people.' Maybe the 'people' are getting smarter! yay! Also, good to see nearby venues take the top slot in movie house, dive bar, and art gallery.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, bestof2005

Adios 'Pompous' Room! Now stop parking in public spots

We've already danced on the grave of carcinogen-soaked nightlife in Seattle but we can't resist one more jab at an old enemy. Normally, we try to focus on the things we like here in Uptown. But we don't have anything nice to say about El Gaucho.

So, what's our beef with the psuedo-swank steak mill? We guess it's the way they treat the 'little' people. There is a stinky old-fashioned air of superiority about the operation that has manifested itself in plenty of ugly ways over the years. I got my best look at it when I lived on the other side of the alley behind the place for two years. There have been a handful of ugly incidents between staff 'bouncers' and civilians -- nothing more than somebody being forcibly shoved to the sidewalk but still not the kind of interaction I've ever seen at another restaurant in this city.

Before you blame this kind of thing on the kind of upper-crusty-wannabe clientele the place attracts, I can also say I've had my own run-ins with the staff and management over the years. And I wasn't even a customer (so they didn't push me down). I complained because it seems El Gaucho's eager valet boys have been told it's OK to use the city streets to park Richie Rich's Humvees and Escalades. Now, call me a rule follower, but that ain't right. The street parking is for the people -- not to further the business of the Pompous Room. So, between their disregard for their neighbors and their version of customer interaction, I'm not sorry for El Gaucho in the least. We take extra special pleasure in knowing the overpriced, under-classed joint has a big empty living room where once was a pretentious cigar lounge. Adios, Pampas Room. Maybe you can reinvent yourself as a vomitorium to fully round out the decadence. (OK, tht's just mean but it's good to get it out of our system!)

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, elgaucho, restaurants

Uptown Condo 4-Sale

We weren't kidding around when we said we were leaving. Here's proof. As they say in those 'everything must go' commercials, our loss is your gain. We're moving out of Uptown and leaving our cute lil condo behind to go build a nest up on Capitol Hill.

If you're interested in owning one of the last chunks of downtown housing selling for less than $400-per-square-foot, here's the craigslist listing.

Note we sold out and listed the 'Downtown' condo as being in 'Belltown' -- we had to admit that too many people just wouldn't know exactly where Uptown is. It is downtown and it is in Belltown. But it's uptown too. Oh well.

Also note that we didn't mention this added bonus -- the place comes with a blog you've probably heard of.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, condo, realestate

Where to celebrate the smoking ban

DSCF0027
Originally uploaded by asabass.

It's hard not to feel vengeful. We admit it. We want to dance on the grave of an edangered species. Seattle smokers, after midnight tonight, will no longer be a direct part of our nightlife. What else to say but... yipee!

So the real question is where to celebrate? Our first instinct is to mark this event in the (formerly) smokiest of Seattle's bars. A place like the 5 Point or the Noc Noc seem perfect if we were really seeking to rub it in. But I'm not sure we're ready for the human element. Are we prepared to see the pittiful huddles of used-to-be bar smokers shuffling around aimlessly? It might be too depressing. And, worse, we could find ourselves in the middle of a smoking protest -- don't want to be anywhere near the 5 Point when jack-booted riot police show up.

So we'll probably take a different tack -- why not celebrate at one of the places that was there for you all along and now face a new environment for their businesses. We're thinking about ringing in the new nightlife in an always-smoke-free bar like the Virginia Inn. Think of it as a reward for all the fine work they did through the years giving us a nicotine-free option. Of course, if we're feeling really vindictive (and we have a large enough posse of pals) we probably won't be able to resist laughing it up at an ex-smoking joint. We're talking years of pent-up anger here, folks. And dry cleaning bills. And lung tumors, etc.

-- j

Bloggers gets busy with real world, Seattle moves forward

This blog ain't our day job (lucky for us) so we've been away tending to life bidness. We're happy to poke our nose back into the world and find a few good things have happened -- even without our valuable input!

As we noted recently, the Stranger's Slog has been both a) one of the coolest local blogs going and b) frustratingly lamely executed from a geek-tech perspective. While we were away, the Slog rolled out a key piece of goodness -- integrated comments with each post. We'll waste 2 more hours there every day now... 3 if they change design so you can view each post and associated comments on a single screen and click back through the post stream. Go, Stranger geeks, go!

And, for things that truly matter, it's great to see the City Council looking for a way to put some teeth in the management of liquor problems downtown. While we have general reservations about infringing on the liberties of man, we also don't think it's a slippery slope. Banning problem alcohol types from problem areas (and identifying those 'problems' using cold hard datasets) is an important part of the equation. There are going to be plenty of other substances to abuse and we'll need to figure out responses beyond curbing the sale of malt liquor but we're cool with progress. And we didn't even have to write about it to make it happen. Magic! :)

-- j

The Stranger loves Boat Street, too

We already shared our love song for the Boat Street Cafe and Kitchen -- this week's Stranger weighs in and confirms our enthusiam.

Boat Street, the sequel, feels charming and complete in a way that totally new restaurants cannot.

Read the rest.

Also, here's our review from early last month.

--j

20 Seattle streets to avoid if it snows

snow1
Originally uploaded by candid.

Seattle Department of Transportation has this handy list of the 20 Steepest Streets in Seattle.

