Seattle Brunch

July 21, 2008 9:59 PM

Since everyone else is doing one, let us have a Seattle Brunch Meetup.

There has been discussion of going to Smarty Pants for brunch before, there has been some momentum with some seattle mefites go this sunday, the 27th. So since everyone else was doing it, lets make it a full fledged meetup.

posted by mrzarquon to MetaFilter gatherings at 9:59 PM (52 comments total)

Heck yeah!

I live a figurative stones throw away, and parking is good for my Detroit Behemoth.

Fantagraphics is a literal stones throw away, and I think they are open on Sundays.

Furthermore, I understand that there is a public park nearby where illicit sexual encounters often occur, for those so inclined.
posted by Tube at 12:08 AM on July 22, 2008

there is a public park nearby

Yay! I'll drag the kid along and then if she gets overactive she can run around there.

where illicit sexual encounters often occur, for those so inclined.

Oooookay, so maybe not.
posted by Artw at 8:36 AM on July 22, 2008

(and the venue appears to be technically a bar, so that's out anyway. )
posted by Artw at 9:06 AM on July 22, 2008

I'm pro-brunch.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:26 AM on July 22, 2008

Timewise what is the agreed brunch window?
posted by Artw at 9:30 AM on July 22, 2008

I was thinking a noon to 1pm for people to get started. I don't have any problem staggering the food orders (ie, order when you show up, I wont wait for everyone before i have my delicious brunch, its good food. also, may make life easier for them if they don't get 10 orders at once).

There is a nice patio area, so if its sunny we might be able to camp out there. The don't do reservations, so we will be playing the "lets hope no one else thinks this is a good idea" game.
posted by mrzarquon at 9:35 AM on July 22, 2008

I am pro-brunch as well
posted by blasdelf at 10:49 AM on July 22, 2008

Shiny! I just moved up a couple days ago and am still settling in (Ikea run directly after I finish stealing Tully's wifi...) but I should be able to make it!
posted by fuzzbean at 12:06 PM on July 22, 2008

I'm probably going to be traveling.
posted by matildaben at 12:17 PM on July 22, 2008

mmmmm . . . is it possible there might actually--finally--be a Seattle Meetup I could attend? It appears so!
posted by donovan at 12:38 PM on July 22, 2008

Though I've now moved down to Olympia, I should be able to drive up for the day. (To hell with the gas budget!)
posted by Kat Allison at 1:54 PM on July 22, 2008

Meetups take place in bars, man, not brunch! What is this, St. Elmo's Fire, all of a sudden?
posted by jonmc at 4:48 PM on July 22, 2008

I may have to jump in on this
posted by vitrum at 4:59 PM on July 22, 2008

smartypants is a bar that does brunch.

It is just that cool.
posted by mrzarquon at 5:13 PM on July 22, 2008

I'm in. Haven't been to one of these in a while.
posted by kindall at 9:25 PM on July 22, 2008

Kat: Can I talk you into carpooling? I live in Tacoma, right off I-5. I'll even throw in some gas money.
posted by O9scar at 11:26 PM on July 22, 2008

Oh man, this is shaping up nicely. I could use something to nurse my Capitol Hill Block party hangover. This Smarty Pants, they serve bloody marys, no?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:05 AM on July 23, 2008

they do.

Also, when are you going to the block party, its in my 'hood, we might be able to connect there.
posted by mrzarquon at 9:42 AM on July 23, 2008

Friday's the better night but I will likely pop in early Saturday pm. I'm host to a Dutch acquaintance who wants to at least check it out. I memailed you my cell phone.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 2:35 PM on July 23, 2008

If I get my bike up and running by then, I shall be there.
posted by Vavuzi at 6:04 PM on July 23, 2008

Ok, Official Sidebar Post:

When: Sunday, July 27th, Starting at Noonish.
Where: Smarty Pants (google map)
What: Brunch, drinks, hangover recovery, and then wandering around georgetown. I just found out that the Rainer Beer Ice Warehouse has been demolished and will be converted to a mixed use tech loft space. So georgetown is going to be SUPER HIP soon.
posted by mrzarquon at 8:56 PM on July 23, 2008

Indeed Slarty...some of the finest, truly carnal bloody marys to my recollection. I am partial to the fast break sandwich featuring the enigmatic "troublemaker sauce". That actually gives me all sorts of pause now... Oh yes the new "we're different" eyesore going across the street, ehck, too many 7 series BMWs swarming about it, lathering in cheap honey. Viva Georgetown, Seattle's last stand (until the next one that is!). Oh...yes I shall attend.
posted by agent seamalt jones at 10:39 PM on July 23, 2008

So georgetown is going to be SUPER HIP soon.

