As followers of my Twitter or Tumblr know, I spent last Wednesday night in the UWMC ER. Why, you might ask?

I’ll be damned if I know. I mean, I know, but I don’t actually remember the circumstances. Here’s what I remember: sitting at the bar at Cafe Presse, NOT BEING DRUNK AT ALL (this is key to the story), feeling woozy, getting up to go to the bathroom, waking up on the floor unable to see but laughing it off, then waking up again on the floor, this time with my head cradled by a bartender and my face bleeding.

Turns out I passed out. Twice. At Cafe Presse. And fell into a rack of glasses. And broke one, which cut my face. (I look like I was in some awesome brawl.)

But you know what? The Cafe Presse bar staff was absolutely awesome. Like I said, one of the bartenders sat on the floor with me and cradled my head until the ambulance came. The other bartenders huddled around and examined my cuts and bruises, keeping me talking and keeping me company. One of them called an ambulance almost immediately, and they kept watching me until I was carried away on a stretcher.

A stretcher! I know!

So I just want to send out a big thank you to Cafe Presse for their general awesomeness in a crappy situation. You guys rule, and you will definitely be getting lots more of my business once I get over my profound embarrassment. If you haven’t been, look them up for awesome French food, late night and early morning hangouts, and best of all, genuine human concern.

I don’t know about you, but this kind of news gives me the vapors: Hannah Levin is reporting on Reverb that Chop Suey has been sold to an as yet unnamed Japanese company. No word on what that means for anything, building- or booking-wise, but considering all of the trouble they’ve been having with crotchety noise complaints, it’s anxious news.

Last night I was talking to an old Crocodile employee who mentioned that the Croc’s building is back up for sale for $100,000 more than what it was originally up for, which seems a little insane, and I’m not sure how well Neumos is recovering from their capacity changes. Maybe everything will turn out fine and I’m just clutching my pearls prematurely, but then, maybe not.

Back when Stix first opened in South Lake Union I went over and took a look and decided it wasn’t my scene [mb]. It went through a bit of a remodel and tried on a few new looks, but given a choice for where to go for an after-work drink, I will always pick the Mars Bar over anywhere else in the neighborhood.

It looks like I wasn’t the only one who never warmed up to the place, because The Southlake is pointing out that the joint is for sale. From the listing:

“BUSINESS CLOSED, SELLER MOTIVATED!!!! Rare opportunity to aquire a first class restaurant and billiards club facility, located on the shore of South Lake Union near downtown Seattle. Built out brand new just 2 years ago, this facility is located next to the south end station of the new South Lake Union Trolly line, and across from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center….The facility includes a full kitchen, multiple pool tables, a private room with deck, and a very large and contemperary bar. A new owner can easily convert to a full service restaurant, club, catering facility, or ??????.”

So I guess if you’re in the market for a pool hall with a view, this is your chance. I wish someone would come in and make it something that doesn’t match Joey’s and Chandler’s and all of those. Bonus points to the buyer if they sell piroshkis or turn it into a Chik-Fil-A franchise filled with pool tables. If you do that I will visit you all of the time.

What’s your favorite bar grub? I adore the sweet potato fries at Smith (Capitol Hill) and have fond memories of happy hour at Dragonfish back when I used to attend happy hours.

This is the pitcher that Smith (Capitol Hill) served us on Saturday. For a new(ish) business, I was pretty surprised.

This past Saturday NOFX stopped off at the Showbox Sodo for their second to last show on the second leg of their 2008 tour. It’s nice to see NOFX doing some club type shows instead of big Warped Tour festivals like they normally do these days.

The doors opened at 8:30pm, and we showed up sometime after 10pm. Were able to catch No Use For A Name, however we missed the opening band American Steel. I’ve seen NUFAN a number of times and they’re not a bad band, however I’m not a fan. There’s just nothing about them that jumps out at me. The crowd was into them and they played their “hit” ‘Justified Black Eye’ that was on one of those Fat Wreck Chords compilations.

NOFX came on stage shortly after 11:30pm to the song ‘Welcome to Jamrock’ by Damian Marley. They opened with ‘Dinosaurs Will Die’, which was a bit of a surprise, but a good one for sure. Their set was a nice mix of old and new songs. They’ve been a band for over 20 years, so they have a lot of material. They also played my favorite cover of ‘Radio’ by Rancid ever. In fact, I have to say I like their cover version more than the original. It’s just a lot more fun. There was the typical NOFX chatter between every single song. Fat Mike spent a lot of time talking about his disdain for children, religion and the state of politics these days. They played ‘Murder The Government’ but not ‘Idiot Son of an Asshole’ (a song about our current president). They also dedicated ‘Whoops I OD’d’ to a local kid who was a big fan of theirs who died of an overdose. I saw one of the kid’s friends there holding up a memorial t-shirt during the song. It was pretty cool. They were only supposed to play until 1am, but ended up going over that by a bit and ended closer to 1:30.

