Got your hat ready? Derby Day options in and around the CD

Tomorrow marks the running of the 136th Kentucky Derby, which is the first leg of the Triple Crown, the most prestigious set of horse races in the U.S.  We all can’t be in Louisville to watch the race live. However, we can all tip a glass, while watching the Derby at a couple of neighborhood watering holes.

  • CDNews Sponsor Bottleneck Lounge is hosting its 3rd annual Run for the Roses Party.  Doors open at 1:30 pm and the race begins at 3 pm & will be shown on 2 large flat screen televisions.  They are offering a $50 prize (Bottleneck gift certificate) for the Best Hat Award and the Seattle Slew Dressed for Overall Derby Excellence Award.  Winners will be announced at 4 pm.  Chef Ashlyn Forshner (of Belltown’s Tilikum Place Cafe) will prepare pulled pork sliders & veggie mac and cheese.  And of course, Maker’s Mark Mint Juleps will abound.
  • Tavern Law, located on the Capitol Hill/Central District borderline that is Madison Street is also throwing a Derby Day party.  Doors open at 2 pm and Maker’s Mark will subsidize the bourbon drink specials Tavern Law will be offering all day.  Additional drink specials between 3 and 5 pm.  Like Bottleneck, Tavern Law is offering a prize for best dressed.  Here is the invite

Washington Hall throws (Free) Grand Re-Opening Party this Weekend

Washington Hall, a historic building that has been the fulcrum of arts and culture in the Central District for over a century, has completed the first phase of its rehabilitation and is ready for its debut.  Here is the invite:

Historic Seattle and 4Culture invite you to celebrate at the Washington Hall House Party and grand re-opening, beginning May 1st, with an evening of food, drinks, and a line-up of vintage jazz, contemporary performance and hip-hop backed by a live band. Family-friendly activities continue May 2nd.

You may RSVP online and the organizers remind you to bring “cash to purchase Dante’s Inferno hotdogs, drinks and your very own Washington Hall t-shirt”.  Festivities begin at 7 pm on Saturday, May 1 and at 1 pm on Sunday, May 2nd.

And don’t forget that Washington Hall is in the running for $1 million in preservation funding. Vote! 

Come doodle with Indexed author at Tougo tomorrow

Jessica Hagy first rose to prominence through her authorship of the blog Indexed.  The blog features a collection of charts and diagrams hand drawn on 3×5 index cards that she has scanned online. 

In 2008, Time named Indexed one of the top 25 blogs of the year.  In addition, Jessica has contributed to the New York Times Freakonomics blog and has published a compilations of some of her work in Indexed Postcard Book.  

Jessica invites interested sketchers to come sketch/doodle with her tomorrow (wed 4/28) at Tougo Coffee at 11 am (bring paper she reminds you!).  

Small and Simple Matching Funds awarded to CD projects

The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods has announced the 2010 Neighborhood Matching Fund Small and Simple Award winners. Recipients of the award will receive up to $20k in funding to improve their neighborhoods and communities through various projects.

Watoto Circle Saturday Program: The Saturday program is a dynamic event designed for children and their families to participate in African-centered curriculum. Each Saturday of the month has unique programming: Social Justice, African Arts, Children’s Open Mic, and Toddler Hip Hop. Amount gathered was $39,715 and matching fund award is $15k.

1-2-3 Man Up! – Loyal to Life Youth Academy (Urban League): Group mentor program for the most court-involved, victims of gun violence, and gang-affiliated at-risk youth to address life skills, mediation, conflict resolution, violence prevention through sports, team building, academics, civic engagement and leadership.  Amount gathered was $24k and matching fund award is $12k.

Central”Return”: A Community-Wide Staged Theater Reading (Friends of the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center): The Ethiopian, Jewish and African American communities will come together to plan, read, rehearse and build a neighborhood conversation about the stage play titled “Return.” This play chronicles the rescue of 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to freedom in Israel. Amount gathered was $10,900 and matching fund award is $17k. 

The full list of 2010 Seattle recipients can be found here.  The last round of applications accepted for Small and Simple funds is due on July 12, 2010.  Apply or learn more about the funds.  

Help clean up 23rd & Union tomorrow

The next Central Area Cleanup is scheduled for 10 am tomorrow (4/24/10).  Meet at 21st & Union.  Bags will be provided.  Jean Tinnea, an organizer, says “Volunteers should take their own gloves and smiles.”

And check out this Earth Day episode of CityStream for two reasons:

  • Segment on Central District resident Scott Behmer of Union Street Farm is featured as a model in reducing household waste
  • Segment on Central Area Cleanup that features CD neighbors including Jean Tinnea, John and his son Matthew Stewart, Will Little of CD Sponsor Cortona Coffee and his son Charlie and Melissa Brown.  

Rover’s Kitchen Sneak Peek

Bravo’s Top Chef (reality show featuring aspiring and young chefs) has an older sibling called Top Chef Masters (featuring established chefs).  This year, Masters includes three chefs originating from Seattle: Jerry Traunfeld of Poppy, Maria Hines of Tilth and Thierry Rautureau of Rover’s.  Rover’s is a high-end French restaurant located in Madison Valley.

