Crumblrr.com is currently launching in the United States this month and focuses on the “Daily Deal” concept similar to Groupon and Living Social. What makes Crumblrr different from the rest of the pack? They’re the only site that uses local deal makers that know the people & know the community. The concept here is they understand the value of grassroots marketing and bring in the real clientele the business needs.  Crumblrr customizes their deals to have a positive impact with their unique advertising system and encourages consumers to support their local neighborhood shops.

The site interface itself is relatively easy and fun, showing a large photo of the main deal, with the appropriate fine print below. Conveniently listed in the body of the page is a deal and business description, with reviews from other people in your area.  On the sidebar is a small section for other available deals that are concurrently running.  Crumblrr will also offer a rewards program-giving away deals and Crumblrr bucks.

This week in Seattle www.crumbllr.com will have some great deals from the streets delivered to you.

$15 gets you 4 Slices and an Hour of Pool at The Ballroom Fremont – $32 value                     12/13/10

Krush Tanning Salon $50 for $100 in Tans – 50% Off                                                                      12/15/10

$15 for a $30 Haircut at Spin’s Barbershop – 50% Off                                                                      12/17/10

This map from Seattle Public Utilities shows just how rainy it was in the city this weekend as rain totals pushed above the 4-inch mark in some parts of the city. Central Seattle and Capitol Hill managed to stay the driest south of the Montlake cut with a paltry total just over 3 inches.

We reported on a few other local Capitol Hill “pineapple express” weather observations, here. Meanwhile, another downpour hit the area Monday night. The National Weather Service says rain should let up later tonight before returning Tuesday.

Here’s a report from SPU on the totals:

A detailed analysis of the intense Pineapple Express rainstorm that hit Seattle over the weekend shows that most of Seattle received 3 to 4 inches of precipitation, with some areas receiving more.

 “This was a very significant event,” said James Rufo-Hill, a meteorologist for Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), who worked on the analysis.

 The map-based analysis, based on data from 22 local rain gauges, shows that at several locations—including West Seattle, Green Lake, and South Park—the amount of rain that fell was close to that of a historical 100-year event.

 For much of the rest of the city, it was a 20- to 30-year storm.

 

A map of the rain event is attached.

 

The rain gauge data shows that:

•Generally, South Seattle received more precipitation than North Seattle.

•The most rain fell on West Seattle, which received over 4 inches in at least one location.

 

Learn more about Seattle Public Utilities, at: http://www.seattle.gov/util.

The City Council Monday afternoon is voting on two pieces of legislation authorizing the granting of easements from three Capitol Hill parks to Sound Transit for construction and maintenance of its twin light rail tunnels that will pass beneath the Hill. Bills 117062 and 117063 document the granting of access Sound Transit needs to be able to engineer the light rail tunnels.

The bills call for Sound Transit to pay a total of $296,500 for the easements beneath Volunteer, Interlaken and Cal Anderson Parks. $20,600 of that is earmarked for Seattle Public Utilities due to its reservoir works beneath Cal Anderson. The rest is destined for the city’s Parks and Recreation fund. The easements convey rights to Sound Transit to tunnel beneath the parks and create “tie backs” to secure the tunnels in place. These structures will be below ground and not visible at the surface.

You can see the tunneling routes for the $1.9 billion Sound Transit project, here.

Sound Transit has forged more than 200 such easements along the future University Link route.

Details on the bills, below.

o Relating to the Department of Parks and Recreation; authorizing the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to grant and convey easement rights under portions of Volunteer Park and Interlaken Park to the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority for the purposes of installing, repairing, maintaining, and operating tunnels for light rail service, and to accept payment therefore; and finding that the grants of permanent subsurface easements meet the requirements of Ordinance 118477, adopting Initiative

o Relating to Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation; authorizing the Superintendent of Parks and Recreation to enter into easement agreements granting and conveying easement rights under and across portions of Cal Anderson Park to the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority and to accept payment therefor; finding that the grants of temporary and permanent subsurface easements meet the requirements of Initiative 118477, adopting Initiative 42, to the extent applicable; exempting the grant of a temporary surface easement from the requirements of Initiative 118477, to the extent applicable; and authorizing the Director of Seattle Public Utilities to accept a storm drain access easement from the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority.

With so many wonderful things wrapped up in pretty paper and bows this time of year, the focus of this week’s notes is the brown paper wrapper in windows from one end of Capitol Hill to the other. Pretty paper and more, below. Have a present for us? [email protected]

• What’s behind the paper in the windows hiding the scurrying work crews transforming the former Broadway home of Bailey Coy into a split retail and restaurant space? According to a handful of sources — and city paperwork on the $225,000 project — we’re getting a Samurai Noodle, the third location for the Phil Sancken-backed noodle houses. Sancken is best known for his Caffe Appassionato coffee brand. His Broadway neighbor in the new Bailey Coy “duplex” will be a tobacco shop, we’re told. Apparently one of the already-on-Hill locals. Smoke em if you got em.
• BTW, off the brown paper in windows theme, but we hear there’s another, possibly more ambitious noodle project heading our way. Details soon.