The Queen Anne area claims a lot of these climbs, no surprise.

Mix and match this list with the 5 highest points in Seattle if you want to test our your Outback's 4wd for the first time.

Here are the top 3 on the steep list.

PERCENT SLOPE	STREET NAME	FROM	TO
21	E ROY ST	25TH AV E	26TH AV E
20	W BLAINE ST	9TH AV W	10TH AV W
20	E TERRACE ST	RANDOLPH AV	ERIE AV

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, snow

5 best places to sled without leaving Seattle

Yellow curb and sculpture - Seattle Center
Originally uploaded by Belltown.

If you measure sledding opportunity by proximity to God's intelligently designed snow making machines, we're here to help. Here's how to toboggan without leaving Seattle.

SDOT's Highest Elevations in Seattle

1. High Point above sea level, 6 parcels south of watertower at 35th Ave SW and SW Myrtle Street - 520 feet - NAVD88
2. Near Bitter Lake, on N 145th St just east of Greenwood Ave - 493 feet - NAVD88
3. NE 92nd ST and Roosevelt Way NE - 466 feet - NAVD88
4. Queen Anne Hill, at First Ave N and Lee Street - 456 feet - NAVD88
5. Highest point in Volunteer Park - 453 feet - NAVD88

Of course, if you measure the opportunity by likelihood of achieving light speed on your shitty plastic disc sled, you might do better to check out this list of the 20 steepest streets in Seattle.

Also, be careful -- urban sledding is dangerous!

--snip--
There’s no more dangerous place for kids to sled than the very place where his injury occurred: the street. When Children’s Hospital of Seattle tracked sledding injuries after one major snowstorm, for instance, it found that although 44 percent of kids sledded in the street, 76 percent of injuries came from street sledding.

"They hit parked cars, moving cars, telephone poles, trees, fixed objects, sometimes they overshoot their target," says Dr. Tongue, a clinical associate professor at Oregon Health Sciences in Portland.
--unsnip--

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, snow, sledding

Starbucks rip-off: 5 ways to score free coffee

Not very X-masy of us given that the corporate coffee giant is planning a holiday "Cheer Party" (edited 7:50p 11/30/05) from 4p-6p Thursday night where they'll be giving away free drinks and goodies but we liked this list too much not to share. Bah humbug, we guess.

Barista Laments: How to get free coffee drinks
Rule number 1: Go the busiest store near you to capitalize on worker confusion.
The key is to find a *$ that is busy, where confusion makes it easy to get away with things. If you go to an empty store where the person who rings you up is the same person who makes your drink, you aren’t getting away with anything.
more...

We get all preachy: EMP art belongs at SAM

blue on blue on...
Originally uploaded by ChrisB in SEA.

We're usually agnostics when it comes to corporate giants with billions to burn. But Paul Allen is pushing his luck. The blurred lines between public and private are getting to be too much -- it's hard NOT to be jealous for Seattle's museums and public spaces.

Seattle Times: Paul Allen's Experience Art Project
Paul Allen is about to break the secrecy that's long shrouded his art collection. Over the years, ARTnews magazine has cited Allen as one of the world's top spenders on art, yet few people seem to know exactly what he's been buying.

Maybe we're being naive. Maybe public art museums are structured business entities just like Allen's EMP. Maybe we should be glad Allen is sharing his collection with the proletariat. But we'd rather see this kind of spirit enriching a true public institution vs. the qausi-public institution in Seattle Center.

EMP is a non-profit today but that's not the long-term goal. Be careful putting too much of your city's culture in hands that are seeking profit.

--j

The Usual Suspects: Seattle's 3 urban nesting grounds

So, where do wanna-be yuppies who can't afford to breed in downtown Seattle start looking for nests? We're on the hunt for a new home after (sadly) discovering that it is impossible for a family to live in Seattle's downtown.

General loacation requirements:

• Within 2.5-mile radius around Space Needle
• Within walking distance of at least one coffee shop, one restaurant and one grocery store. Bar is bonus

This pretty much narrows our search to these usual suspects:

Queen Anne
It's very difficult to accept the fact that this might be our perfect nest. Just feels too Volvo-y. But we need to face facts - QA is perfectly located and has a lot of gorgeous little (expensive!) homes. And we could still walk to a Macrina. And we don't have to live on top of the hill. Somehow, staying low makes us feel we can live in QA and retain our street credibility. (Of course, admitting that we've looked at homes in Magnolia kinda blows that credibility away, no?)

Capitol Hill
We'll use Capitol Hill to encompass everything from Volunteer Park to 1st Hill and Madison. Lots of diversity in those areas but the areas with homes for sale are mostly similiar and share Cap Hill's attributes: the highest prices around, proximity to downtown, unique homes and its own neighborhoods and business cores. Even with all this, Cap Hill's yuppie hoods aren't the slam-dunk choice they used to be. Overpricing and decay around areas like Broadway make the area less attractive. But as long as lots of people read that and say 'Good. Glad you don't like it. Let us have it!' the family home areas of Capitol Hill will be in high demand. We want to be there mainly because that is where our friends are and we kinda dig false bohemia. Groovy. But maybe our friends will move to QA to be where we are.

