Results tagged “belltown”

Toronto-born corporate chef Bruce Pinkerton came to Seattle some 20 years ago to help open a hotel, since bulldozed. He stayed on, though, and launched the concept of Designed Dinners, a food preparation center and take-out kitchen. The meal-assembly "industry" continues to grow nationally; Pinkerton's business expanded to several locations, most recently at 2nd and Denny in Belltown, and he added Urban Wine Cafe earlier this year.

   

Belltown's buffet is nothing if not cosmopolitan; just look at the stains on Seattlest's napkin this week!

Spur, Belltown (Sun-Thurs 5-7 p.m. / 11:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m.) An unassuming looking place that has been nationally recognized for their creative and schizophrenic food menu, inspired by local farmers, butchers, and fisherman. From $3.50 for craft beer to their late night (11:30-1:30) $5 Rainier bottles with an order of shoestring fries, you can't go wrong with this hole-in-the-wall off Blanchard.

CHILEAN NIGHT FEVER: It's Santiago in 1978, and even in the suffocating midst of the oppressive Pinochet regime, all that Raul wants to do is dance. Despite being middle-aged, the main character of Pablo Larraín's second film fantasizes that he's John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and performs his disco dance moves at the local bar. But soon Raul's fantasy becomes an obsession, especially after it's announced that there will be a Tony Manero impersonation contest throughout all of Chile. Tony Manero plays at the NWFF through Thursday.

Last night at 11:45 p.m. in Belltown, a man was stabbed for a) refusing to offer a cigarette when asked and b) possibly responding to racial slurs with racial slurs. The SPD Blotter narrates the contretemps: "The argument was sparked when one of the men asked the victim for a cigarette. The victim refused to give him one, and the suspect took offense, asking if the victim was unwilling to give him a cigarette because he was Black." And then: "The victim did not initially realize that he had been stabbed, but soon noticed that he was bleeding profusely."

Belltown people, where is your past? Belltown people, how long will you last? This is the them of belltownpeople's story on the opening of City Hostel Seattle. It's one of those gritty, gotta-dream stories, featuring a fiery waiter-turned-entrepreneur, 47 artists invited in to "redo" the hallways of the historic Spanish colonial-style Lorraine Hotel, and a reason for someone besides prospective condo owners to visit Belltown.

Leaving Belltown early in the afternoon, heading for CHBP, Seattlest was surprised to find that Fourth Avenue had been transformed into a sort of military corridor, complete with traffic cones, bleachers and hundreds of those canvas armchairs with cup-holders. Right, the Torchlight Parade! That's tonight, isn't it? But what were all those poor shlubs doing, sitting in those chairs, soft drink in hand, waiting, with the infinite patience of the out-of-towner, for the first float, the first drill team and the first convertible (topped by an oversize princess), not to materialize for five, six, seven hours?

            

A new show of work by Nicoletta Ceccoli and Eric Fortune opens tonight at Roq la Rue. Ceccoli, an Italian artist, is showing works from her series "Beauties and Beasts," that twist childhood imagery borrowed from fairy tales, religion, and legends, into metamorphosing images of growing up and losing innocence. American Eric Fortune's mini-show, "Daughters of Our Nature," features sexy nymphets and whatnot.

• Urban farming--Sightline has a nifty article with mock-up photos about what it would be like to really green up our cities. Because, you know, it would be totally cool to have cows on the roads.
• Publicola has its own problems with recent KING5/SurveyUSA polls, offering the hope we could have both a bag tax and a not-Mayor Nickels! Oh, and Erica C. Barnett scratches back at Joel Connelly for flaming her in his column today.

Trinidad Martínez is co-founder of the Magpai Production Group--straight outta Hamburg--and is in the U.S. on a Fullbright. She collaborated with each of the solo performers of Tres Tristes Tigres: Emma Klein, Dayton Allemann, and Jonas Radvik. She's also likely to be the one taking your tickets and offering you a glass of water. But the fringe-theater, many-hats staffing aside, the work you see rivals OtB in its commitment--and shows off Dani Prados' lighting and technical design chops.

