Boat Street Cafe to open soon (for real this time)

And the adress is: 3131 Western, Suite 301. No firm date yet, but the Boat Street Cafe is relocating/opening in early September in the NW Work Lofts building. It's a fairly well hidden location - last we checked there wasn't a sign, but a flurry of building activity and a liquor license application were the tipoffs. The Cafe will have an outside garden area that might not get a ton of direct sun, but also won't get direct traffic noise. It's website betrays a little worry about the "industrial" and "cinder-block" aspects of the space, but hey, we're cool with cinder-blocks. We like a little urban grit with our charming and delicious food. The truth is, we can hardly wait!

Tags: uptown, seattle, boatstreetkitchen, restaurant, wecanbarelywait

Coolest way EVER to do Bumbershoot

This by way of a post to Metroblogging Seattle re: Bumbershoot ticket prices. The PSA is all well and good. But the gem comes in a comment to the post. If this isn't THE coolest way to get into Bumber, I want to hear what is!

- snip -
I have a suggestion if folks would like to get into Bumbershoot for free for a day, or more.

I am a member of Seattle's own samba band VamoLa. We've been hired to perform for two shows per day each afternoon at Bumbershoot. For each day we need volunteers to hold palm fronds on stage with us during our two shows. Volunteers can sign up for one day or more. Volunteering gets you in free for the day/days you choose. This would involve a time commitment, on the day/days you choose, from 1pm to 2:30 and 3 till 4:30. If you would like more information contact me at drurybobmay@zipcon.net.

The deadline for volunteers is August 27th.

No one in our band gets paid. Our "group" gets paid and that is put towards rental of rehearsal space.

Worst case scenario is that you get to bounce about with the band and dancers, and have a rolicking good time.

Posted by: Drury at August 24, 2005 09:59 PM

-un-snip-

--J

Uptown Chow: Black Bottle

What to post that hasn't already been posted? The Black Bottle's concept works. Extremely sharable food with the emphasis on understatement -- it's the mood of our restaurant times, I guess. Cool with me. The menu is laidback to the point of being convenient to the kitchen staff but when you use fresh, tasty ingredients, no need to fuss. My only fault with this style is the delivery rate -- slow down, you move too fast. We experienced an 8-plate pile-up as all of our selections arrived simultaneously leaving us gulping down our chow in a near-panic to clear the decks. Clearly, Black Bottle has its good stuff prepped and ready to roll -- and who am I to suggest they change such a good thing! So you might want to plan your order in waves. In a place so casually cool, somebody has to take charge. It might as well be you.

--J

Black Bottle Gastro-tavern
1st & Vine
Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Time: 7:00ish
Mood: In need of comfort, Belltown style
Wine: white with longest name on list
Starters: spicy shrimp, chilled artichoke, tomato flatbread, marinated portabello, chicken laub gai
Entrees: see starters
Dessert: gelato-stuffed chocolate cake

Tags: uptown, seattle, restaurant, review, blackbottle

My homework was never quite like this

Education alert: For those of you interested in the dark sciences of chocolate and crepes, uptown's own Cafe Darclee (Darclee, we claim you for all that is uptown!) offers a veritable Hogwart's of culinary wizardry. Every Thursday, the unlikely tenant of KOMO's Fisher Plaza holds mouths-on classes in wonderful things like chocolate chewing and crepe creation. Forget that MBA -- what you need is a crepe degree. We're signed up for an upcoming session so will post a full report upon graduation.

--J

Tags: uptown, seattle, crepe, chocolate, classes, food

What does your street need less than anything?

subway
Originally uploaded by jseattle.

Man, we hate Subway "sandwich" shops.

1) They've saturated the streets worse than SBUX. There are 10 (10!) within 1 mile of Denny and 1st.
2) They blow out sour bread smell into our sensitive little yuppie noses
3) They eat up any ability for a non-chain to sell a decent sandwich around here

Uggh. Boycott Subway!