Magnolia
We're not sure why more people don't talk about Magnolia as an option for young, family-raising types. Strip away the urban grit and false bohemia of Capitol Hill and you'll get Magnolia -- near downtown, filled with a mix of very expensive and some relatively affordable houses and replete with its own little retail core. Magnolians refer to this area as 'The Village' and there aren't any smack dealers -- so the Capitol Hill comparison is a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea.

There are a few options outside this immediate ring of potential nesting grounds -- but no sense insulting those places until we actually are thinking about living there :)

More construction in Uptown

Poor, poor Seattle. We look kind of pittiful right now with our sillty little monorail collided and stacked up in a sad hunch. Uptown also looks a little worse for wear with torn up pits of gravel and mud on nearly every corner. You can add the intersection of Denny and Queen Anne Ave to the list of construction projects in the area -- we returned from the turkey day holiday to find the Shell gas station lot being fenced off and dug up. Directly across the street, the mud pit that will become the Trio condo project deepens while just around the corner they're piling gravel high in the Olympic Sculpture Park construction zone. If you have a 3-year-old who digs Tonka trucks, Uptown is the hood for you right now.

Happy Turkey Day

Pumpkin Pie - Thnxgiving
Originally uploaded by ebs1123.

Here's something to get your bellies geared up -- flickr's pumpkin pie stream. Yum! We're out of here for the holiday. See you on the other side. Looking for something to do? Seattle Times has this round-up including a few events of note. We'd freeze through the parade Friday morning if we were around because we're corny like that.

10 Mercer: Great place for wine-by-the-glass

Speedy post here but we wanted to share. 10 Mercer -- in addition to having a groovy ladder-aided wine tower -- also offers one of the best selections of wine-by-the-glass of any restaurant in Seattle. It's also a good place to catch a late meal after a movie at Uptown Cinema -- we loved the mussels and (don't laugh) the salads are wonderful treats that make you forget about the space you're wasting on lettuce.

-- j

Leaving Uptown Seattle

Afternoon (wide)
Originally uploaded by Sunburn.

We've been kicking around admitting something here for a week or two. This post to the Slog is a good wall to bounce the thoughts off of. We're part of the statistics in the post -- 83% of residents downtown are single. Technically, K & I are single but we've recently decided to change that and the next step is finding a home together to become un-single and raise a family. We both harbored naive hope that we would be able to make a go of it in the city's downtown. We don't see a lot of kids downtown but we wanted to change that and to make the city's social, art and political structures part of our family's roots. We knew that we'd pay a price for this -- if nothing else, it would be more financially expensive let alone the other types of costs and burdens. But we believed the benefits would outweigh the effort.

Now we know it just ain't going to happen. We've looked. And looked. But there isn't an option for anybody looking to make the next step. Downtown is full of small condos and apartments and the few larger living spaces are designed not to provide an option for families but, instead, an upgrade option for the extremely wealthy. Mind you even these people (whomever they are -- K's a lawyer and I work for a large software behemoth) aren't getting a useful space -- they are buying a downtown luxury space with the extra room added in features like humongous bathrooms.

We are leaving Uptown even though we were willing to dedicate ourselves to being part of the structure and contributing to its changes. Now we know downtown Seattle just doesn't have a place for us. We still hope to be part of the city -- but our roots will be planted in some other neighborhood, away from the core and away from the heart and soul of what drew us here. Poor, poor Uptown -- we could have been friends.

Visitor 3,000

Lots of numbers this week so a quick post to note a milestone -- last night at 10:24 PM, the 3,000th visitor landed on UptownSeattle. We entertained our 1,000th guest back in September so we're seeing more than 1,000 of ya'all per month.

#3000 came to the blog via Google where s/he had searched for i heart rummage dec 4th -- a solidly constructed query! Now, we're not the definitive source on all things i heart rummage but we are a running stream of thoughts and ideas about Seattle and its cool stuff like i heart rummage -- so Google's nifty math equations pointed the user to us and a few dozen other links.

#3000 chose our link from Google's search results and ended up on one of our archive pages where we had a useful little post about the upcoming i heart rummage schedule. Of course, it doesn't always work that way -- we feel bad for those of you who end up here hoping to find lots of BDSM info besides our post about Belltown's own pleasure dungeon. But it's cool to be part of the info flow.


-- j/k

Oops: There are actually 17 Great Seattle Blogs

When we posted our 15 Great Seattle Blogs, we forgot one. Obvious Diversion deserves a place in our pantheon of sources for good data on the city. And now it's award winning so we really better mention it. So, that makes 16 Great Seattle Blogs (read that in deep radio voice please). What's with 17? That's us, silly. Right?




--j/k

Tags: uptown, seattle, blogs, obviousdiversion

25 for $25 in Uptown: Flying Fish

We're not usually swayed by the over-hyped 25 for $25 dining promotion. In fact, we actively avoid it as an introduction to a restaurant we've never been to before. It's the wrong way to say hello to a new menu, we think. But last night we were at an old favorite and found ourselves ordering the pieces of the 25 promo menu anyway -- so, what the heck, why not have pumpkin cheesecake too? Like we said, we'd rather you have your first experience with Fish free of the constraints of the deal menu -- but we also understand saving some cash. BTW, surprising that 25 for $25 doesn't have some sort of charity component. It seems like that would be a good way to give the whole promotion a little heart and soul.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, restaurant, 25for25, flyingfish

15 great Seattle blogs

We've updated our sidebar list of favorite local blogs. We limit our list to blogs that (mostly) cover local events, thoughts and issues. The web has a global reach and some of our favorite sites harness this worldwide power. But we also think there is plenty of room for a more local focus and that there is power in that too -- strangely enough, even the most local, navel-gazing post about your neighborhood will draw interest from around the world. We'd recommend these 15 to everybody from Cape Town to Belltown.