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• More papered windows can be found down on Summit Ave. Here’s the tip we received from CHS contributor MRK:
  

  Not sure if you’ve covered it yet, but according to someone named Danny who says he is an owner of the business, a new cafe coming is to the corner of Summit and Thomas.  It’s in a space that most recently housed a personal training studio, next to Thomas St. Bistro and down the street from the recently renovated Starbucks and the new cafe Arabica.  There is a lot of construction work being done inside, and the sidewalk in front was just ripped up and replaced.  My guess is it’s a new Herkimer Coffee location (currently in Phinney Ridge and Ravenna), as their van was out front.

  We can’t tell you much about Analog Coffee because owner Danny Hanlon hasn’t returned our messages. Shocking, yes? He’s also busy as the manager at Magnolia’s Upper Crust Bakery. In the meantime, the paper was still up last we checked but a bunch of work appears to be near completion as construction fences around the space have been pulled down.

• You want more papered windows? CC Attle’s papered-over East Olive Way space now has a sign touting an early 2011 opening. Just down the way from CC’s, the old Quizno’s has a fresh lining of paper blocking the view of work being done to transform the space for a project called the Bleu Bistro Grotto. Up on 15th Ave East, the paper was getting downright droopy in the old space that Tilden used to call home. New paper is up and construction permits have been issued for the $125,000 buildout of Caffe Vita and Pizza Vita that we reported way back in July. You’ll also find paper along north Broadway as Asanova is apparently still taking shape and, again on 15th Ave East as The Shop Agora’s buildout is completed. No restaurant or bar incoming at the former home of East Pike’s City Home Store but landlord (and CHS advertiser!) Chip Ragen already has the all-important paper in the windows and tells CHS is open to a reinvention of the space.
• Any other papered windows we’re forgetting to update or, gasp, not aware of?
• OK, yeah, Eltana bagels and Varro lounge count. But we give up trying to predict when they are going to open other than “soon.”
• Nagle’s Rock Box karaoke got its liquor license approved and is working hard to be open this Thursday, 12/16. We change what we want to sing for CHS’s first song: “Nothing Compares 2 U” while we look into all of your eyes, quivering.
• Nope, we don’t know what the status of the Q nightclub project is that we reported on earlier this year. We’re checking on the status of the 12th and Pike project.
• Belltown evacuee The Local Vine has some special holiday events planned including a New Year’s party. Vino Verite says its upcoming port/champagne tasting is nearly sold out.

Lumpia Land. Cap Hill. Ask for Jesse. It’s legit. :), originally uploaded by Special*Dark.
• Speaking of NYE and special holiday events, we’re putting together lists of Christmas Eve and New Year’s dinners for the Hill. We know of a few like TidBit and Olivar who are serving both nights. Let us know if your restaurant has something special planned — [email protected] or add a comment to this post
• New street food alert: Leilani’s Lumpia Land has made a home in the paid parking lot across the street from Machiavelli at Pine and Melrose. Most love it. $1 lumpia drunk food seems like an obvious hit. We’ll have more on the stand soon, hopefully.
• Speaking of street food, Marination Mobile is staying on the road but also making a permanent home on Capitol Hill.
• There’s a Bakon Vodka holiday party at Liberty Bar tonight (Monday)
• Andrew Sullivan fans say check out Seattle — and specifically, the Canterbury — for some of the best corner pubs in the USA.
• Seattle Times has ended its Coffee City column.
• We joked that the American Artificial Limb Company would make a great front for a speakeasy and got a few “tips” from readers about an “actual” underground club near the AALC. Sorry to break it to you, kids, but the Electric Tea Garden has gone legit. It applied for a liquor license in September.
• Over on our sister site the Central District News, a look at Twilight Exit two years after its move from Madison into the heart of the CD. They’re talking kids and brunch, what?
• CHS neighbor beesknees has a dream, just needs a Hill space in which to live it:
  

  Taking a chance to see if anyone out there has a sliver of a space to lease or sub-lease for a small, creative, take-out concept on the Hill. We’ve inquired on quite a few spaces, but a.) they’d already been leased, or b.) required too many changes to convert into a restaurant. Our frustrations in finding a suitable space have brought us to posting this ad in the off-chance that you are here to find a tenant. Ideally, the space would be in or near Pike/Pine corridor and already have a class I hood in solid, inspection-passing condition. Your new tenants would include a CIA-trained chef and a former ad agency peon with a good idea, integrity, and plenty of motivation to make our idea work.