--J

Tags: uptown, seattle, subway, sandwiches, boycott

Lots of cool events at the Market

Pike Place Market just sent out its monthly e-newsletter and there's some good stuff coming up. Thursday nights the Market is open until 9pm, complete with Afro-Cuban jazz group Sonodo. On September 18 the Pike Place Market Busker's Festival will amaze and astound. (At least, that's the goal.) 41 groups will perform. We hope to see the Circus Contraption band, that cat guy, and the older man who plays the Japanese stringed instrument. Not so sure about the depressed clown fellow. J says clowns should have to be licensed. Not a bad plan, really. Also on September 18, you can go on the Spaces for Urban Living Downtown Home self-guided tour. People who are really proud of their condos open them up for strangers to wander through and admire/criticize. It costs $20. The only way to see a bunch of downtown homes without working for a cleaning service or making a ton of friends.

--K

Tags: uptown, seattle, pikeplacemarket, events

Seattle Hates Interior Decorating, Loves Gardens

Organizers cancelled the Seattle Interior Show, an interior design/decorating consumer extravaganza slated for the Convention Center in early October. Low exhibit booth sales and lack of interest from the local interior design community were the stated reasons for the cancellation. Support and interest for the Flower and Garden Show, on the other hand, are still going strong - it will take place in February. One can only assume that the Boat Show and the Bridal Show continue to rake it in. Wonder which is the most successful? The Boat Show is the biggest boat show on the West Coast, but the Bridal Show has a fancier website. Hard to say. Up.Sea. hasn't been to any, but likes the idea of the Travel Show (and its vacation giveaways).


--K

Tags: uptown, seattle, gardenshow

The monorail is still alive, thank you very much

Rain City Real Estate Guide points us to a piece of journalism in the revenue-minded Puget Sound Business Journal. Seems the Seattle Monorail Project has assembled a fairly impressive portfolio of property at below-market prices. PSBJ ponders how the Project might divest itself of these properties should it go belly up. It's a little premature to be carving up the cadaver, we hope, so we'll chalk the pondering portion of the article up to the dollar-sign-bespotted daydreams of Seattle's business class. But the article does raise the troubling issue of homeowners in the city who purchased property near areas that were planned to be homes for the monorail's neighborhood stations. The PSBJ didn't seem that interested in those folks -- hopefully they're looking out for themselves and being active on keeping the body alive with groups like 2045Seattle.

--J

Tags: uptown, seattle, monorail

Attention uptown juvenile delinquents

The Brooklyn Grinder
Originally uploaded by kganey.

Make an error in judgement at Hemp Fest? Got community service hours to fill? Here's your chance to help real people in your neighborhood.

-snip-

CraigsList: Massive sandwich/food bank program in desperate need of help
Reply to: mzemek@hotmail.com
Date: 2005-08-17, 7:43PM PDT


Sacred Heart St. Vincent de Paul is located at 2nd Ave and Warren, just west of the Seattle Center, specifically the Pacific Science Center in the shadows of the Space Needle.

Due to injuries, poor health and general frailty, Sacred Heart's volunteer base--with a median age of over 65 (if not 70)--is shrinking, and this program--which hands out hundreds of sack lunches and thousands of pounds of food each week to homeless street people and low-income neighborhood residents--faces closure by October 15 unless it can obtain a stable and significant new corps of volunteers.

Sacred Heart needs 7-8 people who can reliably and consistently commit to two hours a week. Monday thru Friday, sandwich makers are needed from roughly 630-10. On Monday and Friday only, people are needed to assist with hot food preparation, pastry packaging, and food bank grocery distribution from 8-Noon, in addition to the sandwich program.

Please e-mail me, Matt Zemek, and/or call Sacred Heart's program director, Jim Foskin, for details. Jim's phone number is 283-2104, and he's available to take your call every weekday morning, from 615am-Noon.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you can't volunteer, you can simply make a difference by notifying those you know who either can volunteer (seniors, perhaps) or who NEED to volunteer (kids in need of community service or service learning hours). This idea might be especially relevant for parents of youth in Catholic schools, but it's hardly exclusive. All are welcome to participate.

Thanks!



* this is in or around Seattle Center/Lower Queen Anne
* no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
-un-snip-

Tags: uptown, seattle, communityservice