1. Belltown Bent (neighborhood)
2. Cascadia Scorecard (enviro)
3. Cornichon (foodie)
4. Evergreen Politics (enviro)
5. HorsesAss (PNW politics)
6. Metroblogging Seattle (pro)
7. Queen City Cruise News (GLBT)
8. Rain City Real Estate (real estate)
9. Restless Reader (literati)
10. Seattle Bon Vivant (foodie)
11. Seattle LiveJournal (community)
12. Seattlest (pro)
13. Slog (pro) )
14. USS Mariner (jock)
15. You Deserve the Truth (media)

-- j/k

Tags: uptown, seattle, blogs

The 31st most relevant Seattle blog... ever

According to Technorati, we rank 31st among Seattle blogs in terms of 'authority' -- Technorati bases its authority calculations on the number of current incoming links and sources to a given blog tagged 'seattle' in the Technorati system. So, really, there are lots of more authoritative, more relevant blogs about Seattle that either aren't tagged for Technorati or not linked to in a way that is counted in the Technorati rankings. The other problem is way simpler -- tagging a blog 'seattle' is just too easy to do. Some of the blogs in the rankings above and below us aren't really about Seattle at all. Some happen to be written by people living in the city - others happen to work for big corporations like SBUX that have their HQ here.

So, what's the point beyond our ongoing need to be measured and treat life like a competition?

First, if you're a blogger yourself, make sure to include a link to your favorite blogs in a fashion that registers in Technorati. We need to update our links -- a few of our faves have faded away. There's a responsibility to link -- no matter why somebody keeps a blog, having visitors is important. If you like something, you need to link to it to help keep it alive. Systems like Technorati hold the key to connecting with an audience. This is especially important for small, homebrew micro-blogs like ours.

If you leave the blogging to attention-starved writer types, you need to be a discriminating consumer. Don't settle for the top scrape from the various search engines and tagging systems. Sometimes you just have to get more specific -- we like our ranking for 'belltown,' for example, very much!

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, blogs, technorati

Thanksgiving for lazy orphans: 3 restaurants open for Turkey Day

Some of my favorite Thanksgivings have been spent with the orphans -- the random assembly of friends and co-w0rkers either too cheap or too bitter to go home for the holiday. If you're part of an orphan gang this year or, god forbid, hosting the fam, you might want to consider sticking a big fat fork in tradition and handing the food part of the equation over to the pros. While a potluck can be a lot of fun, there' s no shame in buying your way out of dealing with giblets. Here are three restaurants in the neighborhood where the doors will reportedly be open on Turkey Day (we'd call ahead ;) ). If you know of any others, feel free to add them to the list.

1. Cascadia - 2328 1st Ave
   The swankest option of the bunch but no word if they make their hyped mini-burgers available for the feast.
   
2. Cutters - 2001 Western Ave
   The most accesible of the trio so won't flip out your weird uncle. Most likely to include honest-to-gosh-regular-old-american-style-not-fancy-pants-style turkey in menu.
   
3. Fish Club - 1800 Alaskan Way
   Solid middle ground. Fancy joint but location within Marriott Hotel will help everybody feel comfortable -- especially when you rent a room and wear bathrobe to dinner.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, thanksgiving, restaurants

The monorail properties: where they are and who will buy them

We were not happy when the Puget Sound Biz Journal ran a few bone-picking obituaries for the monorail way back in August. But they were on the right trail. Always follow the money, we guess.

Those PSBJ pieces are very interesting now that the will is about to be read and the monorail project's acquired real estate is set to be auctioned off. The Journal apparently ran a map of the monorail properties sometime in August but we couldn't find it on the Web. Today's Seattle Times map (which we borrowed and modified for the graphic on this phine post) is not very detailed but does give some highlights. Anybody know what restaurants these are?

From what is online, in August 5th's Land grab: Property at issue if the monorail dies, we learn that the process has created super-lots that will likely attract a great deal of commercial interest:

• "For instance, the agency was able to fill in the Fiorito family's "U"-shaped parcel by buying the abutting properties, creating the larger site the agency believed it needed for its plans. One consequence: The combined property would be much easier to develop if it is later sold, making it far more valuable."

Reporter Jeanne Lang Jones also asked a question that should be asked again -- The monorail portfolio: Would city consider buying some of the lots?

• Some of the smaller properties along Fifth Avenue in downtown may be the most sought after, fetching prices perhaps as high as $210 a square foot.
• Likely bidders: Neighboring property owners hoping to increase their holdings and businesses looking for new headquarters.

But it's also possible that the city should and could step in to preserve this valuable land for its citizens.

• "If the city is smart and logical they would look at that before they let any of it go to the market," he said. "It's hard to find little properties like that."

Let's see if we can be both smart and logical.

