May 21, 2005
Through a glass, Darclee
Hundreds of thousands of kids are graduating from college this month, but only the skilled, the fortunate and the lucky few will find the perfect job. What job is that, you ask? A job that can't be outsourced, a job with seemingly unlimited openings: coffee house guitar player.
Yes, even here in Belltown, where we pride ourselves in doing things differently, where you're not likely to hear the twangy chords and plaintive lyrics to "House of the Rising Sun," we see the evidence: hand-lettered signs announcing live music (pick your time, name your day) inside traditional diners and newly-minted espresso stands.
Latest example: Cafe Darclee, a comfortable new creperie at Fisher Plaza. Guitar from 7 to 9 on Saturdays. Not that there's anything wrong with music, mind you. And Cafe Darclee has surely earned the right: it's named for a noteworthy Romanian soprano, Hariclea Darclee, whose verismo singing dazzled European opera houses at the end of the 19th century.
What sets Cafe Darclee apart isn't the music, though; it's the crepes. Genuine buckwheat crepes, just like you find in Brittany. Typical is a "Complete," a buckwheat crepe filled with eggs, cheese and ham, for $6.75.
The canal-side crepe stand in Brittany that I wrote about last month was charging just two euros, under three bucks. On the other hand, no live music. Just cows.
May 19, 2005
Urban Urrps
Who are these guys? Spate of busboards lately promoting something called Seattle Urban Pages "because you haven't moved to the suburbs." A 216-page directory calling itself the "guide for city dwellers." But sheesh, this is downright awful. The first piece of editorial copy lists Happy Hour spots in Belltown; one of them has been closed for months. Dozens and dozens of typos and outdated listings.
Should be better, more current online, right? Wrong. First sponsored link has a typo, next goes to a dot-com instead of the correct dot-net. Frustrating.
May 16, 2005
Wine wins!
Flash: US Supreme Court decides in favor of wine. Specifically, the court struck down a ban on interstate shipment of wine. Great news for small wineries, internet buysers, wine lovers everywhere.