Author Archives: Lael Henterly

About Lael Henterly

Lael Henterly is a Seattle-based freelance journalist who loves to cover crime, cannabis and culture.

Capitol Hill — plus booze and ‘auto-bio’ admissions — at center of cartoonist’s work

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(Images courtesy Tatiana Gill)

Autobiographical cartoonist Tatiana Gill spent a large chunk of her life drunk — the unhealthy, embarrassing, blackout kind of drunk that you don’t remember in the morning.

“My drink of choice was two drinks: whiskey with a beer back,” Hill resident and occasional CHS contributor Gill said. Alcohol fueled her creative pursuits — and also became her subject matter.

Gill grew up on Capitol Hill and has been here on and off her whole life. She grew up reading TinTin and Archie comics and was influenced and inspired by comics from a young age. In middle school she became interested in Marvel comics like X-Men; in high-school she started reading comics from Fantagraphics and other underground publishers. It was around that time that Gill set her sights on a career as a cartoonist, a focus that continued through her years at Evergreen State College.

This month, things come full circle for Gill as the Capitol Hill artist is slated to appear at Georgetown’s Fantagraphics store on November 14 to promote her latest work.

Gill launched her career as a cartoonist in the mid-1990s, doing mostly illustration. She simultaneously consumed copious quantities of alcohol. She didn’t consider her drinking a problem — her sweet spot for drawing came after a drink or two. From there it often felt like the drinks were helping, though after three or four she acknowledges that was probably an alcohol-fueled delusion. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill food+drink | A new start at Poco

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The Turners (Image courtesy Poco)
(Image: CHS)
(Image: CHS)

It all began about six months ago when Tramale Turner noticed a clandestine post advertising the sale of a mysterious wine bar. The post included pictures of the space and Tramale’s wife Jackie immediately recognized the oddly shaped room with the loft-like mezzanine level as E Pine’s Poco Wine + Spirits.

Jackie and Tramale made a few clandestine visits to Poco and liked what they found.

“We wanted to see if it was something we saw ourselves doing,” Jackie said. “The staff were wonderful, kind and friendly; they seemed like a little family.” Continue reading →

‘Something to get motivated’ — Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival turns 20

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Jason Plourde with director Sarah Waters (Image: Three Dollar Bill Cinema)

After attending a gay film festival in San Francisco’s in the early 1990s, artist Skylar Fein knew he wanted to create the same kind of celebration in Seattle. He tested the waters in 1995 then held the first Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1996. Since then the SLGFF has grown into a Capitol Hill tradition. This year, more than 10,000 people are expected to attend the festival’s 20th anniversary.

The reels get rolling Thursday with a showing of Freeheld at the SIFF Cinema Egyptian.

“It’s something to get motivated, this bittersweet story about a woman dying and a fight for basic civil rights,” says Three Dollar Bill Cinema executive director Jason Plourde. “It’s also a reminder of how far we’ve come as a community and a movement.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill food+drink | Goodbye Corretto, hello Workhorse Cafe — UPDATE: Buon pomeriggio, Corretto

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IMG_3084UPDATE 3:30 PM: We have weird jobs here making CHS exist. Working with other human beings to learn their stories and share them on the blog means getting into all the quirks and peculiarities that make the world go ’round. So, we shouldn’t have been surprised when James Orr told us this story, below, was great — and, oh yeah, we’ve decided after a week to go back to just being Corretto. “Not sure how to spin it without making me look like an idiot,” Orr said. We won’t go that far, James. In fact, we have to thank you. This makes for one of the weirdest CHS episodes yet. The details about Orr and how he fits in with his uncle’s partnership and how he hopes to shape Corretto going forward remain the same, he said. It’s just the Workhorse part you can set aside. The new name is coming down. Corretto is sticking around.
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Jason Orr of Workhorse Cafe (Image: )

Jason Orr of Workhorse Cafe (Image: Lael Henterly)

Original post: To passersby it may seem that the space at 416 Broadway E has been going through something of an identity crisis in recent years. First it went from the popular trattoria Panevino to the ambitious Italian restaurant / coffee shop / bar Corretto. Then last week Corretto’s new owner, Jason Orr, propped up a sandwich board in front of the business emblazoned with the name Workhorse Cafe.

“Twenty people texted me like, ‘what just happened?’,” says Orr, who took over Corretto this summer. “We considered shutting down for week or two and completely redoing everything, but we decided we didn’t want to do that because we’d lose a lot of the current clientele and so we wanted to do this piece by piece so people get used to the name and realize the food is still going to be on par.”

Orr is new to the Capitol Hill food and drink scene — and to Seattle. After seven years ascending the corporate ladder Orr realized he had been far happier working as a bartender. Then he got a call from his uncle, James Duvall, the proprietor of CafĂŠ on the Ave in the University District.

“My uncle said he had found a place out here that had a lot of potential and he was like, ‘Do you want to go in and buy this place and run it?’ I was like, ‘Of course!’,” says Orr. “So I got rid of all my stuff and came out here.” Continue reading →