Meanwhile, the little guys and gals who may have bought a home with the monorail as a draw are SOL. The real estate vulture quoted is licking his chops: "If I am an apartment or condo buyer and I bought in anticipation of being along the monorail route -- especially at a station ­-- I'm going to see a drop in value associated with my property," Laycock said, "especially if I bought closer to when the monorail was being planned rather than five years ago when it was just an idea."

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, monorail, realestate

New in Belltown: Rockin' Burrito

Newbie Rockin' Burrito (no g, please) claims they will wrap 'all your favorite foods' in a tortilla. We have doubts -- we love Wheat Chex, so bring it, sucka. Rockin' replaces Sids Deli at 4th and Wall. It's new so it's still too clean and un-funky to be truly rockinG -- perhaps that is what they mean by Rockin'.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, belltown, restaurant

The least interesting picture of Ballard

BardahlSign
Originally uploaded by Chas Redmond.

Of course, when you have the most interesting things that means, somewhere out in the universe, there must be least interesting things. This is currently the least interesting photograph of Ballard according to flickr. We love the caption: "The Bardahl neon sign in Ballard. It was not lit."

Kind of says it all, no?

-- j


Tags: uptown, seattle, flickr, ballard, leastinteresting

The most interesting picture of Belltown

exposure
Originally uploaded by vsz.

Need to cleanse your palette after reading so many election posts over the past few weeks? We do. Yahoo's flickr, our favorite photo site, has a groovy algorithm to determine which photos users find most interesting. This is the 'most interesting' picture of Belltown. Here's the rest of the Belltown images that rise to the top. Hop over there and play with the tags to see other cool things like the Space Needle and Ballard's most interesting.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, flickr, belltown, mostinteresting

OK, Mayor, you win -- tunnel!

Time for new realities. With the absolute rejection of the monorail and the state's decision to not roll-back the gas tax, the mayor's transportation wishes have been granted. There was no reason for Ballard or Capitol Hill or Wedgewood or, heck, even Queen Anne to back the Green Line with no clear path to its extension -- let alone the addition of a ROYGBIV's worth of connecting lines. So it goes. The mayor, now that he is done with his political strangulation, will have to start building. Everything is on the table again. We're even willing to reconsider the tunnel option for the viaduct -- sorry People's Waterfront Coalition, new realities.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, election, monorail, viaduct

Need to know where to vote?

Ballot Box, Broadway, Seattle, WA
Originally uploaded by djwudi.

The King County elections site has a handy tool to look up your polling location. Now you have one less excuse.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, election

Return of a classic: Boat Street born again

The re-birth of The Boat Street Cafe and Kitchen on the edge of Seattle's city core is an exciting development for our neighborhood. This just might be the most serious restaurant in the business. In a world full of disposable garbage, we need people who aspire to be indisposable -- to aspire to the classic.

You descend to the new Boat Street down a concrete rampway -- above you, retail and office spaces, behind you, one of the busiest intersections in the city. Stepping inside, you are transported out of the urban and into the urbane. The ethos is classic -- clean white walls and crisp table settings. A comfortable but looming formality envelopes and the restaurant has the confidence to seal it all with a classical soundtrack of Ravel.

The food befits a classic -- dishes that emphasize craft and effort without being hip, dramatic or showy (though some of the effort does emerge from behind the scenes -- the vegetable flan menu entry notes a wait for the dish's extra prep time). Best of the bunch at our table was the oysters in cream sauce with its rich saffron pool and an island of crisp biscuit. The menu emphasizes the expected but with less-explored classics like the oyster dish. The plates offered, as a collective, won't read as 'exciting.' It is the details like perfectly ripe pear slices atop the salad where Boat Street wins the day.

Dessert? Like any great restaurant, the sweets transcended the classics. The crisp, vanila-y bread pudding was devoured nearly as quickly as the perfectly balanced sweet-tart berry cobbler. Two desserts were perfect for a table of 5. Another body and we would have had to try three.

We are excited to have Boat Street in the neighborhood so know that enthusiasm colors our experience. But it's nice to meet a classic and find out that she deserves her legendary status.

The Boat Street Cafe
3131 Western Ave.
Date: Friday, Nov. 5, 2005
Time: 6:30ish
Mood: Party of 5
Wine: a spicy viognier
Starters: pear & blue cheese and several organic greens salads
Entrees: crab cakes, oysters in cream, salmon, veggie flan, braised beef
Dessert: pread pudding, berry cobbler

-- j/k

Tags: uptown, seattle, restaurant, boatstreet

Make The Stranger's Slog better, please

It's a grey and rainy Monday so I have a need to pick on something. Fortunately, there's a flawed victim that might actually deserve the criticism. The Stranger's Slog blog is oh-so-close to a great experience -- progressive, counter-current posts in a mildly wacky stream-of-conciousness flow that ebbs from trickle to explosion through the day and days of the week. And it's mostly focused on Seattle. Those are the parts we like. Here are the parts we don't.

• It's (dis)organized by time. You can keep your huge stream of ideas format but also give us the ability to view and link to individual posts categorized with a simple tagging structure. Without some kind of non-time structure, your good thoughts and work waste into the past. Oh, also add dates to the timestamps on the posts -- you guys post so often that it's easy to get lost.
  