Chef Rautureau may have been eliminated in the last episode of Top Chef Masters.  However, he was a good enough sport to show up to watch his performance at CD News Sponsor Bottleneck Lounge last Wednesday.  He continues being gracious by allowing Bravo access to the Rover’s kitchen.  In the video, he explains how he came by his “Chef in the Hat” moniker.

Marjorie set to open May 11 at 14th & Union

Donna Moodie’s Marjorie, a storied Belltown restaurant that closed in September 2008, announced in January 2010 that after a year of looking at various spaces, they had found an ideal location in the Chloe at 1412 East Union.  This location had the advantage of straddling the border between Capitol Hill and the Central District (both neighborhoods providing a good amount of foot traffic).  

Today, via Seattle Metropolitan, Moodie announced that Marjorie will be opening May 11.  In addition, Moodie announced that she would be hiring Kylen McCarthy of Madison Valley’s Harvest Vine.  Moodie has long standing ties to the Central District, having previously served as a Chair and currently as a member of the of the Central District Forum Board.  

Award-winning chef gives shout out to the BottleNeck

Jason Stratton of Spinasse made the cut and was deemed a Food & Wine Best New Chef for 2010 earlier this week.  When Food & Wine profiled him, they asked him to name his favorite television show.  He admitted that he was a Top Chef fan and that he likes to wach it (along with other culinary profesionnals) at our very own Bottleneck Lounge:
Favorite cooking show: Top Chef. “It’s one of the only cooking shows that respects what a chef does on a daily basis. Every Wednesday night, my chef buddies and I watch it at a bar—The Bottleneck Lounge. We yell at Padma [Lakshmi, Top Chef host/judge] for her bad outfits. (Just kidding Padma! Much love Padma!) It’s like we’re at a sporting event. Someone will say, ‘I can’t believe he gave that sauce to Tom Colicchio!'”

The new season of Top Chef is currently filming in Washington D.C. and will begin airing in September. Though Stratton does not mention it, you may catch him watching Top Chef’s spin off Top Chef Masters at Bottleneck, on Wednesday nights at 10 pm.

Washington House Visit: a trip back into CD and U.S. history

Via Jen Graves of The Stranger, we learned of Washington House, a small art museum and studio space at  1816 26th Avenue.   Washington House was the home of James (1909 – 2000) and Janie Washington (1908 – 2000), two pillars of the CD community in their lifetimes.  James was an artist, expressing his art mainly through stone carving.  They married each other in 1943, moved to Seattle from the segregated South in 1944 and lived in the Central District the rest of their lives.  During their Seattle years, the Washingtons were community and civil rights activists.

Washington House provides Free Admission by appointment.  Contact Tim Detweiler by phone (709-4241) or by email ([email protected]).  In addition to paying homage to a beloved artist and community figure, Washington House also hosts artists-in-residence.  The application deadline just passed (3/31/10) but contact Tim if you would like to be considered in the future.  Here are a few photos from my visit there two weeks ago.

Starting from upper left:

Painting by Washington of the main street of a small Mississippi town (very much like the street he grew up on)

Frontage of Washington House on a foggy day

Sculpture by Washington

Executive Director Tim Detweiler

Two mementos of Southern segregation: Mr. Washington’s poll tax receipt & drinking fountain sign

Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center closes for one year to get $3.3M upgrade

Seattle Parks and Recreation announced today that The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (LHPAC) building is closed through early Spring 2011 to accommodate planned seismic and electrical renovations.  LHPAC Center staff will continue to carry out programs and performances at other locations during the closure. To confirm new locations for all programs and performances, call Center staff at 206-684-4758 or visit the LHPAC Film Festival Website.

Here is the full explanation for the closure:

A 2008 study identified the need for seismic upgrades and additional electric power to the building. Other interior upgrades will enhance the 95-year-old building’s public amenities by providing improved restroom facilities, upgrades to the lobby floor and main entrance, upgrades to the theater sound and lighting booth, improvements to rehearsal and dance floors and improvements to theatrical dressing rooms. The primary space in the building is the theater space, which has a fixed seating capacity of 285. The lower level of the original building includes several small classrooms and a large activity hall that accommodates almost 300 people.

The 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy provides $2.5 million for the project; $449,000 comes from a State Building for the Arts grant; and $365,000 from the City’s major maintenance fund. For more information on the project, please see.

“Our central and greater Seattle area friends, neighbors, partners, and visitors treasure the theatrical works at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. This stunning structure keeps us all connected and is a crucial component of Seattle’s high quality cultural landscape. The ethnic and aesthetic diversity pulsates and thrives at LHPAC,” said Royal Alley-Barnes, LHPAC Executive Director.

LHPAC provides a unique opportunity for everyone in Seattle’s diverse communities to experience and engage in the authentic African American performing arts and cultural legacies. LHPAC was established in 1969 and is dedicated to the preservation of Seattle’s African American theatrical performance heritage for future generations by preserving, nurturing and presenting African American performing arts.

This historic building in Seattle’s Central Area at 104 17th Ave. S was formerly the Jewish Synagogue of Chevra Bikur Cholim. This commanding polygonal structure of tan brick with white terra cotta detailing, was designed by B. Marcus Priteca, a well known Seattle architect. It was dedicated in August 1915 and opened in 1916. The building is designated as a historic landmark subject to protection by city ordinance. The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center was established in the building in 1969, and has worked closely with Seattle Parks and Recreation since 1972 to offer unique programs to the public.