Tag Archives: beacon pub

Tonight: Say goodbye to the Beacon Pub

Photo by Wendi.
Tonight is the last night of the Beacon Pub, and so it’s the Last Ever Beacon Pub Solstice Social, from 7:00 pm to 1:00 am at the Pub, 3057 Beacon Avenue South. The Pub is closing and moving to Hillman City. The current Pub site on Beacon Avenue will become a pizza parlor next year.

Here’s the email Beacon Arts sent out about tonight’s event:

That’s right: the Beacon Pub’s last night is this Wednesday. It’ll be too crazy to get any business done, and it’s not the time of year for business anyway! This will be a good night to get together with friends and remember the good ol’ days and think ahead to the ones on their way. Come have some cheer and a tear for our neighborhood pub! and Happy New Year!

Tonight: Budget hearing followed by BeaconArts social

Photo by Anita Hart via Creative Commons.
Today is your final opportunity to attend a public hearing to give your opinion about this year’s city budget process.

City Councilmember and Finance and Budget Committee chair Jean Godden will join Council Central Staff Director Ben Noble to answer budget-related phone calls prior to the public hearing. If you would like to ask questions or comment on the budget, please call 206-684-0481 between 4:30 – 5:00 pm.

The hearing itself is at 5:30 pm in the Council Chambers, on the second floor of Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue. It will be broadcast live on Seattle Channel 21, and streamed online here. More information on Seattle’s budget is here.

Among the budget’s effects on Beacon Hill is the proposed closure of the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Service Center, along with the centers in Greenwood, Fremont, Queen Anne, Downtown, and Capitol Hill.

After the hearing, come back to Beacon for the Beacon Arts Social, from 7:30 to 10:00 pm at the Beacon Pub, 3057 Beacon Avenue South. BeaconArts describes it thusly:

Come find like minded souls haunting the streets and dives of Beacon Hill. Mourn the passing of our local pub, perhaps write a postcard to support 4 Culture. Discuss application of artistic principles in unused commercial lots. Develop an arts community on Beacon Hill, come short or long. Drink. Be Merry. Or Scary.

Beacon Bits: Grant money, free acupuncture, and a flying cart

One of our Beacon Hill neighbors hanging out on a tree. Photo by Freeman Mester in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
We missed this, so we have to thank the Rainier Valley Post for bringing it to our attention. Last year, Jason lamented that the 2009 Neighborhood Business District grant money passed our neighborhood by. Things have changed. The new Beacon Merchants Association recently received a 2010 Neighborhood Business District grant from the city’s Office of Economic Development (OED), to be used for membership outreach and board training.

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Beacon Pub is starting a Trivia Night every Wednesday at 7:00 pm. It’s free to play, and the current first place prize is a $20 coupon for pub drinks and food. Up to four players are allowed per team. The weekly event is organized and hosted by members of the community.

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A member of the BAN list posted a runaway tale to that mailing list the other day:

“A shopping cart was sent flying down Grand Street in the middle of the night (last night) with a giant television in it. It crashed on 12th, making an awful mess. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and all property seems unscathed.” Police and the Illegal Dumping Department were contacted.

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There’s a lot happening on Beacon Hill these days. Don’t forget to check our Events page to keep track of everything going on, including events like the following:

CommuniChi Community Acupuncture has two Free Acupuncture Days for new patients on Friday, August 13, and Saturday, August 14. You can reserve a spot using their online scheduler. The clinic is located at 2524 16th Avenue South, #301, inside the El Centro building.

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The League of Women Voters is holding a Primary Election Forum at Seattle First Baptist Church (Harvard and Seneca), on Thursday, August 5, from 7:30 – 9:00 pm to hear statewide candidates for two State Supreme Court seats and local King County Council District 8 candidates. (Part of Beacon Hill is in District 8.) King County Council District 8 voters will choose among four candidates in the August 17 primary election. For more information contact the League office at 206-329-4848, visit the website, or email info@seattlelwv.org.

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The Second Annual Rizal Park Fest will take place on Sunday August 15 from 12 noon to 8:00 pm at, you guessed it, Dr. Jose Rizal Park, across from Pac Med/Amazon. There will be nine live bands along with food vendors, artists, and activities for the whole family. See the website for more, and please note that volunteers are needed!

Yes, the Beacon Pub is moving

Photo by Wendi.
A couple of weeks ago we noted that the owners of the Beacon Pub applied to change the location of their liquor license from the current location at 3057 Beacon Avenue South to 5609 Rainier Avenue South, near Rainier and Orcas.