Elevators were running on generator power but everything else was candle-lit when an electrical fire at Fisher Plaza blew up the Belltown grid shortly before midnight last night. Power's back on at Seattlest International Headquarters high atop Second Avenue, but not at the various websites hosted on servers at Fisher. The P-I says KOMO Radio is broadcasting from Queen Anne, and KOMO TV is operating out of a mobile truck in Kerry Park. (One of the sites that's fried: the credit card processor Authorize.net.) The whole Fisher complex was for sale, BTW, advertising itself as the only place in Seattle to house mission critical communications; now their own website's down and out, too.

From the comments on SeattleTimes.com, you'd think that spending a couple of bucks on a park was High Treason. But Belltown, home to some 10,000 of us, has no park.

Yesterday afternoon the City Council was all ayes when it came to the Bell Street Park Boulevard. Design is to finish up this fall, and by next spring, it's all top hats and tails on Bell from First to Fifth. Who's paying? We already agreed to; the P-I point out that the project "which would add 17,000 square feet of new green space, is part of the 2008 Parks Levy." Now, because you're curious, check out the Belltown blog's rundown of what exactly the Bell Street Park Boulevard is. A lane vanishes, the sidewalk fattens 30 feet, and voila! it's fun to walk between Denny Park and the waterfront. If people actually turn out to want to get to Denny Park, this will be worth every goddamn penny.

A month ago, the Seattle Times told us a Honduran crack syndicate had been operating within the forested sketchiness of Kinnear Park, before realizing Belltown’s traditional function as the area’s go-to drug market.

Christopher Harris is in a coma and on life support after being chased by two King County Sheriff's Department deputies, says the Seattle Times: "He suffered life-threatening skull fractures when his head struck a concrete wall as one attempted to arrest him early Sunday in Belltown." To be precise, his head had some help in striking that wall. A video is said to show one of the deputies smashing into Harris after he halted--having run as two men started shouting and heading toward him from out of a dark alley. We're not sure if the online P-I will append this to their "Conduct Unbecoming" series, exposing a troubling history of brutality in the King County Sheriff's Department, but it feels like nearly killing an innocent person should raise some questions on how the Sheriff's Dept. is doing on all that reform we were promised.

Chalk one up for the SPD narcotics unit and Belltown's spandex-clad bike teams this weekend, as they brought down a large and highly organized Honduran drug dealing ring that had been corralling the crack-cocaine market in the neighborhood. Known to hide the packaged drugs in their mouths--gross--the small army of Honduran drug dealers had been pushing out the Belltown "regulars," and commanding the street corners since January 2009 (apparently they began in Queen Anne, clearly not their scene). Typically, we tend to bitch about Belltown, but for good reason, the crazy bums, the lack of police presence, naaaasty garbage dumpsters and oh yes, drug trafficking. So, it's relief to see serious action being taken. Current score: 30 dealers arrested, 22 left to go.

    

Seattle's emperor of pizza (and sultan of coffee), Mike McConnell, unveiled the fifth Via Tribunali outpost last night in the space at the back of the refurbished Crocodile. Official opening is tonight.

We don’t usually read Danny Westneat’s column, but Wednesday’s piece about another Belltown beatdown and the generally deteriorating state of Seattle’s low-crime image is increasingly common.

      

Hope springs eternal, and a good thing, too. Over on Slog, Bethany Jean Clement takes attendance in the cemetery, counting off the headstones of restaurants dead or mortally wounded. Familiar names; we bow our heads and shed a tear. And then, our moment of silence over, Life Goes On.

       

Roq la Rue has a new show opening tonight by recent Seattle transplant Christian Van Minnen. Van Minnen's new "Keyhole" series feels a bit like Magritte meets Giger--like Magritte, Van Minnen enjoys playing with structural contrasts, but he shares with Giger a love of the grotesque. Also showing is Japanese artist Yoko d'Holbachie, who mixes cutesy Japanese-style characters with American psychedelia.

HIPHOP EXTRAVAGANZA: My, oh my, Seattle hiphop fans are in luck this weekend: the Blue Scholars are doing a stripped-down version of last year's The Program, with three nights at Neumos. This time, Common Market will join them every night; Truckasaurus and very special guests are playing on Saturday, Macklemore and Dyme Def will play on Monday night. Saturday's already sold out, but the second two nights are equally as awesome. Don't miss it. Really.

Construction alert! We've got it all right here.

