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This must really piss off the masking tape bandit -- Liberty's happy hour power pole posters are back for spring. This time, they're posted about 12 feet off the ground.
While Seattleites enjoy kicking in the yellow-skinned teeth of our Broadway cousin neighborhood, they smother our fancy pants part of Capitol Hill with huggies and kissies. We found two recent love notes to tuck away under our pillow.
In the first, Seattle Conscious Choice gets Goldilocksian and says Volunteer Park Cafe is "just right." Passing two small tables (taken over by bicyclists) and a sturdy looking shaded bench for resting (father and son at play), I head up the small step into the café and immediately feel at home. The walls are warmly colored in hues of green and the whole room is flanked by a banquette covered in rich chocolate brown cloth. The counter, which runs nearly the entire right side of the little room, is piled high with various pastries in baskets and fronted by a big old apothecary jar filled with mulit-colored gumballs for 25 cents each. Decorated in rich tones with colorful art on the walls and pressed tin lanterns lining some shelves, it is clear that there is a very keen eye at work...
I'm in London for work (unexpectedly!) for a few days so posts will be even lazier than usual. As behind the times as Seattle can feel, we're ahead of London on a few things. They've just now got around to a smoking ban in bars (before we get too high and mighty, should note it's a nationwide ban) and their Pride events aren't until this coming weekend. Seattle 2, London 0.
CHS notes and tidbits:
Busy last night on 15th Ave. If you noticed men in suits and name tags huddling in front of Liberty, the Slog can explain what was going on. City Council candidate Joe Szwaja held a soire to discuss his campaign against Jean Godden. Judging by the large name tags we saw, Szwaja's team has the graphic design end of things down, for sure. Slog has a problem with Szwaja's past legal issues but we'll give him credit for choosing Liberty for his event.
--j/k
In a comment thread over on the Slog, Liberty Bar makes an interesting assertion:
15th Ave. is quite an interesting place. Remember what Capitol Hill used to be like before the first wave of the invasion of junkies with bad breath and rap sheets, which was then followed by the faux-urbanites with fully insured nice cars and carefully aged clothing? Before there were danceclubs and Pho restaurants? Capitol Hill was this place for all sorts of people to co-mingle, but... Now? Not completely sure what Liberty is talking about but we like spirit. All sorts. Co-mingling. Sounds good to us. Even if Lib's not talking about us. --j/k
In honor of the Masking Tape bandit currently roaming the neighborhood, we've invented this drink that we hope Liberty will add to its menu.
 The Liberty Masking Tape is basically an old fashioned but watered-down and a bit nutty. --j/k
Jeez, would you people quit giving me things to post about. I have work to do. Work I get paid for. On the topic of whining, Slog is having fun at the neighborhood's expense today. And this time we might deserve it. Here's the I, Anonymous missive from an alleged 15th Ave area resident.
The wine/coffee bar called “LIBERTY” is trashing up street poles all up and down 15th ave east. The street appeal will soon have the appearance of broadway or the Pike/pine area. A group of us good neighbors have informed them that all street pole ads are being removed to keep our neighborhood looking nice but they keep placing the ads higher on the poles and we keep taking them down. I decided to live in this neighborhood because it was not trashy and fairly clean compared to down the hill—Broadway. This may seem like a small problem to sum but its amazing how the pole litter attracts more pole litter. I think this establishment is a BAD NEIGHBOR in a good neighborhood. Just wanted to inform somebody. I’m in the process of figuring...
Liberty's free espresso for a week promotion should go in the books as the most successful 15th Ave marketing idea ever. Successful, at least, in terms of blog posts generated (look! here's another one). The promo even convinced Seattlest back inside Liberty's door despite the fact that she found the coffee "mediocre" and, gasp, Liberty only offered four flavors of syrup on her previous visit.
While we applaud the promo effort, we're not sure it's going to get the job done. Liberty, you're up against some tough competition. When it comes to marketing, you need to pull out all the stops. We were going to suggest that you make your coffee free every day but after some calculations realized this was bad business. But we have a better idea inspired by true-life events! Liberty, you are a bar. What is the defining characteristic of a bar in this part of Capitol Hill? It's not that you serve liquor. We're not suggesting Irish coffees though that's a good idea, too. It's not your happy hours. Or your stylish furnishings....
Fans of legal liquid stimuli, take note:
--j
Eagle-eyed freebie hunter kimberley d reports the following:
For those of you playing along at home, that's a week of free lattes, etc. starting Sunday. --j
Now that VPC seems to be firing on all cylinders and Rainbow Grocery survived another week, it's time to celebrate another good thing for the neighborhood. We stopped through the newly-opened BottleNeck Lounge this weekend and liked what we saw.
--j
We're still putting the final touches on the project but thought we'd stoke your anticipation. To celebrate the close of our first year on Capitol Hill and provide you with merriment and sport throughout the holiday season, we are pitting neighborhood icons head to head in a bloodsport battle to the death!