One of my all time favorite dumpsters is located there.
posted by Tube at 10:53 PM on July 23, 2008

Georgetown was super hip when the Ontario Tavern, that crazy caqrpeted country 'n western place with the fried chicken and Beanie's were open and they were all gone before the 8o's were over.

Especially Beanie's. It's Stella Pizza now but you have no idea of how cool that place was when it was Beanie's. Upstairs had been a boxing gym which dated back to when Georgetown was its own city. Jack Dempsey made an appearance there sometime in his retirement.

The sign out front was Beanie's in script about four feet high, light bulbs in metal frames, outlined by red neon. It had a mirrored back bar also dating from 1904, the bar itself complete with high stools on pedestals and a brass rail and there was so much atmosphere.

When I started going there, they had a picture of Eisenhower on the wall. The booth's were wood with scenes of Mt. Rainier etched in with a wood burning pen, a juke box with a playlist going back to the 50's and pictures of the place in all its earlier incarnations--alcohol in one form or another had been sold there since 1904. There was one scene from 1904, where all the customers looked like miners, dirty men dressed in dirty suits. Another dated from the early fifties with guys in hawaiian shirts and incredibly detailed slacks, full and tapered to the cuffs, with a pin line down the sides, the women wore these incredible floral dresses and one was in cats eye glasses.

And the place was always empty.I gave myself a birthday party there once and we filled the place. The bartender and barmaid were so happy from the tips that night they would have stayed open until 4 but location, location, location--they were right there on Airport Way.

And I could go on about the Ontario Tavern, on the other side of the overpass from Beanie's, which also had the killer decor, tropically themed with a concrete floor, or the crazy country 'n western place whose name I can't recall, which had dancing, fried chicken and a carpet. Boy, that made for a funky place, funky smelling with a funky clientele, the guys all in cowboy hats and the gals all in multiple petticoats dancing to a country band with an accordion player.

And then there was the Georgetown Tavern, which is now the Vespa place. Man, that was the diveiest dive bar that I ever stepped into. Shamelessly electrified corpes of stone alcoholic serving shamelessly electrified corpses of stone alcoholics since 190-something or other. So funky, it made the 5 Spot look like the Palm Room.

And all of the above was gone by 1990...

Everyone should have a breakfast at Flynn's some time. It's been there since at least the 1950's. It's maybe the only trace left of the gone days. Not quite in Georgetown proper but only a few blocks away. It's on Airport Way right across the street from the Ontario Hotel where the Ontario Tavern once was and where Jesse Bernstein once lived--back in the 80's, when Georgetown was like a set from David Lynch's Blue Velvet, right down to the preponderance of 70's muscle cars and choice examples of 50's and 60's full finned American cars.

All of the David Lynch Georgetown is just about gone, save for Jule's Mae, if that's still there. And Flynn's. And the Marco Polo is still going, I believe. Not much else from the old days is left. Kettell's closed about five years ago, another of the last greasy spoons. Now there's only Flynn's, I believe. I still miss Beanie's.
posted by y2karl at 8:52 AM on July 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

Also of possible topical and timely interest to those interested in this post:

There will be a -3.0 magnitude Space Station transit at 9:05 PM tonight starting at 33° above the West South West horizon.

A -3.0 apparent magnitude is as just about as bright as Venus at its brightest.

See Spaceweather.com Satellite Flyby zip: 98102 for details.

The Space Station transit starts at about 33° West South West, or so I gather, and ends somewhere above the East North East horizon.

It will reach a height of 80°in the sky with 90° being the zenith.--which means it will be going almost directly overhead, making it hard to miss.

See also NASA Satellite Sighting Information for ***** Seattle *****

That NASA Human Spaceflight page does not list the 9:05 PM transit as it falls too close to sunset--8:54 PM tonight--to be considered visible by their standards, which apparently do not include apparent magnitude in figuring out what visible is.

Being as bright as Venus at sunset, however, with a ten minute transit, to boot, should count as visible to my mind.