INTERNATIONAL TIPPLE TASTING: As a Pacific Rim port, Seattle should really be more broadly acquainted with saké than it is. Enter tonight's premium sake tasting at Umi Saké House in Belltown, a Saké Nomi event designed to familiarize attendees with thirty of the world's finest (and in some cases, rarest) brands. You and your fellow fermented rice enthusiasts will be able to sample a saké whose brand hails straight from 1505 as well as an igloo-brewed variety called "Divine Droplets." Kampai!

Last June, we almost jumped into that Yellow Cab (with its rooftop ad for flights to Heathrow) just to escape the gloomy weather. That was then--the climate has changed. Last night, emerging well-fed but late from Pearl in Bellevue, we found we'd missed our ride back to Seattle. We'd taken Sound Transit over, but now the prospect of a bus ride seemed overwhelming. Three taxis stood in line outside the Westin. Normally it's a $35 fare but we had exactly one $20 bill in our wallet. "Belltown for twenty bucks?" we asked. The first cabbie, understandably, refused. Second one glowered briefly and muttered, "Twenty-five." Third one reflected a moment, then said, "Get in." Twenty minutes later we were home. A parable for getting along in today's economy, perhaps?

The presale for the first wave of shows at the soon-to-be-reopened Croc starts, like, now. The lineup is as follows: Sat March 21 - Hot Buttered Rum & Everyone Orchestra, Fri Mar 27 - The Builders & Butchers, Sat Mar 28 - U.S.E., April 2 - Sebastien Grainger, Sat Apr 11 - Heartless Bastards, April 12 - The Ting Tings, April 14 - Dr. Dog & The Cave Singers, Sat Apr 18 - Vetiver, Fri May 1 - Ghost, May 28 - The Devil Makes Three. Tickets available here using presale code "THECROC." The general onsale isn't until this Saturday at 10 a.m., so get a head start by buying your tickets now. Yes, it's Ticketmaster, but we've heard that they're only using that ticketing service for the time being. It's hard to complain too much when our beloved Croc is almost back.

Not everybody agrees graffiti has social value. One "artist's" urban enhancement is another man’s vandalism. We’re of the opinion that when left to the talented it’s generally a colorful and unique improvement to the city landscape. We understand those who disagree, but suspect they naturally hate anything to the left of the standard Belltown earth tone, which this city and its developer overlords keep insisting jibe with the character of the area.

JSeattle alerted us to this interesting post at the Seattle Post-Times about the most important job to fill first when starting up a new media world order. Hint: it's not what you think. MyBallard found an MSNBC report on being jobless in Seattle, and paired it with a link to all the homes up for foreclosure in their neighborhood. Seattle Transit Blog finally found Gabi Campanario's site, the one with all of his insightful sketches of people on the bus. Wrapping things up for today's neighborhood news, Alex R. Mayer of Belltown Messenger shares his tongue-in-cheek (we think) plan for becoming the next Seattle media mogul.

Wondering what the racket was in Belltown last night? A tamborrada. Here's the background.

Belltown's living room, Buckley's, is packed. We're facing a traditional American breakfast: eggs over easy, bacon, hash browns, toasted muffin. Pat of butter, small plastic tub of raspberry jam. We've already had our espresso, now it's time for a serious Mary, garnished with pickle, pepper, olive and lemon slice, accompanied by shot of Pete's Wicked Ale. Deceptively traditional; only today do we recognize its incredible diversity. So here's the challenge: What to tackle first? The spicy tomato-vodka beverage? A bite of garnish? The pickle or the pepper? Perhaps the bacon, crisp and peppery? Not the hash browns; they look like they came out of a box. With humility and gratitude, we pick up our fork and break one of the yolks. The first bold stroke of action taken. The price and promise of breakfast, of hope and virtue, a meal both real and serious, the cheerful and joyous beginning of a new day.

    

Pounding the pavement like a cop on the beat, waving at shopkeepers, petting a dog, helping an old lady, munching a donut, strolling the sidewalk, protecting the neighborhood...in some Hollywood Shangri-La, maybe, but not in 21st-century urban America, where the cops rarely leave the security of their patrol cars. Kids may play hopscotch on the sidewalks of Madrona or Wedgewood, but not in Belltown, where the sidewalks, for better or worse, have become a full-scale laboratory for transportation engineers and urban planners. Art projects, bus shelters, sidewalk cafés, bike racks, garbage cans, newspaper vending machines, and trees of various ages and diverse species populate the right-of-way, buckling the four-inch concrete and turning the simple business of walking down the block into a hazardous obstacle course.