• Attach the comments streams to the post. When Savage accidentally goes bourgeois in his posts, we want to be there when the proles rise up and drop some choice comments his way. Today, comments are sent off into some kind of separate message board purgatory -- there is no context in the post, no trail of thinking that keeps the ideas moving.
• Stay on Seattle. Ok. You can hit Alito now and then but we get to hear lots of voices on things on the world and national stage. Commentary on Beacon Hill? Only in the Slog.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, thestranger, slog

Why Bellevue & gamblers hate the monorail

Just so you know what you're voting for on Tuesday, here is what you get. Look at that solid green line and imagine a dependable schedule of trains traveling up and down the system. Think of how much more liveable this artery will make the city core. Think of how much more connected and unified this will help make the pieces of the city -- and the potential to connect more without putting more cars on the streets and crap in the air. The risk is a continuing fracture. While there is charm and great things in the various neighborhoods and chunks of the city, it's the cohesive whole that makes it something bigger and more important.

Maybe that isn't important to you. Maybe you don't believe in the vibrancy of a true urban city vs. the distributed pallor of a suburban city. If that' s the case, vote no. Maybe you believe in true cities but you don't think the monorail is the vehicle to get us there. You can vote no, too, if you're a gambler. There are so many forces that push a city like Seattle toward fracture; we hope you're a lucky one.

Probably not much more on the election from us but you never know. Metroblogging Seattle has a good round-up of endorsements from local media outlets. Check it out if you're in need of guidance.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, monorail

The nicest thai restaurant in Seattle

Usually, when people say something is 'nice,' those people don't really mean it. But when we say Rice N Spice is the nicest thai restaurant in Seattle, we're sincere to the bottom of the bowl. Nice is definitely the right word. We defy you not to like the greeters and servers that run the place. It's imposible because they smile and seem genuinely glad to see you. Every time. At every moment through the meal. The food is two or three ticks up above your typical thai fare with nice touches like actual Som Tam papaya salad on the menu. Everybody needs a dependable thai joint in their neighborhood. We're glad to have Rice N Spice in ours.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, thai, restaurant

Protest today on the streets of Seattle

Your kid might have skipped school today but it was for a cause. It looks like today's student walkout to protest war in Iraq actually happened. There are so many attempts to make a statement that it's sometimes hard to separate effective, organized efforts from somebody with a lot of time to make flyers.

Here's an eyewitness account via instant messenger from a downtown highrise:

K: the kids are marching and they are loud
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2002596673_protest01m.html
Sent at 12:44 PM on Wednesday
j: a lot of people?
K: not a ton, but it's not embarrassing either
j: 200?
K: yeah, at least - twoish blocks worth
in the street, not on sidewalks
they had drums

Eyewitness K reports the crowd is headed up Capitol Hill if you want to join up.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, protest

The best empty commercial property on 1st Ave.

Sometimes we have to admit it. We're naive. Case in point: We can't figure out why some places in our neighborhood have a new business in place nearly the day another goes out of business, while other properties just kind of sit there. Forever. So it is with what seems to us to be a prime Seattle location at 1st Ave. and Wall Street, directly across from the El Gaucho and neighbor to the wonderful Marco's Supperclub. Since the closure of the At.31 Gallery, this corner slot has sat empty with little activity beyond the homeless guy sleeping in the front doorway and the sad hand-printed FOR LEASE sign in the window. What gives? Are the owners holding out for a too pricey lease? Do the snobs from unincorporated Snohomish county waddling into El Gaucho scare off prospective buyers? The logic doesn't jive -- how can somebody afford to sit on empty property? But, to be honest, we don't need to be delivered from our naivete. More important to us, letting this place sit idly denies our right to be 100% fully entertained at all hours of the day, every day for the rest of our lives. Please, please, please rectify this situation.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, realestate

One restaurant bites the dust, another takes its place

Arrivederci Nonna Maria. In somewhat warmed-over news, the big white sheets of butcher paper in the windows signify that the Lower Queen Anne italian spot is no more. We missed note of the closure when we made this recent posting about Veil -- getting all hot and bothered instead about the new restaurant over in Crow's neighborhood (Crow review). Nancy Leson's Taste of the Town says we're in for a treat when Nonna's replacement shows up in December -- Moxie sounds like a good concept. We especially like the idea of a "strong appetizer bent."

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, Moxie, restaurant

Live downtown? You don't want a bridge

More bad ideas to replace the viaduct. Seattle Times report today describes a bridge concept to replace the crumbling section of Highway 99. The bridge would be similiar in style to the Highway 509 bridge in Tacoma, pictured here. While there are many drawbacks to the idea, the biggest problem we see is that there would be no downtown exits. It would add insult to injury to erect a curtain of cable and concrete in our face that we can't even use. Groan. Until we hear a better idea, we're with the People's Waterfront Coalition. Who says we need to replace the viaduct at all?

