With black and white photos of the two in Seattle’s notable spots, the restaurateurs hope to get enough votes to win Franey the Northwest and the country in Food & Wine Magazine’s new competition.
“We just thought, ‘how can we be creative here and get people to vote,’” said Mark Canlis. “It’s been a riot; it’s just been a lot of fun.”
There are a total of 14 photographs that will be released each day until voting ends March 1. One of the early shoots had the brothers on the top of the Space Needle in a harness braving cold temperatures and high winds.
“We were so high off adrenaline coming off the space needle in 50 mph winds,” said Canlis. “There were some nerves involved.”
The competition is year one of a joint effort from CNN food blog Eatocracy and Food & Wine Magazine, which nominates 10 chefs from 10 regions of the country and lets people vote for their favorite. The most votes in a region make a chef a finalist, of which there will be 10 in all, but the most votes in the country wins the title.
“We want people to vote for us because they believe in us, because we’re doing something creative,” said Canlis. “Because they respect who we are as a company and love that we’re trying to raise the bar of fine dining in the city, love that we’re trying to make this a food town, a food destination.”
The campaign, while garnering some media attention, is running solely on their Facebook page.
“It’s not so much an ad campaign as doing something fun with the city and social media,” Canlis said.
Adding a playful dimension to the Facebook campaign, Morse Code was inserted into the photographs that led to a secret website. The first 10 to the website (which took about six days) were given reservations and a free dinner at Canlis’s pop-up restaurant Hearth & Home held inside Macrina Bakery Queen Anne last weekend.
Their use of retro photographs with 21st century media herald the next generation of Canlis’s operation. Brian and Mark Canlis have been running the restaurant for five years now, and Chef Franey, the restaurant’s fifth chef in 60 years, has been at Canlis for a little over two years.
“I’m 36 and I’m the oldest person on my management team, it’s a young crew,” Canlis said. “We just thought to ourselves, ‘hey, we’re up for this award, how do we let people know it’s not your grandfather’s Canlis anymore.’”
Is crime on the rise in Queen Anne? According to SPD’s crime statistics, no, but some Queen Anne residents have been noticing a trend – in crimes and in repeat targets. Stacey writes:
I live on 1st Ave W and Denny Ave (Lower Queen Anne) and was wondering if you guys are hearing of an increase in robberies. Our building alone has been hit 3 times this week, from mail boxes being pried open, to cars being vandalized and storage bins robbed, and then last night all the open unit lock boxers were stolen, which contain entry keys. They think all in all it’s been around 2-3 people over the past week, seemingly with full building access. I’m curious to know if other buildings are having the same problems…
Another reader, Brandon, wrote in with a different kind of crime to report, one not uncommon to residents on the hill. He writes:
My neighbor had his car broken into Thursday/Friday between 11pm and 10am. There weren’t any signs of forced entry, though, which was surprising to both of us. In addition to his stereo face plate being stolen, every shred of paper including his garbage bag and his car’s
manual was taken. Sounds like the beginnings of an identity theft. This happened near W Emerson St. & 12th.
Have you noticed an uptick in crime in Queen Anne lately?
Thornton, 43, was found dead in a closet in her Belltown apartment on January 6, after being reported missing by her father. Concern over Thornton’s whereabouts arose after several friends were unable to reach her on New Years Eve, when she had planned to host a party.
According to a report by The Seattle Times, the suspect is a 40-year-old man. He was arrested in Seattle on Saturday morning with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, and has been booked for investigation of murder.
Starting today Seattle Parks and Recreation is asking patrons of all city community centers, including Queen Anne, to sign in before using the facilities or attending a meeting or activity on site. On the sign in form people will be asked to indicate their age group and time of arrival. From Parks and Rec:
The pilot project, which will last two weeks, will help Parks staff respond to a City Council directive to reconsider how community centers are operated. After two weeks Parks will evaluate the information and decide whether to extend it for 10 more weeks. The process, which includes public meetings to discuss with the community ideas for how centers can be run differently, began with a public meeting on February 2.
The directive comes in the context of the budget: the cost to run the 26 centers far exceeds revenue brought in from center programs. Because of the current difficult budget situation, Parks is exploring alternatives that would offer continued services for the public, while reducing costs, including new methods of management, staffing, fundraising, and partnerships. Learning the average age groups, frequency of visits, and numbers of people visiting community centers each day will help this work.