All in all the show was great. NOFX had an insane amount of energy, even though Fat Mike kept going on about how drunk he was and how he felt like he was cheating the audience because he couldn’t play so well. The only thing is, I don’t like Showbox Sodo very much. The place was packed and when there are hundreds of people jammed in there it gets really gross as the night goes on. For a rather large, open space it gets really hot and damp and at the end of the night the floor is all wet and there is condensation dripping from the pipes in the ceiling. Not to mention, if you’re on the shorter side, it’s hard to find a good vantage point to watch the show.

*Special thanks to Shawn for the crappy camera phone picture.

This was my experience of the new tequila bar in Capitol Hill.  

-Went to The Saint on Friday night. It was early, maybe around 10ish. There were about 15 people inside, including my clan of 4.

-Paid $19 (not including tip) on one shitty drink and one good one. Personally, I think this is too expensive for drinks, but I hardly drink so I have no idea how pricing goes these days.

-The shitty drink was the Mojito. When I asked for it, the bartender gasped. She told me she really wasn’t sure how to make one properly, but gave it a go anyway. This is not something you want to hear when you’re about to pay $8 on a drink, but I waited to see what her concoction would be like. It was shitty.

-She then noticed my hatred for her shitty drink and had someone else make. Someone who was, as she quoted, a “Mojito Master”. I tried it again. It was still shitty. I decided to shut up and drank my shitty $8 drink in peace.

-The margarita was better. Get that.

-We wanted desert. We did not want flan. They ran out of all their deserts (at 10ish pm!) and only had flan. We did not get desert.

-The colors and motif were nice, refreshing and cool (not cool as in rad, cool as in the paint was blue and white, giving it a breezy, beachy feel, not a matador, killing bulls feel).

-The matador themed pictures seemed out of place somehow.

-The price of the food looked expensive. I just had oxtail an hour earlier, so I didn’t waste my money on overly priced tacos. When I went outside and a drunk girl asked if this place was expensive, I said yes. Especially the tacos. She then tells me that Tacos Gringos is the way to go. I haven’t been to this place, but I’m skeptical (especially with the Gringos part). I don’t think I’m willing to go behind Rancho Bravos back just yet. I have some values after all.  

-I secretly wanted wings.

-I wasn’t overly impressed, but could see myself coming back because it wasn’t too loud or jampacked. This could either mean it’ll be a good date place after eating at Dinette. Or it’ll become something else in 6 months.

After much delay at the border I arrived in Seattle just as the last of the rush hour traffic was dying off. Driving via memorized Google guidance, I leave the I5 in search of my hotel The Roosevelt. As I’m checking in I get upgraded from a single room to a queen, which upon inspection seems to simply mean that my bed is larger because the room itself is tiny.

I debate phoning down to the front desk to inquire as to which Roosevelt the hotel is named after, I need to know these things if I’m going to dress appropriately for the evening since Franklin and Theodore are very different styles. A Google search lets me know that it is Theodore, so I don’t bother unpacking my monocle.

My friend, also named Jeff, meets me about an hour later. We’re friends from high school, and he’s one of the few of my friends who’ve made a move to the United States and managed to make it stick. He works in Redmond, but lives in Seattle so I trust him with our evening plans.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have, we end up at Von’s a fake New York style bar that’s attached to the hotel. Yes, my local Seattle Sherpa had guided me to the hotel bar.

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_{photo courtesy of Jasmine Restaurant & Lounge}

The SeattleTimes‘ food writer, Nancy Leson, was one of many local restaurant critics who received a mass email from local foodie and designer Scott Surdyk. In his scathing message, Surdyk chastised them for not heaping praise on local restaurants who aim for a more contemporary design. [times]

I’m an acolyte design geek and am distracted to annoyance by overwrought decor. Classically designed restaurants like Fremont’s 35th Street Bistro seem perfect to me.

Hey, remember when the 500 block of East Pine was full of vibrant night life in unremarkable and frequently wobbly (mostly) one-story buildings? The rock and the hard place of change and gentrification have finally come through and knocked the whole thing down. This afternoon it was a sadly soaked block made of rubble, cans, old receipts, graffiti, and hazy but fond memories. Shortly, it’ll all be cleared to make way for condos, so if you want to take a piece home with you, now is the time.