We recently talked to Kris Coty and Laurie Lusko, who run the pub, and they confirmed that they are moving the business to Hillman City, where it will reopen as the nautical-themed “Orcas Landing.” (Lusko’s Hillman City goal is “to make Columbia City jealous,” she told Seattle Met.) They expect the last day in business on Beacon Avenue to be in October or November. Basically, they say, they lost their lease because the landlord situation changed recently with the death of the building’s owner, and the current landlord is not interested in having a pub in that space.

Changes at the Beacon Pub?

Photo by Wendi.
The Washington State Liquor Control Board announced this week that the owners of the Beacon Pub have applied to change the location of their liquor license from the current location at 3057 Beacon Avenue South to 5609 Rainier Avenue South. Is the Pub moving away from Beacon Hill? We stopped by to ask, but no one was in who could answer our questions. We are wondering if the Beacon Pub site might be the mystery location that is soon to be the Bar del Corso pizza restaurant.

The Beacon Pub in Seattle Beer News

Top-down view of a beer
Photo by Jason
Geoff Kaiser, Beacon Hill neighbor and Seattle Times news-partner-in-law at Seattle Beer News, drops by the Beacon Pub and likes what he finds:

…when a few friends and I finally decided to stop in and check it out this past weekend, I was ecstatic to find that they actually have several taps of good beer! Upon walking in I first noticed a couple of taps from Three Skulls Ales, then a tap from Snoqualmie. At that point, I said to a friend, “Wow, I wasn’t expecting them to have much of anything interesting to drink. This rocks.”

It does! And here’s hoping the wursts are back for the summer. Read the rest at SBN.

Planning your New Year celebration

Dog in a party hat
Photo by prettyinprint (CC BY-ND)

Going out and about?

Good news! Sound Transit has announced Link light rail will be running until about 1:30am on New Year’s Eve. Update: From the Seattle Times by way of the Seattle Transit Blog, the additional train runs will be departing Westlake, southbound, at 12:44am, 12:54am, 1:09am, 1:24am and 1:39am.

Staying on the Hill?

Good news! The Beacon Pub is celebrating the New Year all weekend long. They’ll have a DJ on NYE, and will be hosting their world-famous karaoke Friday and Saturday nights. On New Year’s Day, they’re opening early: 10am for both food and drink, and featuring drink specials all weekend long.

Got something else going on?

Let us know what you’ve got planned in the comments!

Beacon Bits: Affordable housing, volunteerism, and our own dive bar

Customers visit the hot dog cart in front of Beacon Pub, summer 2009. Photo by Jason.
Customers visit the hot dog cart in front of Beacon Pub, summer 2009. Photo by Jason.
It may be a dive, but it’s our dive: The Beacon Pub was featured recently in the Seattle Weekly website’s Dive Bar Advent Calendar.

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Homestead Community Land Trust is a local nonprofit group, intended to create affordable housing by taking the cost of land out of the purchase price of a home by using a community land trust. The HCLT Advantage program provides funds for purchase assistance to help families buy homes in Seattle. Interested? Orientation classes for the HCLT Advantage program are held periodically at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Avenue South. The next two classes are Saturday, January 9, and Thursday, January 26. Further info is here.

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Jefferson Community Center is again offering the $2 Try It program, in which you can try a class or program once for only $2. Class dates are between January 4 and January 30, and classes include Zumba, Yoga, Pottery, Pilates, Pickleball, Badminton, Hapkido, Ballet, Hip Hop Dance, Cartoon Drawing, Instructional Basketball, Little Dribblers, Creative Dance, and Line Dancing. See the Winter class catalog here.

Thanks to Doreen Deaver for the info!

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Craig Thompson writes on the BAN list that many volunteers have been hard at work on Beacon Avenue and at Jose Rizal Park:

“Washington State Department of Corrections supervised a cleanup of street litter [Saturday] along Beacon Avenue and adjacent streets. Next week, WSDOC will continue cleanups of litter and trash in the East Duwamish Greenbelt, on the west side of Beacon Hill.
 
“At Jose Rizal Park, 20 volunteers, EarthCorps crew members, and community court service workers cut blackberries and moved 300+ potted native plants into the woods; these will be planted on Saturday, January 16, in a large volunteer event (100 people expected) that will kick off the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend of volunteer work in Seattle. On Saturday, January 9, the community court service workers will return for a general cleanup.”