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, viaduct, peopleswaterfrontcoalition

The quietest Halloween.... ever

Last night was, indeed, Halloween but you would not have known it walking down 1st Ave. at 11p -- the streets were 100% dead. It could have been Turkey Day for the pure lack of humans. K& I, being brave souls and undaunted by poor scheduling, put on our classiest blond wigs and coolest shades to hit the pavement in search of at least a little tiny morsel of Halloween spirit. We didn't want some throbbing Pioneer Square disco extravaganza -- just a little bite-size chunk of the holiday. The thought had been to find a quiet but bustling non-bar and sit to grab a little food and drink but man oh man did we have a hard time in the bustling department. We walked by the Black Bottle but couldn't bring ourselves to enter the empty restaurant with nobody there to appreciate our wigs. Black Bottle wasn't alone in its loneliness so we punted on our primary mission and settled for a quick drink at the Cyclops where there were a few other warm bodies, if nothing else. Wandering home through the rain, we saw the occasional wandering costume-wearer. We wanted to point each of them toward the Cyclops but also lower their expecations accordingly. Instead, we walked on by, went home, and packed our wigs away for next year. We're sure Halloween on a Tuesday night will be much more interesting.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, halloween, cyclops

More Seattle's haunted places

grave1
Originally uploaded by kemikore.

Our previous post about the haunting of the Butterworth Building has drawn a lot of interest. Here's a roster of other purported poltergeist across WA state, including this nearby highlight:
-snip-
Seattle - The Rivoli - a turn of century building where the spirit of a young Eskimo girl who came to Seattle to start a new life has been felt and seen. Her mentally ill Cuban boyfriend stabbed her to death and her body was hidden behind a Murphy bed. The door to her apt. was padlocked and she wasn't discovered for several weeks until her neighbor noticed a strange smell.
-unsnip-

Yikes. For the creepiest account of the Trundle Bed Ghost and other downtown spirits, check out this Real Change article.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, haunted, ghosts, trundlebedghost

Our corporate neighbors: RealNetworks, Dendreon and Eddie?

You're probably already aware of two of the more interesting gigantic corporations in the neighborhood: Real Networks lives down on Elliott while cancer-fighter Dendreon makes its home on 1st Ave , across from Minnie's. But is there another corporate gang hanging around uptown these days? Way back in July, the Puget Sound Biz Journal reported that Eddie Bauer was considering a move to the big city from its Redmond HQ but there has been no follow up. The 3101 Western Building definitely has tenants (sorry about the other morning, all - I really didn't mean to drop my towel) but we haven't gotten close enough to them to check out the labels on their shirts, yet.

- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, realnetworks, dendreon, eddiebauer

View insurance

Belltown Bent's sad little goodbye to a 1st Ave Space Needle view includes some fascinating info about the city's "view protection activities." Turns out, Seattle has a plan to maintain view corridors of the landmark from various points through the city. Prospective condo hunters might put the info to good use to alleviate concerns that the parking garage across the street might become a high rise. In the meantime, we join Belltown Bent in waving 'buh bye' to the Needle with added hopes that residents of the new condo building might occasionally entertain us by hanging out interesting laundry.

-- j


Tags: uptown, seattle, spaceneedle

Local blogger with a purpose: good wine

We love blogs. We love local. And we especially love local bloggers with a purpose. Swirl & Sniff is dedicated to keeping you informed about quality 'no-pretense' wines. We found the site while digging for info about in-Seattle Wilridge Winery's Nebblio juice. Drink up!

-- j

Bat Cave Day!

Mexican Freetail Bats
Originally uploaded by Tolka Rover.

Vain, your neighborhood punk DIY-friendly hair salon, boutique and art gallery, is having their annual BAT CAVE DAY on Saturday. They dress up and have competitive pumpkin carving and pass out treats, including Cupcake Royale cupcakes. Yum! These bats know how to party.

Double last call + Halloween = Fall back

Seattle PI reminds to turn back your clocks Sunday adding even more credence to our proposal to officially move Halloween to Saturday night. You gotta be out and about for a double last call night at least a few more times before you die.

-- j

Seattle hearts pinko commie radio

Like any good citydwellers, we spend a fair amount of our time sitting in traffic. Once you've listened to your meager CD collection a few billion times, it's nice to be able to flip on the car radio and be entertained. Local radio industry expert Lisa Wood points us to the latest station ratings for the Seattle market. It's pretty darned interesting to see what advertisers think we're listening to. Lisa rightly calls out the success of KJAQ's format here in Seattle -- the station's automated 'Adult Hits' system is easily the biggest winner vs. the 2004 ratings period.

But when you look at year-over-year change on an individual station basis, there is a bigger winner than KJAQ.

Talk radio KPTK turned in the biggest gain vs. last year with its ratings points jumping nearly 200%. What the hell is KPTK? Turns out, it's good ol pinkie commie radio Air America's Seattle base -- 1090 on your AM dial. Honorable mention should go to KNBQ -- easily the biggest gainer in our car thanks to the gf's affection for 'new' country, Q- Country didn't even exist last summer and already is sniffing 2 points of ratings share.

And the biggest losers? On the other end of the political and ratings spectrum from KPTK 1090, conservative yakker KTTH stunk up the joint dropping nearly 40% from 2004. Ditto!

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, radio, ratings, airamerica, kjack

Lost mail

fall into
Originally uploaded by mezzaluna.

A word to the wise for uptownites who leave town and come back to find their mail secreted away because their box was too full - go to the building on the northwest corner of 3rd and Broad between 8:30 and 9:30 in the morning. That's where your neighborhood postal employees will be sorting the mail for Uptown in a small room on the lower level of the parking garage. The postmen are quite nice, and they will give your mail back, although they might encourage you to leave a note next time you go on vacation "so I know what's going on." Was Mr. Route 82 actually worried about our sudden disappearance? He certainly knows enough about us with all the mail he sees.

