A Cold Saturday in Georgetown

Your options are limited at 11 a.m. on a Saturday in Georgetown if you're hungry and not in the mood for breakfast or vegan food.

I wasn't sure if the Hangar Cafe would be serving lunch yet. And we were so hungry that we weren't sure if we could wait for any crepe people ahead of us to get served anyway.

Smarty Pants does its brunch menu until 3 p.m. Stellar's not open until 3. Georgetown Liquor Company's not open until 2.

I kind of wanted sushi and would have tried Daimonji, but they're not open until dinner on Saturdays.

However, Calamity Jane's and Jules Maes serve lunch at 11 on Saturdays. Since we went to Calamity Jane's on Monday, we went to Jules Maes today. The BLT and tomato basil soup were perfect.

It looked like Georgetown Tile Works was open, what with the beckoning clown out front and all, so we decided to go check that out.



First we passed a couple of closed storefronts.



Full Throttle Bottles should be opening soon.



We hung out quite a while in the tile and gift shop, wasting the owners' time chatting about leatherwork, Chris Crites, Chemical Wedding, tiles, belt buckles, outsider art, the east side of Beacon Hill, remodeling, and their new view from the shop. They can see the I-5 signs for Vancouver, Tacoma, and Portland now.



I love the tile they're making. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before.



I think I like this even better.



And these metallic glazes remind me of Tau Ceramica's lovely Corten tile that we currently have in our bathroom. (I say "currently" because we already have some remodel plans drawn up, though we're not sure when they'll actually happen.)



We finally left the GTW folks alone so they could get some work done. I was too lazy and cold to cross the street like these other folks and get a closer look of the demolition.

Photos of the Stock House Demolition

Tonight at Calamity Jane's Pabst was sponsoring an art show and swag giveaway. I was just there for the all-you-can-eat spaghetti.





We ran into a friend, and a neighbor, and my brother-in-law and his fiancee.

After dinner and some free beer we checked out the demolition down the street.







Sabey's Jim Harmon, who seemed unfazed by the cold, pointed out the roof damage from a 1988 fire.



He said things are about on schedule and that the crew will be taking a day off tomorrow, though he'll still be there. I would have asked him some more questions, but I was fucking freezing out there.

Inside the warm confines of Jules Maes, I saw some dudes adding flowers to the fence.





Things will never be the same around here.

Misc. South End News

Decrepit building on its way out: The Paper Noose reports that the DPD has asked the owners of this old Georgetown building to fix it up pronto. Somehow I'm guessing it's going to end up getting torn down and rebuilt.



Call for submissions: The Paper Noose (whom I really should start calling by his new SEO-friendlier name, Blogging Georgetown) also reports that Georgetown's third annual Super 8 Film Festival is coming up. Your three-minute-long entry's due Feb. 6.

Sad news: After 60 years in business, Andy's Diner has closed.

Portland to Seattle

After playing with an 8-week-old black lab puppy in Portland (and seeing my neighbor CJ on Alberta -- hi, CJ!), we headed back to Seattle.



We stayed on back roads until north of Olympia.





Winlock, Washington, claims to be home to the world's largest egg.







Southwest Washington is definitely home to a bunch of anti-government blowhards.









A couple months ago, floods in this area shut down I-5 for days. Some areas still look pretty wet.



When we get home, I am delighted to see that our mean neighbor appears to be moving! I like to think that he's decided to move out of hatred for us. I'll kind of miss glaring at him from our yard, but I think I'll get over it.

Seattle to Portland

Went to Portland on Friday.



We stopped in Vader, Washington, because I've always wanted to go there because it's called "Vader."













We did not continue on to Ryderwood.



In Portland, I had deviled eggs, Waldorf salad, and tomato bisque soup at the Savoy Bistro.

Stock House Demolition Continues

I've been out of town, but I snapped a photo on Friday morning.




All lanes of Airport Way should be open again on Tuesday.

Concerns About the Stock House Replacement

I didn't go to the Georgetown Community Council meeting on Monday. I know that Holly Krejci would be totally welcoming, but I've still been reluctant to attend these meetings since I'm not a neighborhood resident. (But just now I took a look at their website, and I saw that "All residents or friends of the Georgetown neighborhood are encouraged to attend." OK, now I have no excuse.)

It sounds like the Paper Noose showed up, though, and he's provided a good account of what happened.

I haven't been down there since early Saturday morning, so I haven't seen the demolition so far. But apparently everyone has discovered that downtown Georgetown now has "a view of the interstate, as well as increased noise, normally buffered by three stories of brick."

Oh, yeah. I didn't even think of that.

Holly has summarized the community response about the demolition and building replacement in a letter to the Landmarks Board. I'm not surprised, but I am a little disappointed with the community's insistence on having Sabey's architects try to emulate the gorgeous 100-year-old buildings on Airport Way. I'm afraid that any Johnson Architects attempt at "classic and traditional ... brick" will end up looking less like the rest of Georgetown's Airport Way and more like Disneyland's Main Street, USA.



But Johnson's efforts at modern and industrial might have failed spectacularly as well. And, as I've said before, the community's opinions are worth more than mine. I'm sure if Sabey builds something that Georgetown is happy with, I'll be happy with it too.

From Holly's letter to the Landmarks Board:

1. With regard to the design of the new building, the community is overwhelmingly in favor of keeping with the classic and traditional design elements of the other buildings, including the brick and arches. We very much want a design that is compatible and complementary with the remaining buildings rather than something that is a radical departure and modern. Ultimately, we do not want to see something magical replaced with something ordinary.

2. With regard to setting the new building back, there was a simple majority in favor for the new building being set back 10 feet from the street. This will of course depend on the design of the new building and its ability to maintain continuity with the mass of the buildings as a whole.

3. With regard to the remaining portion of the stock house wall, the community is overwhelmingly in support of preserving the remaining portion of the wall to help maintain the continuity of the mass of the buildings and to protect the business district from additional industrial views.

For over a century, the mass and scope of the brick buildings, including the Stock House wall, has protected the Georgetown community from the freeway and the railroad. The buildings provided beauty in our gritty industrial area. And when the Stock House wall was partially removed, the view was that of the freeway and the railroad. It, in effect, added more industry to our already industrial-burdened community...