It will be hard to miss--it will be bright and it will really move. And it is an exceptionally long transit, all things considered. It should be quite a show.

Way cool imho--YMMV.
posted by y2karl at 10:57 AM on July 24, 2008

Someday, I would like to take the y2karl-guided tour of Seattle. I propose we hijack one of those Ride-the-Ducks things and have Karl drive us around all day. I'll bring the poutine.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 4:52 PM on July 24, 2008

I'll drive the duck, Karl can wear the helmet and operate the microphone.
posted by mrzarquon at 6:08 PM on July 24, 2008

The Ride-the-Duck is one of the only things that makes me want to take up paint-ball.

Seriously, Karl is one heck of a Seattle historian. I was never at the bars Karl mentions, but I did eat at Kettell's a number of times. I liked the food, but before Seattle banned indoor smoking it had one of those completely bullshit "non-smoking" sections. Some homeless guy with tardive dyskinesia used to hang out outside the place all the time. I used to watch him as I ate.
posted by Tube at 6:15 PM on July 24, 2008

The Space Station turned out to be a bust, by the way, it was too overcast. You could see it, barely, faintly, dimly, behind the clouds if you knew where to look but I, myopic as I am, was the only person where I was who could see it. It did track overhead, though. I saw one -3.0 at a similar amount of minutes one morning a few weeks back and it stood out like Venus. But not last night. Last night it was hard to tell what was Space Station and what was floater.

There used to be a diner on 4th Avenue, about four blocks north of Marco Polo's back in the 80s as well. A real in a railroad car and not Andy's Diner diner on a corner lot. I went there once for breakfast back in the day. There used to be so much more funkiness then.

Go see House of Games--that has the old 211 Billiards for its set, long before it moved to and died in Belltown, way back when it took an alley side elevator ride to a a second floor on the southeast corner of Union and Second. Oldest still operating poolhall on the West Coast north of San Francisco. I was once told. All that stuff we took for granted and never appreciated back then. The buildings were smaller but there were so many oddball places in the old downtown.
posted by y2karl at 9:34 AM on July 25, 2008

Damn people and their damn "weddings." I was really hoping to make it to one of these....
posted by Bibliogeek at 10:30 AM on July 25, 2008

Jules Maes closed and then re-opened, y2k. There's a bunch of good stuff down yar. And surely you know that the County Line remains open, although that's over the bridge in South Park.
posted by mwhybark at 2:13 PM on July 25, 2008

I was very interested in Y2Karl's links to the satellite orbits, and intended to go outside at the appointed moment. But I got embroiled in a serious game of table tennis with this Russian dude. It went to 5 games, but I squeaked out an 11-9 win in the fifth game.

Needless to say, I didn't make it outside at the right time to see the satellite. I've seen Venus very bright, so bright in fact, that one time I had a Jimmy Carter-esque UFO experience, where I actually stopped my truck, got out and watched Venus for a while until I realized what it was. Seriously, you won't find this funny when you are in the same position yourself! To see something that bright travel overhead could be really cool. I'm going to try harder this evening.

There is an overpass that runs from Airport Way over the railroad tracks, then under I5. If you are driving Eastbound (uphill) you can experience a cool moire' effect from the vertical posts that form the pedestrian railing. I should put up a Flickr video of this. I wonder if it's legal in Washington state to operate a video camera while driving...
posted by Tube at 4:19 PM on July 25, 2008

Tube: "I wonder if it's legal in Washington state to operate a video camera while driving..."

Only one way to find out!
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:55 PM on July 25, 2008

And surely you know that the County Line remains open, although that's over the bridge in South Park.

I have never been there and I don't even think I have heard of it. Which goes to show I don't know everything. Which is one thing I do know for sure. I have made bike tours of Georgetown but only went through South Park a couple of times. And then I was checking out the vans down by the river. Well, the houses, too. Going for the David Lynch atmosphere, checking out the yard art.
posted by y2karl at 9:00 AM on July 26, 2008

There is an overpass that runs from Airport Way over the railroad tracks, then under I5. If you are driving Eastbound (uphill) you can experience a cool moire' effect from the vertical posts that form the pedestrian railing. I should put up a Flickr video of this. I wonder if it's legal in Washington state to operate a video camera while driving...

Well, I tried it, but it didn't come out too well...

