Boat Street Cafe - October 11

petit dejeuner, Bastille Day
Originally uploaded by Lú_.

It's just an "anticipated opening" but we still might wait around outside next Tuesday and hope they feed us. The new signage looks classy, and you can peek down into the kitchen from the sidewalk, which is charming.

--k

Tags: uptown, seattle, boatstreetkitchen

Is 1921 1st Ave. really haunted?

In every city's soggy shadows of October, there are shivers waiting to crawl up spines. Seattle, it seems, has its own peculiar, moist chill; dank enough to saturate even glossy Belltown. If you're looking to put a little spook into your backbone, sit in the dark and read this creepy snip from Ghost Stories from the Pacific Northwest

-snip-
In 1903, E.R. Butterworth constructed a home for his mortuary business on First Avenue in Downtown Seattle. He had been in the funeral parlor business since 1892, and business was booming. The 5 story brick building which he constructed, was a showplace among funeral parlors. E.R. Butterworth is said to have coined the terms "mortician" and "mortuary." For 20 years, the Butterworth Building saw the citys deceased pass thru its doors. Then in 1923, the Butterworth family moved their firm to a Capital Hill location, but they seemed to have left a few of their customers behind. An electrician tried to rewire a chandelier one evening after midnight. After a while he realised that two shadowy men were sitting at one of the tables. The two got up and came over to help hold his ladder when he began to work on the tricky part of the wiring. The two men continued in their conversation, but the electrician being absorbed in his wiring, didn't pay attention to the men. Then a woman in an "unearthly white linen dress" entered the dining room. Then men stared at her and began to shout insults as she walked past. Then they began to shout insults at each other. The electrician began to realize that his "helpers" were not of this world. He raced from the cafe', leaving the work unfinished. He was reportidly found by cooks the next morning, sitting on a curb muttering that he couldn't take it anymore.
-unsnip-

The old Butterworth Building still stands at 1921 1st Ave -- here's a description from a recent attempt to sell it:
-snip-
Built in 1910, the Butterworth building is well-built and well-maintained. The property is approximately thirty feet wide and 110 feet deep, and is situated on 1st Avenue and Post Alley. The 1st Avenue facade of the building is three stories tall and there are five stories on the back of the building which face Pike Place Market. Post Alley angles down to the market and features a number of high quality restaurants. The Post Alley tenant of the Butterworth (and the adjacent building) is the Irish pub known as Kells, which has been located here for many years enjoying this prime location. The floor above Kells is accessible from the main foyer and has views of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound. On the 1st Avenue side, the restaurant Fire and Ice is the main tenant. The restaurant is temporarily closed, but continues paying rent while searching for a buyer. Above the restaurant are two floors of office space. Heat is provided from a gas-fired hot water radiator system. The Butterworth Building is included in the National Historic Register and still retains its classic lines and architecture in the Foyer, main staircase, and on the Exterior.
-unsnip-

The salespitch makes no mention of the building's less-savory history or its spectral tennants rendering it all the more creepy in its exclusion of what could be considered mostly mundane details.

The restaurant mentioned above, Fire and Ice, is gone now, replaced by the recently opened Starlite Lounge. We had one meal at the Fire and Ice -- unfortunately, we were ignorant of the history at the time. Even without knowing the story, however, we noted a certain creepiness to the very soft, low lighting and the ivory white walls hung with a series of large mirrors. The evening we chose to dine there, every other table was empty. The reflections went on to infiniti and we whispered reflexively even though we knew we were alone.

I don't know if the Starlite's owners are aware of what happened there 100 years ago but we're hoping to stop by and visit the place with our new understanding. If we're ready (and eager, really) for the chill, it could be a welcome way to spend an October evening.

--j

Want more spooky stuff? Check out Evergreen Paranormal and this Metroblogging-Seattle stoked Live Journal thread about Seattle urban legends.

Tags: uptown, seattle, belltown, ghost, haunted, butterworthbuilding

Name The Park

Cal Anderson Park, Seattle, WA
Originally uploaded by djwudi.

South Lake Union Park doubled in size (12 acres) and is getting a new name. Seattle Parks and Recreation put out a press release asking for ideas for the new and improved green space - work starts this year. Email your suggestions to paula.hoff@seattle.gov by November 14, 2005. Vulcan put up $10M to the construction, but I guess it's not going to be Vulcan Park.

--k

Tags: uptown, seattle, paulallen, vulcan, park

City Cyclists Warned about Third Ave.

Westlake Center building up
Originally uploaded by timmycorkery.

Seattle DOT, PD and Metro are worried about collisions between bikers and buses on Third Ave (whether that's out of safety concerns or litigation avoidance is anyone's guess) and has ordered bicyclists to obey the laws and bike carefully OR ELSE. The "else" being banishing all bikes from Third Ave. during rush hour. It isn't clear how moving bikers to already crowded 2nd and 4th would improve the situation. Besides, it seems kind of fitting for the aggressive bike riders to battle for control of the street with the aggressive bus drivers.

-- k

Tags: uptown, seattle, bicyclists, cycling

Cool tay-shirts

It's an epidemic.
Originally uploaded by endquote.