The newly completed Aurora Bridge suicide-prevention fence attracted memorials over the last week. Two memorials can be spotted on the western side of the Queen Anne half of the bridge.
One memorial contains a large note to two victims, big enough to be seen from passing cars on the road:
The $4.6 million suicide-prevention fence was completed Feb. 15. It is the latest and most ambitious attempt to respond to the problem of suicide jumpers from the bridge with the country’s second highest suicide rate.
Another mixed-use residential/retail building is in the planning stages for Lower Queen Anne, at 101 John Street. The proposed six-story development would include 25 residential unites and ground level retail/commercial space.
The development is adjacent to the Fiona Apartments, located on the same site. The site, at the corner of John Street and 1st Ave N, is currently the home of Rice ‘n Spice Thai and another building, both of which would be torn down to make way for the project.
The Department of Planning and Development has scheduled an early design guidance meeting on the plan for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16 at the Queen Anne Community Center (1901 1st Ave W, Room 3). From DPD:
The applicants have applied for Design Review related to development of this site. At the early design guidance meeting, the applicants will present information about the site and vicinity. The public may offer comments regarding the design and siting of a development on the subject site; and the Design Review Board members will also offer comments and identify those Citywide Design Guidelines of highest priority in developing the site.
For more information regarding this project application and the design review process, contact land use planner Lisa Rutzick at (206) 386-9049.
The Queen Anne Community Council’s Transportation Committee meetingon Wednesday evening devoted itself to discussing West Mercer Place concerns over the Mercer West Project. Transportation Chair Glenn Avery and Uptown Alliance Co-President John Coney answered questions on the project posed by West Mercer Place area representative Greg Thompson.
Coney spoke about the Seattle Department of Transportation’s presentation on the plans for Mercer West tentatively scheduled for the middle of March and encouraged West Mercer Place residents to attend Mayor McGinn’s town hall meeting in Magnolia on March 1. The public has an opportunity to sign up to speak for two minutes at this event.
The 40-minute meeting was held in Queen Anne Community Center at 7:30 p.m. A cold, slightly snowy night may have contributed to the small turnout – only five people were in attendance.
Because of budget cuts, Seattle Parks and Recreation will have to cut back the number of wading pools that are open this summer. So Parks is looking for “partners” to help fund some wading pools.
Seattle Parks currently has 25 wading pools, but 10 will close because of budget problems. (However, three of those are being converted to water spray parks, which don’t require staffing.) That leaves five wading pools that will be open seven days a week, and another 10 open three days a week.
Parks hopes to expand the schedule to increase family recreational opportunities in a way that is economically and geographically equitable. Some communities may be more organized or have different access to funding sources, so Parks would pair wading pools as a way to ensure balanced and equal recreational opportunities across our city. Under this partnership, Parks would keep the wading pool open one additional day each week in the neighborhood from which the funds came, and Parks would select a second site that the contribution would fund as well.
Opportunities include:
· Sponsoring two wading pools one day per week through the summer at a cost of $8,800
· Sponsoring two wading pools for three days per week during the last two weeks of summer at a cost of $6,600
· Sponsoring a one day wading pool operation for a special event at a cost of $650
· Receiving recognition on the Seattle Parks and Recreation website
· Sponsoring an unfunded wading pool three days per week through the summer
For more information, or for organizations interested in a partnership with Parks and Recreation to provide more access to wading pools this summer, please contact Bill Dougherty, 206-684-7185, bill.dougherty@seattle.gov, or Kathy Whitman, 206-684-7099, kathy.whitman@seattle.gov, no later than May 1, 2011.
The 40th annual Northwest Folklife Festival, taking place at Seattle Center over Memorial Day weekend from May 27 to 30, will have a special Bulgarian theme this year.
The organization chose Bulgaria for its cultural focus due to the large and growing Bulgarian community here in the Pacific Northwest. From Folklife:
The Bulgarian community is a growing part of the Balkan community in the Pacific Northwest, numbering around five thousand in the Seattle area alone.
In addition to the festival’s regular events (check out the full schedule here), the special programming this year will include a Bulgarian Community Celebration with a number of exhibits, talks and activities surrounding the region, peoples and culture. From Folklife:
The Bulgarian Community Celebration will include an exhibit of photographs taken in Bulgaria in the 1960s and 1970s; an afternoon concert by renowned traditional Bulgarian performers; a participatory dance featuring local Balkan and Bulgarian dance bands; as well as workshops, panel discussions, lectures, and children’s activities.