-- k


Tags: uptown, seattle, mail

Tort reform is not our job

Warning: long discussion about medical malpractice initiative I330 ahead.

Short form - Vote NO on I330

Most of you have probably been bombarded by media on the two "tort reform" initiatives - I330 and I336. I330 is the more disturbing of the two. I330 limits noneconomic loss recovery (i.e., pain and suffering) for victims of bungled medical procedures. This is advertised as the "doctor's bill" - with the idea that a limit on awards given out by juries in medical malpractice cases will get the out of control insurance premiums for doctors back under control. Insurance premiums for docs are crazy out of hand - docs, especially those in sensitive fields where people are more likely to sue, like obstetricians, are leaving their practices in droves because of the crushing premiums for medical malpractice insurance. Fixing this problem is necessary to ensure quality health care, particularly for those in rural areas - HOWEVER, it is totally unclear, at least to us, that limiting awards from lawsuits will reduce insurance premiums. Right now doctors who have zero malpractice claims against them have premiums that are just as high as doctors that a jury found had committed malpractice. This is crazy - people with lots of car accidents pay more for car insurance, hello! - we think insurance regulation is in order, not a roundabout approach by limiting what a jury can award to someone who is hurt.

Of course, personal injury lawyers are fighting hard against I330 - for attorneys that earn their living through contingency fees paid out of of jury awards, a limit on awards could drastically limit their income. (Full disclosure: I'm a lawyer, although not the personal injury variety. But this issue has gotten a lot of attention in the legal community.) The bigger concern, though, is that people who won't recover much money through economic awards (lost wages) will not recover much at all - and these are often the most vulnerable - the poor, stay-at-home moms, the elderly and children. Also, I330 would force many to sign away their right to a jury trial if they want to sue their doctor. A rule of thumb - binding arbitration is good for big guy, bad for the little guy.

It looks like the legislature is finally going to do its job - a recent House Bill was introduced that would be something of a middle ground. This is after some practice - related bills were discussed in earlier years and Olympia caved on each of them. We think the legislature should deal with this problem - not us. It's complicated and confusing and it should be worked out by experts.

Vote no on I330. Make the politicians fix the insurance industry. That's what we elect them for.

-- k

Tags: uptown, seattle, election, i330, malpractice

Another new restaurant within walking distance

Must be time to start putting on the winter coat of belly fat because we're feeling very restaurant-focussed these days. That makes the PI's Taste of the Town column a gotta-read since Nancy Leson (you misspelled Lesson, Nancy) usually digs up a few chow scoops every week. This week, she tips us off to the Nov. 11 unveiling of Veil, set to offer 'progressive american' (hey, that's us!) food and drink in the general Seattle Center region.

BTW, saw a sign in window of the Black Bottle announcing they will now be open Mondays which makes us think they probably weren't before.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, veil, restaurant

Cheap shot apology

Yesterday, I picked on a local blogger -- today, I should say sorry. I was trying to make a point about the personal nature of many (most?) blogs but did a crap job of it. What I should say now is there are a lot of reasons to have a blog. We do this for our reasons -- we like to know what is happening in the area we live, we like to praise stuff we like and un-praise stuff we don't and, frankly, we like to look at click charts to see how many people are reading. Somebody else does it for theirs. And you read because, well, you're pretty darn sure the boss doesn't know about how much time you spend surfing. Irony, oh irony -- we're making diary posts!

-- j

(p.s. -- It was also cold and rainy when I got up this morning. And I was sleepy. And I had an apple fritter for breakfast.)

How to fix Halloween for Seattle

seattle
Originally uploaded by atonal.

Much confusion is forecast in this country for the next few years of Halloweens. What to do when the biggest amateur fetish party night falls on a Monday? The problem is exasberated in a city like Seattle where things seem to trickle into either the stay home & watch TV or riot in the streets of Pioneer Square categories with no middle ground.

It's confusing. If you get all dolled up in your can-can dancer, naughty nurse or pirate outfit and head down 1st Ave Monday night to wet your whistle, will you be part of a revelrous throng of costumed freaks or very, very awkward standing at the bar in a tutu while the rest of the place pretends to be oblivious to the holiday.

Many in the city are taking matters into their own hands and declaring Saturday the 29th to be the party night. Even little guys like Mira! and Cafe Bella have flyers posted advertising Saturday night events.

Still, there is confusion. Is Saturday night Halloween Part I and Monday, Halloween Part II: The Nightmare Isn't Over? Should I wear my 'Cool Guy' t-shirt costume both nights or get a different 'This IS my costume' edition for Monday?

October 31st is not Halloween. Halloween, from this day forward, is the last Saturday in October. I don't know who is in charge of setting holidays that we don't actually get a day off for but we need them to act. Hallmark, are you out there? The city of Seattle and its trick-or-treating citizens are depending on you.

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, halloween

European road trip photos

If you're wondering what kept us away last week, here are some shots from the road.

You'll see that not everything was foreign. For example, Prague has both...

a Mojito Cafe and...


a Deja Vu. Didn't notice a Lusty Lady, however.

--j

Tags: uptown, seattle, europe, roadtrip, france, germany, czechrepublic, paris, cochem, dresden, prague