  So, maybe you’re just done dealing with dirty hipsters, or you’re thinking of retiring, or you have some extra space in your existing restaurant that you’re willing to part with? We’re open to space-sharing ideas as well. Please send us an e-mail about the space you have in mind and let’s talk. Thanks!

• Pike Street Fish Fry is doing its monthly free fries thing this Friday — plus a special holiday bonus. Free Polaroids with Santa. Meanwhile, way out in New York City, Fish Fry and Via Tribunali are still planning their East Coast outposts.

This summer’s $2 million acquisition of empty lots at the corner of Federal and Republican was just the start of the work required to bring a new green space to this part of Capitol Hill. The community group formed to push this work forward and help guide the city’s park process is meeting Monday night at the Capitol Hill library to discuss this process and plans to put the empty space to use in the interim. Details on the meeting and a few park updates, below.

Neighbor Jeff sent some of the latest FedRep news our way. The community group’s mission, he says, is to recommend uses for the future park to the parks department. He says the group now has some funding from the city and is hiring a consultant. As Jeff puts it, the group is entering “the serious discussion phase” of the project. You can learn more about FedRep park here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FedRepPark/

We are meeting tonight at 6:30 to 7:30 in the meeting room upstairs in the Capitol Hill Library. 

We are meeting to plan the strategy for getting the word out for the formal community meetings the city requires.  We are also planning future fundraisers for park development, interim uses until the city decides on the formal uses, working with the architect who will create the formal park  and how to get the word out in the future.   

MONDAY DECEMBER 13th at 6:30 PM
Capitol Hill Library
Upstairs Meeting Room
Harvard Ave E & E Republican

Police searched Pike/Pine early Sunday morning after a man snatched a woman’s purse near Pike and Broadway and sprinted away.

The robbery occurred after last call just after 2:20 AM. No medics were called to the scene.

The woman described her attacker as a black male, 5’10, wearing a black leather jacket and a fuzzy hat. He was carrying her beige bag as he ran east on Pike. Police found a man matching the suspect description near the bathrooms at Cal Anderson Park but the woman told officers he was not the man who had robbed her and the search continued.

According to police radio, the suspect was not located.

Meanwhile, Friday evening also saw a street robbery in the area, fortunately also without injury. The victim reported to police that his coat was stolen by a man as he walked near Jefferson and Broadway just south of Seattle University just before 5:30 PM. The suspect in that incident also could not be located.

Last year, hundreds of jolly St. Nicks gathered in Cal Anderson Park as Santarchy 2009 started on Capitol Hill. This year, you might think we’re spared the egg nogg-y fun — Santacon 2010 starts in Fremont this Saturday — but you pretty much have to expect the crowd will make it to the streets of Pike/Pine before the night is over. We’ll be around to find out who’s naughty and who’s nice.

Meanwhile, we’re expecting this guy to make a killing — from the CHS Classifieds, you can buy an Anti-Claus hat featuring “black velveteen, white trim, an extra long point, and bling-ed up with a small skull medallion.” 20 bucks. Ho ho ho.

Seattle Police talked to a man threatening to jump from a Summit Ave window Sunday afternoon eventually convincing the man to come back inside his third floor apartment.

Medics were called to the scene because the man also told police he had swallowed an entire bottle of medication.

Around 4:15 PM, a passerby phoned 911 to report the man hanging out of the building’s window and acting “out of it.” Police talked with the man and called a negotiator to the scene as well as Seattle Fire. The officers were eventually able to talk the man back inside after about a half hour.

We have no further details on the man’s condition at this time.

I didn’t run across any Pineapple Express-themed food or drink specials on the hill yesterday (missed opportunity!), so I’m doing-it-myself in order to fully lean into the wet weekend weather. Menu is simple, fast, and uses ingredients from the closest grocery store.

Pineapple Express Special

• Basil Pineapple Martini 
• Spinach Salad with Pineapple and Pine Nuts [1]
• Pan-Grilled Salmon with Duke’s Canoe Club Tropical Salsa
• PIneapple Upside Down Cake [2]

Do you have a favorite pineapple recipe? Whipping up your own Pineapple Express menu? Tell us in the comments. 

Pulling on my rainboots, groping for the umbrella at the back of the closet, and heading to the store. Wish me luck.

[1] Spinach Salad: Baby spinach, thinly sliced red onion, gorgonzola (or mediterranean-flavored feta), pan-toasted pine nuts, pineapple bits. Toss with Briane’s Red Vinagrette dressing.

[2] Eat wheat free? For those who watch their wheat, Betty Crocker offers gluten-free mixes.