The photographs, Voices & Images from Bulgaria, 1966-1979, were taken by Martin Koenig, who first went to Bulgaria over forty years ago with a letter of introduction from Margaret Mead. He was initiated into the world of Bulgarian dance, began traveling to festivals and villages, and quickly realized that he was documenting a traditional agrarian culture that was undergoing radical industrial change. His images, and the text describing them, reveal a life that no longer exists. An exhibit catalog will be available for sale, and Koenig will give scheduled gallery talks during the Festival as well as participate in discussions of his fieldwork on the Narrative Stage.
Find more information on the events, exhibits and activities planned during the Bulgarian Community Celebration here.
For more details about the 2011 festival, check out Folklife’s new website. If you’re a teen or young adult artists interested in submitting your work to be featured in a collaborative show at the Ver(A)rt Gallery during the Folklife Festival this year, you can find details on how to apply (deadline is March 20) here.
The overnight snowfall may not have been the 2-6 inches forecasters warned us about, but there is a very light dusting of snow on the ground in Queen Anne this morning. The forecast calls for anywhere from a trace to 2 inches more later today.
With the temperature currently at 26 degrees, commuters are advised to keep an eye out for ice. Metro buses are on snow routes this morning, and Microsoft has canceled all its Connector routes. Here’s SDOT’s first report this AM:
Most city streets are bare and wet this morning. Crews from the Seattle Department of Transportation are treating major arterial streets to guard against the formation of ice in advance of the morning commute period. Snowfall last night was highly variable around the city. Beacon Hill, southern Rainier Valley, and higher parts of West Seattle appear to have had the most snow.
WSDOT crews have been busy treating the freeways. For the most part, traffic is moving smoothly. You can check the latest WSDOT traffic updates, the flow map and the full set of WSDOT cameras.
The Seattle Parks Foundation has released a report on the problems facing Seattle’s parks, in light of budget problems. The foundation is asking the public to take an online survey about finding stable funding for operations and maintenance of the park system.
The survey asks questions about your family’s park usage, whether you have or would consider volunteering to help clean up parks or teach programs at community centers, and your opinion on several possible park maintenance funding options. It takes about 10 minutes to complete.
Whole Foods Market stores in the Seattle-area raised 10.5 tons of food through its Bag Hunger Holiday food drive held last December. The donation, collected from the Interbay, Westlake, Roosevelt Square, Bellevue and Redmond stores, was delivered last week to regional charity organization Food Lifeline.
“Whole Foods Market makes regular donations of fresh food through Food Lifeline’s Grocery Rescue program and has taken our partnership to the next level by making us the beneficiaries of the Bag Hunger Holiday food drive,” Food Lifeline Corporate Relations Manager Ashley Gammell said in a statement. “This donation from Whole Foods Market and their generous customers will allow us to provide more than 15,500 nutritious meals to hungry individuals and families in Western Washington.”
From the Food Lifeline website:
Food Lifeline is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending hunger in Western Washington. Food Lifeline makes every penny count, and 94% of the food we receive from local, state and national contributors is donated.
These awards are handed out every year in recognition of the top-performing schools across the state, selected based on statewide assessment data collected over three prior consecutive years and analyzed using a school Accountability Index (.pdf). (Read up on the methodology here).
You can read more about the achievement award in the state’s award letter to John Hay here (.doc).
Metro Transit is gearing up for possible snow this afternoon by chaining up buses and planning to move from regular routes to snow routes.
Metro buses will move to snow routing as travel conditions change. When buses move to snow routes, it will be announced through Transit Alerts and on the Metro Online website. Check the status for your route before you travel.
Metro is using an online color-coded map to keep riders informed of the status of its bus service. All bus routes are assigned into one or more of seven geographic areas within King County. When there is snow or ice on the roads, the service status of each area will be color coded and displayed on the online map. Green indicates buses are operating on normal routes; yellow that some – but not all – routes in the area are on snow routes (primarily in higher elevation areas); and red tells you that all bus routes in the entire geographic area are on snow routing.
People without online access can call the Customer Information Office at (206) 553-3000. General information about service will also be sent out via the kcmetrobus Twitter account.
Expect buses to be crowded and significantly delayed when on snow routes and travel is difficult. Also, many people may leave work early today, so take that into consideration in deciding when to travel. Metro encourages people to limit travel if possible if roads become snowy and icy.