I'm waxing self-indulgent; I better stop.
posted by Tube at 8:06 PM on July 26, 2008

I am on my way down right now, I'll check in via jesus phone when I am there.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:51 AM on July 27, 2008

Got up late and then took a nap but now I am up up. The next #60 leaves at 1:40 here, gets to Georgetown around 2:13 according to the schedule. I will see you there if you are there sometime thereafter.
posted by y2karl at 1:17 PM on July 27, 2008

Wandered in at 2:30 but still managed to find a few mefites around the corner at All City Coffee, followed by an informative stroll past the half-demolished brewery and the famous illicit sexual park.
posted by hattifattener at 5:19 PM on July 27, 2008

My photos are up. Particular faves include the proper use for Deep Purple, and What is this vertical piece of wood?
posted by mrzarquon at 5:38 PM on July 27, 2008

It was a great time, glad to meetup with folks. Smarty Pants is a great wonderful place with awesome Bloody Mary's. I found also at all city coffee you get a free drink when you buy a mug, so if you want an excuse to get nifty mugs, go there.

hattifattener- how was lunch at smarty pants?
posted by mrzarquon at 5:39 PM on July 27, 2008

Also, as told by agent seamus jones:

The ice warehouse was demolished because while the build itself was in sound working order, since it had been running continuously at subzero temperatures for over a hundred years, it formed a giant iceball underneath its structure. When they shut it down in the 80s, the ice ball began to thaw. Once it finally finished thawing (which probably took a good 10-15 years) the discovered the foundation was sinking, and they had to demolish the building.

By the time they went to demolish it, it was sinking at a rate of an inch a month.

Between Seamus and Y2Karl, what else do you need for seattle folklore?
posted by mrzarquon at 5:47 PM on July 27, 2008

Posted my photos too.
posted by kindall at 6:08 PM on July 27, 2008

I heard Agent Seamalt was in an old Disney movie as a bit player named "Uncle Seamus"...
posted by Tube at 6:58 PM on July 27, 2008

Good times and good food. I posted my photo set as well.
posted by O9scar at 7:20 PM on July 27, 2008

Tube- yes, it was pulled because it contained negative stereotypes of norwegians.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:27 PM on July 27, 2008

Uncle Seamus love when friends watch Seamus eat "fastbreak" sanwish...Uncle Seamus go home and punch all his crayons. Uncle Seamus is steamin mad Seamus cause agent Seamalt Jones eat all herb popcorn in crumby lil' A.P.T.. Uncle Seamus need mo betablockers in regimen.
posted by agent seamalt jones at 10:56 PM on July 27, 2008

Whoops, forgot I don't have my Flickr in my profile. My photos are here.
posted by kindall at 10:58 PM on July 27, 2008

mrzarquon- I walked back over there but decided it was kinda late and headed home for dinner instead. Next time...
posted by hattifattener at 11:08 PM on July 27, 2008

BTW, Uncle Seamus, what does Deep Purple taste like?
posted by Tube at 11:12 PM on July 27, 2008

Tube, I think I just got your dumpster reference upthread. 9lb Hammer, ya?
posted by mwhybark at 8:11 AM on July 28, 2008

I didn't get there until people were getting ready to go for the walk but I had a wonderful time. I miss some of the old places but, all in all, Georgetown is a much hipper place. Or, at least, the Airport Way strip is--I had no idea there were so many new old looking places in so few blocks.

And then when we walked over to the playfield, I once again lamented the loss of all of Seattle's old swing sets. All they have now are these toddler friendly swing sets that are barely seven feet in height. I don't think there is an old high swing set left in any of the city's playgrounds.--the kind where you could pump yourself up ten or fifteen feet in the air at the end of your arc. That is such a loss.

And in the brief patch of neighborhood we visited was true to Georgetown's David Lynchian atmosphere--there was a big old 70s muscle car across from the playground next to the old ex-Presbyterian Church. I think that Georgetown and South Park must have the highest ration of big old 70s muscle cars to regular new cars of any neighborhoods in the city.

I'm glad I went down--it was a lot of fun.
posted by y2karl at 10:56 AM on July 28, 2008

Tube, I think I just got your dumpster reference upthread. 9lb Hammer, ya?

No, and I'm such a tease about it I won't mention it on the Internet...
posted by Tube at 4:08 PM on July 28, 2008