Nightlife Safety, or How Not To Get Shot At Munchbar

To those of you in disbelief that a deadly shooting could take place at a trashy bar/nightclub in Bellevue (Munch Sports Grill), let me teach you a lesson about trashy nightclubs: they tend to draw a dangerous crowd. As a result, your chance of getting shot there is MUCH, MUCH HIGHER than if you had gone out to the Irish pub across the street. This regrettable occurrence should come as a surprise to no one. If you value your life, you might consider avoiding the following venues:

-Munchbar
-Blue Martini
-Belltown Billiards
-Club Sur
-Most nightclubs in Pioneer Square

If you’re not sure whether the bar you’re going to is dangerous or not, a rule of thumb is that if you answer ‘Yes’ to two of the following questions, you should head elsewhere:

1) Is there a dancefloor inside the venue?
2) Is there particularly loud music anywhere inside the venue?
3) Is the venue charging a cover?

It is unfortunate that we all need to make conscious decisions in order to avoid danger, however, in that respect, choosing a nightlife venue is no different than selecting a mountain to climb: if you choose to climb Mount Everest (or go out to a nightclub full of lowlifes), you should expect a certain amount of risk (and even death).

More unfortunate still is that those who enjoy dancing must be extra vigilant. Is dancing something that people should be afraid to do? Of course not! Unfortunately though, dancefloors and loud music tend to attract trouble, and just because you wish things were different does not make it so.

Please stay safe and consider where you go partying before you get yourself into unwanted trouble.

Breakfast at Volunteer Park Café

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This delightful creation is a strata (a cousin of quiche) filled with mushrooms and ham. I think it had some sweet cream/milk added to the egg mixture, adding just enough flavor and depth to make it unique, but not to overpower the senses (or the other flavors).

Coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters (some of the best brew in town).

Volunteer Park Cafe

1501 17th Ave E (NE Capitol Hill)

Seattle, WA 98112

206.328.3155

Tully’s Get’s a Lifeline, Death Sentence

Tully’s Coffee, a regional (Western USA) chain of coffeeshops based in Seattle, is a failure. Its CEO, Tom O’Keefe, has always pursued growth when he should’ve been pursuing profitability. Tullys’ has been unprofitable (operationally) every year since it was founded in 1992. Its retail expansion has been fueled by debt, which has often been provided by business partners — partnerships that eventually failed.

Recently, O’Keefe has pushed a deal to sell Tully’s only profitable operation, its wholesale coffee arm, for some $40 million in order to pay off their old business partner in Tully’s Asia, Mr. Ueshima, and give Tully’s extra cash to revitalize its retail business. If the deal doesn’t go through, O’Keefe says, Tully’s will go out of business, and investors will be left with nothing. Shareholders have voted, and, unsurprisingly, have gone along with Mr. O’Keefe’s plan to sell the wholesale business. They’ve robbed Peter (or rather, themselves) to pay Paul.

Though the deal benefits Tully’s cash position, it does nothing about the company’s real problem: its leader.

Tom O’Keefe has done anything in his power to maintain control over Tully’s. His leadership ensures that Tully’s will continue to throw away money toward growth in the future, and fail to pursue profitability today.

Tully’s is inevitably going to fail.

The only possibility the business had of continuing as a going concern was to reorganize in bankruptcy court. Bondholders would’ve come out the other side of reorganization as equity holders, leaving Mr. O’Keefe high and dry. Those bondholders could hire a new management team that would institutionalize profitability via cost-savings. A local employer would stay in business. Instead, power been consolidated by the dreamer, the man who couldn’t find sustainability if it was tattooed to his forehead.

Tully’s Coffee shareholders approve sale of wholesale business – Seattle Times

Pizza

North Korean Dear Leader Kim Jong Il has accomplished a miracle: Pizza in Pyongyang.

It has taken almost 10 years of work, but North Korea has acquired the technology to launch a project very dear to its leader’s heart—the nation’s first “authentic” Italian pizzeria.

For those of you keeping score at home:

New York, center of capitalism: 1,520 pizza joints
Pyongyang, communist hermit kingdom: 1 pizza joint

And the Pyongyang v. New York pizza smack-down above doesn’t even take into account per capita figures. New York has 9 million residents. North Korea has 24 million (starving) residents. Thus this charming contrast:

Despite the food shortages high-quality Italian wheat, flour, butter and cheese are being imported to ensure the perfect pizza is created every time.

Kim Jong Il’s plan to provide pizza for the toiling masses of North Korea seems to have worked out better than his earlier plan to alleviate food shortages by breeding imported giant rabbits, which was aborted when the greedy Dear Leader decided to eat the initial batch of rabbits himself.

Kimchi Pizza? – Reason Magazine

Paseo Now in Ballard

Paseo has reigned as king of sandwiches for years now, and now they’ve got a new location in Ballard:

Paseo (Ballard)
6226 Seaview Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107

Paseo (Fremont)
4225 Fremont Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 545-7440

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Cuban pork sandwiches.

Paseo in Ballard

Beware of lines.

Friday Evening

Mini Burgers (10/10, $3.00) with BBQ sauce and sautéed onions, Satellite Lounge, 1118 E Pike Street
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Ceiling detail at Del Rey, 2332 1st Avenue

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Recipe: Mylanta Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

My girlfriend is a nurse, and we’re constantly integrating all of the sample medications she gets at work into our cuisine.

Next time you need to whip up a fantastic dessert, try making Mylanta Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.

There’s also a Pepto Bismol-flavored ice cream. Highly recommended.

I’m thinking about cooking with Tylenol. Acetaminophen-coated brownies are at the top of my list.

Recipe will be up soon.

Night At The Elysian

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A friend had his birthday at the Elysian Brewery in Capitol Hill last night, and I was lucky enough to be able to sample their Night Owl Pumpkin Ale. It’s brewed with 150 lbs. of pumpkin in each batch, green and roasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin in the mash. They spice it with nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger and allspice, so it ends up tasting like pumpkin pie, rich and smooth.

1221 E. Pike St.
Seattle, WA 98112
(206) 860-1920

Pacific Northwest Ballet: All Balanchine

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Last night, I took a date to see PNB’s All Balanchine, which featured music from Vivaldi, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky with choreography by the infamous George Balanchine, one of the founders of Amerian ballet. Before the show, we went out to a new Belltown favorite, Tavolàta.

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We had handmade mozzarella with red peppers in a striking artichoke sauce, and finished with a plate of fettuccine that came with onions and bacon. Both were mindblowing; kudos to my date for forcing me to try the mozzarella, I would’ve never thought of ordering it and it turned out to be remarkable. Overall, our meal at Tavolàta was fantastic. ****.

Lunch In Paris at the Louvre

Meeting up with my mother this morning in Paris, she’d decided on eating at Café Marly, a chic eatery perched on the side of the Musée de Louvre, mere paces from I. M. Pei’s famed glass pyramid. We people-watched from our table…I ordered a delicious Croque Monsieur; my mother, an omelette with spinach. Here’s to good food, wherever you find it.