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is planning changes along Dexter Avenue N between Roy Street and Fremont Avenue N in 2011. This project is funded by the “Bridging the Gap” transportation levy approved by Seattle voters in November 2006 and is expected to help ease congestion caused by car, bus and bicyclist overlaps. This project will also improve the pavement condition by repaving the street.
Specifically the work is expected to:
Install a buffered bike lane on each side of the street
Remove the two-way left turn lane
Provide dedicated left-turn lanes at busy intersections
Provide dedicated load zones for businesses that need them
Provide in-lane bus stops to improve transit speed and reliability
Install dedicated bus islands
Install street lighting upgrades
Construct new and upgraded curb ramps
Construct sidewalk improvements
Install drainage upgrades
Roadwork is scheduled to begin in March and will begin just across the Fremont Bridge, spanning Fremont Avenue N (Fourth Avenue N) to McGraw Street. That phase is expected to last 2-3 months.
During construction, you can be expected to experience lane closures, left turn restrictions, pedestrian detours, parking and loading restrictions and instances of weekday and night work.
For more information on this project, visit the SDOT web site.
While there were only a few hours of stop-and-go snow flurries on the hill yesterday, with little stick, forecasts (from the Weather Service, Cliff Mass, and KING 5) for today are all calling for anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of snowfall in the Seattle area. As a result, a winter storm watch took effect beginning at 4 a.m. this morning.
In preparation for a big snowfall today, the City of Seattle has also activated its snow plan. Early in the morning, ten snow plows hit the north end of the city. At 9 a.m., the Seattle Department of Transportation went into “full 24-hour response plan to keep roads open, buses moving and critical emergency services accessible,” Rick Sheridan of SDOT writes. More from the release:
The response plan calls for deploying 30 trucks with plows, which will be prepositioned throughout the city in key locations such as elevated structures and certain trouble spots on major arterials. The department starting pre-treating major roadways with salt brine this afternoon in preparation for the storm. Additional details concerning SDOT’s response will be forthcoming as more information about the impending storm becomes available.
SDOT also reminds property owners that they are responsible for the sidewalks in front of their properties.
Mayor Mike McGinn says this storm could be like that of November 22, 2010. “Because Wednesday afternoon’s commute is expected to be difficult,” McGinn writes in a statement, “It may be a good day to work an alternate shift, telecommute or make other travel arrangements if possible.”
Metro Transit is also urging passengers to be prepared for the snow.
Wednesday’s snowfall may start out light in some areas, but transit users should plan ahead for bus trips that could be disrupted, delayed, and on snow routing. Even though weather in the morning may not be bad in your area, you should leave from a bus stop or park-and-ride that also has service when buses are on snow routes in case travel conditions deteriorate by the afternoon commute.
The Seattle alternative band will advance to the finals to compete against the upcoming winner of round one and upcoming round three, EMP announced Tuesday. Second place went to Kirkland hip-hop duo Kung Foo Grip, who competes with the other two runner-ups for the wildcard spot in the finals by an EMP’s Youth Advisory Board vote.
The third round of the semifinals will be held this Saturday, February 26 at EMP’s Level 3. Performing will be:
Tickets are $10 for the general public and $7 for students or EMP members.
The three winners of the semifinals and the selected wildcard band will advance to the finals at EMP’s Sky Church on March 5. The winner of the Sound Off! title will receive a performance slot at Bumbershoot 2011, a live on-air performance on 107.7, studio time and gear from KORG.
Sound Off! supports the local underage music scene by giving young artists from different backgrounds a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come together and play their original music in a positive, all-ages atmosphere.
The Cave Singers will be performing a free, live, all ages show at their record release party at Easy Street Records tonight. The Seattle-based band’s third and latest album on Jagjaguwar, No Witch! came out today.
Curious about their tunes? Check out the video below of The Cave Singers performing on KEXP last August, or just swing by Easy Street at 20 Mercer Street to partake in the festivities.
See ratings and reviews of
Thornton, 43, was found dead in a closet in her Belltown apartment on January 6, after being reported missing by her father. Concern over Thornton’s whereabouts arose after several friends were unable to reach her on New Years Eve, when she had planned to host a party.
The Department of Planning and Development has scheduled an 
The 
The 
While there were only a few hours of 
Experience Music Project’s
The Cave Singers