Celebrate Five Years of Manny's Pale Ale

Need an excuse to drink on Wednesday? Join the Georgetown Brewing crew in a toast to the fifth birthday of Manny's Pale Ale down at Jules Maes.

On February 27th, 2003 a group of friends and beer lovers gathered at the Latona Pub to drink the first keg of Manny's Pale Ale. Five years to the day and a few kegs later, we'll have a party of sorts at Jules Maes Saloon to celebrate our anniversary.

We'll get started about 7pm and probably be there all night. Please come raise a glass with us if you get the chance.

Rudeen's Been Cleaning Up the Christian Restoration Site

Rudeen responded very quickly to the report of trash buildup at the Christian Restoration Center. I sent my e-mail out Thursday night, and on Friday they had crews out there starting to clean the area up. They've been out there working on it this week as well.

They're working with Jon Hager of Hager Realty Services in the Eastlake area as the local contact for this project. He seems very nice and open to questions; his e-mail is jon at jhager.com, if you'd like to contact him directly. He's been discussing the project with passersby this week, so if you see people out there working, feel free to approach them.

As for the design of the project, he said this:

On the planning front, we have hired a local Seattle architect and the current concept for the property itself is to have retail on the street level, with condos above. There is also a landscaped atrium in the back for the residents, with a parking garage underneath the building.

I asked who the architect is and whether they plan to share conceptual drawings with the community soon. I've also asked about Jim Claeys, whom a longtime Beacon Hill resident named Dan Hagan has been discussing in comments on this post. According to different sources, Claeys is either the past or the present/future owner of this site. I have no idea; I just work here.

Corson Building Drive-By

Good to know I'm not he only one who's been peering past the metal fence into the Corson Building lot, like I last did back in December.



A Seattle magazine blogger reports that it looks like they're putting in a patio.

Anyone know when Via Tribunali's opening? Pizza pizza.

Red Apple Remodel in Beacon Lights

Craig Thompson at Beacon Lights has written about the Red Apple remodel.

A Trip to Flower World

This blog used to be mostly about gardening. Now it's mostly about the neighborhood, but I'll continue to throw in plant posts. I can't help myself.

On the way to Flower World we stopped at the Woodinville Taco Time.

A box of Mexi-fries basking in the sunshine. Sublime.



Flower World is big and nice. Everyone loves Flower World. so I don't need to say much about it. They have a lot of stuff, it's clean and tidy, and they grow 90% of what they sell. And they pipe out way too much harp music.



Heather.











Last year I did a lot of nursery browsing; now I can spot a baby Cryptomeria from 50 yards away.



Cryptomeria japonica 'cristata." I have five of these in my backyard. I'm not sure they're going to make it.



Oh, maybe this post is on theme after all. This cedar is called "Beacon Hill."









A sign warns of escaping turtles. My husband's on the lookout.













There's an iris farm next door.

Finding Beacon Hill Stories

On most days, I search the Seattle P-I and Seattle Times websites for "beacon hill," hoping to find all the news stories about our neighborhood. However, the reporters sometimes misidentify Beacon Hill (even its western edge) as "Rainier Valley," and more often they just don't even bother trying to identify the neighborhood and just call it "South Seattle."

Yesterday they pulled a new one, identifying an area east of Rainier Avenue as Beacon Hill.

The story is only credited to "staff," so I won't bother trying to get this corrected. But these reporting inaccuracies make it hard to try to find out what's really happened in our neighborhood over the years. Do they screw up this badly in other neighborhoods, or are local reporters particularly ignorant of areas south of I-90?

SE Seattle Pics at Good Taste Chronicles

Fellow Beacon Hill blogger Catalina Vel-DuRay has been going around Southeast Seattle snapping pictures of things that would already have been demolished in tonier parts of the city. Like the New Holly Safeway. And a cool-looking church that I believe is on Orcas in Hillman City, a little bit west of Rainier?

CvDR also posts YouTube clips that I would never have found otherwise. Like this.