Before you jump into our pile of hill-related links, a quick note about a nifty little upgrade to the site. While I’m still working on the total overhaul of the CHS design (working, working, working on the Internets. You can’t see work on the Internet until it’s ready! But it will look something like this), Neighborlogs has added a nice feature at the top of every post that allows you to easily page back and forth in the post stream. Enjoy!
And, oh yeah, I do plan on having a beer tonight with the gals from cap to the hill — stop by Moe Bar around 5p and say hey.
- The MSFT axe has fallen. Or will fall. 5k over the next year. 1,400 today. Hope you aren’t in the mix. Judging by the steamy windows of the Connectors — and a lot of my neighbors — there are a lot of ‘Softies on the hill.
- Chop Suey suspects plead not guilty. Only one of the alleged conspirators charged with murder — the guy allegedly at the heart of the feud that left one dead and two wounded charged with drug possession.
- CHS sponsor The Capitol Hill Handyman gets Daily Candy Love. I get a kick out of seeing the Handyman’s trucks zipping around the hill to tackle a ‘handy’ project.
- Olivar adds brunch. I’m such a cynic. Whenever I see brunch announcements, my mind automatically turns to thoughts of struggles and a business trying to increase its revenue stream. I have not idea if that is the case for Olivar. Can somebody who knows the restaurant biz brush my cynicism away?
- Seattlest visits the one man band that is Thomas St. Bistro — and, Seattlest says, at those prices, it can’t complain.
- Can’t help but think of Tackleberry and Hightower. SPD seeks citizen candidates for Community Police Academy. I wanna be Bobcat Goldthwait.
- Speaking of wholesome entertainment, it’s time to sign up your boys and girls for Seattle Central Little League. Mom, Dad, you have until Feb. 28 but if you wait that long, you are a bad parent. Every child deserve the opportunity to strike out in front of a crowd, be terrified beneath a pop fly and, yes, occasionally hit the game winning triple.
You’re not a cynic – in fact Bourdain in his No Reservations book considers it part of the death spiral of a restaurant. Though with Olivar, it has always been busy whenever I’ve visited and they seem to be doing well. So perhaps brunch is a way to capitalize on their success.
Bourdain, while insightful, is not always right.
Brunch is a Pacific Northwest institution. Before I moved here, everyone I knew when I was visited wanted to go out to brunch. It is what you do on a saturday and a sunday here. Food cost for a brunch is significantly less (eggs, pastries, some bacon, all cost a lot less than what you would see on a dinner menu, and also keep longer vs fresh fish or meats), and people usually have places to go afterwards so you have short table times.
So you got lower cost, faster table turnover and an established ritual for a good chunk of the Seattle urban population. It is stupid for an establishment not offer brunch from the beginning. Now why a restaurant would start offering it after the fact could very much be that they aren’t getting the tables and numbers that they hoped, and extending hours and offering something like brunch is an easy fix for that.
Bourdain’s complaint is more rooted in that brunch has been established as very specific things (eggs benedict, waffles, pancakes, scramble) that unless there is actual though to excel and be unique in what they are doing, the restaurant is just turning into an IHOP for the morning hours to keep the lights on.
So a struggling restaurant may use brunch, but a restaurant offering brunch may not be struggling.
The book was Kitchen Confidential. Mrzarquon – I agree with you that Bourdain is not always right. In fact when he insults vegetarians, he’s insulting billions of people (many Hindus are exclusively vegetarian and have been that way for millenia).
I have heard great things about Olivar, so you know I’ll be heading there as soon as Brunch starts. My brunch standbys on Cap Hill so far are Artemis, Table 219 and 22 Doors. All are worth trying if you haven’t, yet!
Bear a thought today for any Microsoft peeps who are foreign nationals on an employer sponsored visa and get pink-slipped today. Depending on their immigration situation they can have as little as 10 days to leave the United States. Goodbye job, goodbye friends, goodbye life.
It’s not always disastrous though. If you have fallen in love and built a life here, you can always get married and get on the fast-track green-card and U.S. Citizenship train.
No, wait. For foreign nationals in long term same-sex relationships, of whom around 20% are raising children under 18 years, a layoff like this can be a one-way trip to hell. Same-sex domestic partnerships, civil unions and same-sex marriages have no federal status in immigration issues.
Imagine losing your job, being forced to leave your home, and then having to figure out if you can (or even should) bring your spouse/partner and kids back to your country of citizenship. Now imagine finding the same crappy immigration laws in that country as they have here.
You can’t stay here, but they can’t come with you.
Getting laid off is bad for everyone, but for foreign nationals in same-sex relationships it can be a litany of pain and separation that ruins not just one or two lives, but whole families.
PLEASE:
– Support the passage of the Uniting American Families Act would allow U.S. Citizens to sponsor their same-sex partner/spouse for permanent residence and ultimately U.S. Citizenship.
– Support the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act as a necessary first step to allow all U.S. Citizens to marry the person they love and protect their children.
– Support the passage of a federally recognized relationship status that covers same-sex couples and their families and that is valid under immigration law.
Brunch at 22 Doors is awesome. The service is also much better than dinnertime (it’s abysmal in the evenings).
Olivar is doing great and Chef Philippe has been planning brunch since the place opened in July. He just wanted to get the hang of things first and make sure he has the right staff.
He decided that it’s time now.