You'll have a chance to vote for your favorites and lobby against your hated enemies. We can think of no truer way to mark the season of giving than to watch our neighbors battle for ultimate supremacy! St. Joe's says Holy Names is going down! The two dry cleaning businesses on 15th? Gonna rumble. Liberty Bar and Cypress in a tag team battle royale vs. 22 Doors? You'll see it here starting Monday. We're still confirming participants and drawing up the tourney brackets so if you have any entanglements you'd like to see played out on the CHS stage, add a comment. And, please, no wagering. --j/k
We sent a mail to the Nectar folks asking about the plans for music, etc. at the newly opened Cypress. Today, we received a reply from Jed Smithson:
We haven’t planned any music events yet however we are going to have dj’s spinning this Sat. if you want to come check it out. This will be a pretty good representation of some of the music we will have on the weekend. Jed also said that his partners will likely be there Saturday night if you want to say hello. Meanwhile, apologies to Liberty and 22 Doors. The new kid always gets all the love. You two kids seem to be doing alright so we're not too worried about neglect. The way we wander after a drink or two, another bar on the street can be nothing but good for business. --j
While we were busy writing about plums, Seattlest dug up this juicy 15th Ave scoop. The fish-outta-water Kozak's is gone -- thanks for trying guys and good luck. Seattlest says we're getting a "Mediterranean-flavored lounge" in the space in a month and a half or so brought to you by the good people responsible for the Nectar Lounge in Fremont. This makes us ask...
 We first stumbled upon Bre Pettis when he left a comment on Capitol Hill Seattle. He'll never make that mistake again! We've been following his geeky cool I Make Things blog ever since though we don't really have time to build robots because we can't even pull the 3-foot dandelions out of our yard. Bre was a Hill resident when he left a note saying 'hey' so we'll assume he still is even though we found him filling in for the much-buzzed about Amanda Congdon over on the nearly-equally much-buzzed about Rocketboom. We're betting you'll see Bre on at least TLC in a year if not the Discovery Channel.Meanwhile, Seattle Bon Vivant -- this city's best example of an indie foodie blog -- has gone radio silent, its connoisseurship frozen in place, the site post-less since early May. We haven't pinged Viv -- as her fans call her -- so we'll do it blog style. Viv, where are you? Seattle needs a chow tip or two. And you better scramble if you're going to beat that Bre dude to having your own cable show. --j/k
A new foodie blog weighs in on Liberty saying nice try, see you when you figure things out. Hard to argue with Criticaleater. The place is a victim of its own success -- lots of people coming in to give it a try only to be left waiting around for the goods. We assume the business part of things makes it tough to afford extra staff and that more bodies wouldn't necessarily mean better efficiency. In the meantime, you'll probably want to lower your expectations or go have some juice at Rainbow Grocery.
BTW, we're also declaing a temporary moratorium on Liberty posts. We've been obsessed with the new kid while neglecting other wonders of the neighborhood like Walgreen's. --j
We finally made it inside Liberty for cocktails. Here are three reasons to think it's gonna stick around:
--j/k
Act quickly, Liberty, or pretty soon you're going to be stuck with those awful exposed springs. The Stranger's Bar Exam column brought Liberty to the city's attention this week -- turns out, Dan Savage and others are fixated on the same thing that has been bugging us: those awful exposed springs.
We have to agree with Mr. Savage -- the springs are, indeed, unglamorous. Like others leaving comments on the Slog post, we've wondered if the exposed backs were intentional and some kind of fashionable industrial look gone awry. Turns out, there's a simpler explantion according to the Stranger reporter who joined the Slog thread: They apparently painted the bottom part of the windows black to cover the unsightly innards, and then the windows cracked, and then they got new windows, and then the window installer said there's no way to paint windows in such a way without them cracking—improbable, no? Supposedly, the situation will be fixed in a 'timely manner' but, jeez, with...
Our long, many-posted wait is over -- tonight, Liberty Bar is open. We'll play coy and give it a few days before celebrating a new place to get drunk on 15th Ave.
--j
The most anticipated bar opening in the history our time living on Capitol Hill (2 months) is possibly maybe hopefully going to happen 'next' week. We did some journalism and received the reply you see below. No offense to 22 Doors but we're so very excited to have a cocktail alternative in the neighborhood.
--j --snip-- From: Liberty Bar Sent: Mar 11 (22 hours ago) Hey there J! Thanks for the e'mail, and it looks like we'll be opening next week if all goes well. Thanks again for the e'mail, and please feel free to stop on by anytime. Andrew At 12:05 PM 3/7/2006, you wrote: > We have a little tiny hobby blog about the neighborhood and were just wondering when you were going to open your doors? It will be great to have you on the block. > > Thanks! ================= L i b e r t y 517 15th Ave. E. Seattle, WA 98112 h e l l o @ l i b e r t y b a r s . c o m =================
We posted about the hopefully-soon-to-be Liberty bar on 15th Ave. a few weeks back -- but we're starting to get impatient. Open up! We need a drink. Peering in the window, it looks as messy as ever in there with all the construction. We're sure this is how progress looks. Right? Meanwhile, we've dropped a mail their way to ask about their plans so hopefully we can share something soon.
--j/k
While 22 Doors and Hopvine do a great job bringing live music to our part of Capitol Hill, the in-store performances at Sonic Boom Records Capitol Hill bring variety and some bigger names to the 'hood. March 8, Willy Mason will be at the store. You should probably go because you can walk there, listen to a free show, flip through the new arrivals in the used bin, wander over to see if Liberty is open yet and then go grab a beer someplace else.
Here's what the SB web site says about Willy: "There's more to the Willy Mason saga than a boy with a guitar. Sure, there will be the inevitable references to the likes of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie and the entire folk and blues pantheon. But like those artists at their start, Willy is speaking to and for HIS community – with a fresh voice and vision." Btw, we hear that Sonic Boom's in-stores have been the source for a few complaints from local businesses. Noise complaints would explain why the Ballard SB shows rock... |
