The “dramatic tale of oh!”, as Nancy Leson put it in her All You Can Eat blog at the Seattle Times, was not yet over. This week Claycamp sent out an email stating that King County has now given him permission to sell the Swinery’s bacon legally. But on the other hand, they have now lost their lease and “will be for sure out of the building by the end of the month.” Lunch Counter? Closed. (That was fast.) Swinery? Sort of closed, but they say they have “24 days to make and sell some bacon,” along with t-shirts that read “BACON PIMP.”
And this is where the situation gets even more convoluted. While the Swinery now has a permit to sell bacon (and only bacon, no other cured meats) legally, the annual permit to run a restaurant/food establishment from the Culinary Communion House on Beacon Avenue expired on March 31. The bacon-selling permit assumes that the bacon will be sold from a legally-permitted establishment, which CC House is not. Unfortunately, the fees to renew CC House’s restaurant permit are not pro-ratable, so Gabriel and Heidi would have to pay either a year’s fee or a six-month seasonal fee to be able to sell bacon they plan to sell for the rest of April.
Claycamp has also withdrawn his application to sell at farmers’ markets, so the Ballard Farmers’ Market sales mentioned on the Swinery web site won’t be happening, nor will any other market sales.
The one result we can be sure of at the moment is that the Culinary Communion House on Beacon is going to be very vacant, very soon. Perhaps a nice pizza restaurant could open there instead?
Speaking of development near the light rail line, we meant to post this last week: a PDF of Sound Transit’s plan for the Beacon Hill light rail station area. The gray areas that say “future development” are not owned by Sound Transit and will be fenced off by chain link fence after the construction is complete. It’s up to the property owners to decide what to do with those areas, and their plans are unknown at the moment.
Also in the Times, Kusak’s Cut Glass, at the foot of Beacon Hill just off Rainier Avenue on 22nd, was founded in Seattle nearly a century ago, in 1914. The company was named “the Northwest’s family-owned small business of the year” by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Seattle office last year. And now, in the recession, it is struggling, but determined, to survive.
On a positive note, the cherry trees are blooming! (A little late this year, aren’t they?) Photo by Joel Lee, in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
CC was a welcome improvement to this. Photo by Wendi.Apparently due to a combination of business slowdown, construction, and permitting issues, Culinary Communion is closing. Future classes are canceled, and refunds will be issued… eventually. (And some flexibility is being asked for.) The Lunch Counter will not close, and will reopen March 23rd. The Swinery, pending further permit approval, will also continue, and may take over the lease of the building. Equipment will be sold-off (cash only) Saturday, March 21, from 2-6 pm.
The long farewell letter from Gabriel and Heidi with all the details is on the front page of the Culinary Communion website.
Rebekah Denn at Devouring sEATtle follows up on her previous article about the surprise and sudden shutdown of fledgling cured meat emporium The Swinery. Getting the story from the Seattle and King County Public Health department, it sounds like a series of straight-ahead permitting problems, for both the sale and previous production of the meats. A hearing is set for today.
Additionally, the article has attracted plenty of anonymous grousing about proprietor Gabriel Claycamp and Culinary Communion. Take appropriate anonymous-internet-commenter precautions when reading.
The warehouse “retail food store” that’s been for rent on the corner of 15th & Beacon looks to be actually transforming. Almost all of the pallets have been moved out of the front area, leaving a large vacant space in a prime location. Here are a couple of photos of the inside taken earlier this evening:
(Sorry for the blur.)
Photo by Dan Lurie.Looking for a local site to watch the inauguration? Grown Folks Coffeehouse at 4878 Beacon Avenue South will be broadcasting it from 7:00 am until 5:00 pm. They have a fireplace, TVs, coffee and tasty food, so it should be a comfortable and cheerful place to watch history unfold.
Gary at Grown Folks would also like to pass this message along:
“We at Grown Folks would just like to thank everyone for supporting us, especially during this very tough economy. Your support is deeply appreciated. We simply can’t thank you enough for being such a great neighborhood to do business in.”
We hope the buses are able to get us where we need to go today, but yesterday that was frequently a problem. (Metro’s Ice and Snow Transit Service Status page will tell you if your bus is still cancelled or rerouted.) If you can’t get off the Hill to do your Christmas shopping, don’t forget our recent post about holiday shopping right here on Beacon Hill. It might give you some ideas for ways to get your holiday shopping done here in our neighborhood — no gasoline, tire chains, or fender-benders necessary. (The comments on that post include some other suggested places to shop on the Hill, so check those out too.)