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For those who want to do their civic duty in other ways, there are a couple of upcoming possibilities to help make your neighborhood more livable. The first round of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund is currently open for your nominations of potential park development and acquisition projects. The nomination process begins with the submittal of a proposal letter, due by February 1, 2010. Letters and Opportunity Fund criteria may be found at this link. There will be workshops in early January to help develop proposal letters and explain the process. For more information, visit the Opportunity Fund website.

If pedestrian issues are your interest, you still have a day to apply for the city’s Pedestrian Advisory Board. Three volunteers are wanted for the board, which advises the Mayor and City Council, as well as participating in planning and policy activities relevant to pedestrians. The board meets on the second Wednesday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at City Hall. Board members serve for two years, and must be Seattle residents who are not city employees. Those interested in serving should submit a resume and cover letter by Wednesday December 16 to brian.dougherty@seattle.gov. For more information, email Brian Dougherty, or call him at (206) 684-5124, or e-mail him at the address above.

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The International District Housing Alliance (IDHA) is a non-profit organization that provides housing services and community building to the Chinatown/International District and greater Seattle’s low-income, Asian Pacific Islander, immigrant and refugee communities, including many who live in Beacon Hill and surrounding neighborhoods. The IDHA is holding a Holiday Dinner on Wednesday, December 16 from 4:00 to 7:00 p,, and a Holiday Gift Drive until December 18. The dinner, at the Four Seas Restaurant in the International District, will help elderly neighbors celebrate the season with friends and family.  Activities will include live entertainment, a six course Chinese banquet, a raffle, and door prizes. In the gift drive, CID elderly residents, youth and family clients send in gift requests, and Sound Transit and the University of Washington Law School help distribute gift requests and collect presents for participants. Presents will be wrapped and delivered between December 18-23. If you would like to donate to the holiday dinner, or to volunteer to wrap and/or deliver gifts, or you need information, contact Alma Dea Michelena at almadea@apialliance.org, or call 206-623-5132, extension 322.

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An application has been made to the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to install T-Mobile antennas on the rooftop of the Amanuel Ethiopian Orthodox Church at 2101 14th Avenue South.

A couple of DPD decisions have been handed down related to Clearwire utilities in our area. At 3114 South Warsaw Street, a decision was made to allow a Clearwire utility (antennas and a microwave dish) to be mounted on a City Light transmission tower. At 3802 South Othello Street, a Determination of Non-Significance with conditions was decided regarding the installation of a Clearwire utility (antennas and an equipment cabinet) on the rooftop of the existing five-story residential building.

The deadline to appeal these decisions is December 28.

Beacon Bits: health inspections, parking spaces, and bridge rehab

The Dr. Jose Rizal Bridge: going to rehab. Not the Amy Winehouse kind. Photo by Wendi.
The Dr. Jose Rizal Bridge: going to rehab. Not the Amy Winehouse kind. Photo by Wendi.
Two local establishments have recently been visited by the Health Department’s intrepid inspectors. The Beacon Hill 76 station at 2415 Beacon Avenue South scored 0 (yes, zero) violation points. Congratulations! The Beacon Pub at 3057 Beacon Avenue South scored 45 violation points on October 14, all related to problems keeping things cold enough. (Perhaps these are problems with the new hot dog cart.) To give a little perspective on this point total, 45 or more red critical violation points require a re-inspection within 14 days, 90 or more red critical violation points require that the establishment be closed, and 120 or more total (red and blue) points also require that the establishment be closed. The 45 points that the Beacon Pub received were mixed red and blue points, so they were in no danger of being closed. Still, we hope the temperature issues are now fixed. We like having another food option in the neighborhood.

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Wondering what happened to the disabled parking spaces near Jefferson Park Golf Course on Beacon Avenue South? Apparently they were wrongly placed in the public right-of-way, so they’ve been removed. The city is installing new parking for the disabled in back of the course clubhouse. — Seattle Times

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If you tried to drive west through Sodo yesterday, you might have noticed that westbound South Spokane Street is now closed between Fourth and First Avenues South. This is part of the South Spokane Street Viaduct widening project. The detour route will send you north on Fourth Avenue to South Lander Street, then west to First Avenue, then back south to Spokane Street — West Seattle Blog

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And speaking of construction projects, the Dr. Jose Rizal Bridge is going into rehab. Bridge rehab involves repairs and improvements to extend the bridge’s service life and reduce the frequency of required repairs and maintenance. The rehab work begins later this year.

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j_dong on Twitter posted a gorgeous picture of Beacon Hill autumn foliage. Thanks!