Seattlest devoted a blow-out, lollapalooza of investigative journalism to buying fashionable t-shirts in Seattle. We wish we had thought of the post first. Very cool to have a list of merchants offering the very trendy fashion item. We know Ts have mostly always been cool but you do have to admit that there has been a big uptick growing -- it's getting to the point that there are even spur-trends with varietals like 'retro' and 'art' joining classics like 'witty text' in the mix. Also, for you too-cool-for-school types, blog mentions of the trend do not yet mark the auotmatic death of said trend the way a mention in a Seattle Times column might. At least, not quite yet. Back to Seattlest's post, they call out neighborhood vendors I Heart Rummage, Ian and Zebra Club as good places to score a rad T -- we'd probably add a few more 1st Ave stores (Moda Express, for one). We'd also like to know more about local shirt designers -- exclusive Nike designs don't count! But folks like Ames Brothers (HQ'ed on Westlake over by Jones Soda-ville, aka "South Lake Union") certainly do. Oh, and, Seattlest, cool t-shirts aren't just for boys.

Seattle trend? Non-snooty wine tasting

Start planning your weekend grocery list -- the Larry's Market on Mercer is offering a bargain-priced wine tasting for a nifty $5 this Friday. We spotted the sign while grabbing groceries last night and got a good little chuckle. But, why not go?

We like finding good things in odd places -- taco trucks, rummage sales, Target, etc. As everybody has access to more and more data, getting good things at good places is so easy that it's not cool. That's why we like the undiscovered restaurant so much more than the one 'everybody else' is raving about. Sure, there are other great, regular tastings at some of the neighborhood wine stores. But getting wine at a wine store is sometimes just too, well, obvious.

We prefer having the non sequitur to take some of the snobbish bite off of going to a high falutin' wine tasting in the first place. Strolling through a grocery store while sipping something exotic is the right mix of gutter snobbery. And, while Larry's isn't exactly the perfect symbol of proletariat living, until there are Boone Hill tastings at 7-11, it will have to do.

Uptown Wine Tastings
Thursdays
Seattle Cellars ($3, 2nd Ave)
We're a sucker for the grocery store gimmick but these guys are for real and have built quite a Thursday-night event in Belltown. You should go.

Fridays
Macrina Bakery ($10, our review) and, now, Larry's ($5)

Saturdays
Champion Wine Cellars (Free, Denny Way)
Not a tasting really, but they usually have something to share when you come in

One question in the Officer Powers scandal

We've been following the Seattle soap opera of police officer John Powers but haven't had much to say. For those of you playing catch-up, Powers is the Seattle boy in blue with some questionable work habits. While we're mostly only slightly interested in the tale of drugs, bartender girlfriends and Belltown nightclubs, we're downright intrigued with this newest wrinkle:
-snip-
Internal investigators also have begun looking into new allegations that Powers and other officers routinely accepted free or discounted meals at a restaurant near Pike Place Market. Officers are not allowed to accept gratuities under department policy.

A spokesman for the restaurant said managers and servers are allowed to give free or discounted meals to "honored guests" who have been loyal to the restaurant. But he said he did not know whether that included police officers.
-unsnip-

We wish it was the yummy market Crepe de France stand just becasue that would be cool but we're betting on Cutters. You?

Did you miss Sunday's Seattle rainbow?

Seattle Rainbow I
Originally uploaded by gordonwatts.

Lots of people didn't! Check out all the Seattle+Rainbow posts on flickr. We love flickr!

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, rainbow, flickr

Paul Allen busy in Belltown

News of Vulcan's latest project should appeal to movie-goers looking to become homeowners. Paul Allen is building a condo complex within waiting-line distance of Seattle's biggest silver screen.

-snip-
The 150,000-square-foot development will offer 170 homes, ranging from 675 to 1,500 square feet, and will be built on a Vulcan-owned parking lot next to the Vulcan-owned Cinerama theatre.
-unsnip-

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, vulcan, paulallen, belltown, condos

Go see -- Subversive Starball fun at PacSci Center

starball
Originally uploaded by base10.

We wandered into Sunday night's Starball show at the Pacific Science Center with no idea of what to expect. Improv? A planetarium? We were bored and didn't feel like a movie so took a chance on a tip from The Stranger. It's a goofy little geek-fest of a show but easy to recommend. Mixing up themes of dreams, grass-roots activism vs. tyrany, astronomical science and astrological mythology, the "Conductor" and the "Proxy" dance and run around the tiny little PacSci Planetarium making believe they're revolutionary science warriors and doing play battle to restore the audience's starry conciousness. It's high falutin and low brow all at once and as corny as any improv. But the themes are smart enough to pull things together and mesh just-good-enough with the audience interaction that it really is a 'show' and not just two guys pretending.

Starball at the Pacific Science Center
Th-Su until 10/23

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, pacificsciencecenter, planetarium, starball

Uptown's dentists: not so bad

Seattle PI makes your teeth ache with today's investigative piece digging into WA state's lax regulation of bad dentists. Most paranoia-inducing fun for us was digging through the PI's handy front-end for the database of complaints. Ouch -- we found one incident of disciplinary action against one of our mouth mechanics. Really, we consider most dentistry barbaric so we're not really sure where to draw the line but it does sound like leaving 'chunks' of root behind is bad, bad news.

The good news is if you have a local neighborhod DDS, your teeth aren't aching too badly right now. Of the several dentists listed in the area, we found only 5 with formal complaints filed against them. And none of the complaints investigated warranted disciplinary action.
Susan Isaacson
Richard Stickney
Kent Devigne
Thomas Roberts
Stephen Ong

-- j

Tags: uptown, seattle, dentists, sayahhhhh