Tag Archives: el quetzal

El Quetzal applies for expanded liquor license

Another liquor license application was recently filed for a Beacon Hill business. El Quetzal, the Mexican restaurant at 3209 Beacon Ave. S., filed an “Added/Change of class/In lieu” application for a license of the type “Spirits/beer/wine restaurant service bar; off-premises sale of wine.” This is an application for an additional liquor license class beyond their current license. The off-premises license would allow the restaurant to sell wine by the unopened bottle for off-premises consumption.

The applicants are listed as Juan Jose Montiel, Elena Sarmiento, Juan Jose Montiel Cardova, and Elena Sarmiento Ruiz. The license number is 405543. As usual, if you wish to make any comments on this application, whether positive or negative, e-mail customerservice@liq.wa.gov.

The brightly colored El Quetzal. Photo by Wendi.

Survey supports later hours — for some

Some neighbors wish these suns on the wall at the new El Quetzal location would shine later in the evening. Photo by Wendi.
by Jake London

The local restaurant hours survey mentioned in the Beacon Hill Blog a few days ago has now closed.

It turns out that the free version of Survey Monkey only allows you to see the results of the first 100 respondents to a survey. So far, 110 people have responded. I’m not prepared to buy the paid Survey Monkey service for this particular exercise, so we’ll have to call it good with the first 100 responses that were received. It’s not perfect, I know, but it still seems like a large enough sample to get a picture of how people in the neighborhood are feeling about later hours at El Quetzal, Victrola, and Kusina Filipina.

My take away from the numbers (which are below) is that there is significant support for El Quetzal to be open later in the evenings. Out of the 100 respondents below, 82 of them strongly agreed or agreed that they would patronize El Quetzal more often in the evening if it stayed open at least an hour later.

There was less consensus among respondents about whether later hours would increase their evening patronage of Victrola and Kusina Filipina: 41% strongly agreed or agreed that they’d patronize Victrola more often in the evening if it stayed open later. About the same number of people felt similarly about Kusina Filipina (40.4%).

A lot more people were neutral about Victrola and Kusina Filipina than they were about El Quetzal. I’m not sure of the best way to read those responses. It seems like maybe they are saying that they aren’t sure whether later hours would affect their evening patronage of these places, but they remain open to the possibility that later hours could make a difference in their behavior.

Conversely, respondents who disagreed or strongly disagreed (and there were some of these folks) seem to be saying that they know pretty clearly that changes in closing times will not affect their behavior, as far as evening patronage of these businesses goes.

Anyway, enough commentary. Here are the questions and the responses.

1. If El Quetzal Mexican Restaurant in Beacon Hill was open until 9pm (or
later) each night, I would patronize it for dinner or drinks more often
than I currently do.

Response Percent Response Count
Strongly Agree 43% 43
Agree 39% 39
Neutral 10% 10
Disagree 4.0% 4
Strongly Disagree 4% 4

answered question: 100
skipped question: 0

2. If the Beacon Hill Victrola location was open until 9pm (or later) each
night, I would patronize it during evening hours more often than I
currently do.

Response Percent Response Count
Strongly Agree 18.2% 18
Agree 23.2% 23
Neutral 29.3% 29
Disagree 21.2% 21
Strongly Disagree 8.1% 8

answered question: 99
skipped question: 1

3. If Kusina Filipina Restaurant in Beacon Hill was open until 9pm (or
later) each night, I would patronize it for dinner more often than I
currently do.

Response Percent Response Count
Strongly Agree 8.1% 8
Agree 32.3% 32
Neutral 38.4% 38
Disagree 13.1% 13
Strongly Disagree 8.1% 8

answered question: 99
skipped question: 1

(Thanks to Jake for creating this survey and sending us this write-up of the results. –Ed.)

Beacon Bits: cerveza, soccer, and STEM

Now customers at El Quetzal can have beer with dinner. Photo by Jason.
El Quetzal, 3209 Beacon Avenue South, has been approved for a liquor license in the category “Restaurant – beer.” Now you can have a cerveza with your torta.

* * *

Seattle Soccer Club members are looking for players to join them for a pick-up soccer game at the old Van Asselt Elementary School tomorrow, Saturday, January 23, at noon. (If the field is occupied, they’ll move across the street to the Van Asselt Community Center.) Players of all levels are welcome. Details are on their Meetup page.

* * *

The South Seattle Beacon discusses Cleveland High School’s new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) option program that will open this fall. In the article, principal Princess Shareef expresses some worry that Beacon Hill families near Cleveland might not take advantage of the STEM program’s availability: “The teachers and families want it to remain diverse, but when we have community meetings, families from our community haven’t been showing up… I want the Beacon Hill community to understand what is going to be happening here and for them to consider having their kids be students here.” Cleveland is hosting an open house for the STEM program tomorrow, January 23, from 10:00 am – noon, at 5511 15th Avenue South. (via Seattle Public Schools community blog)

* * *

Urban farmer (and MacArthur Genius Fellow) Will Allen is visiting Seattle on February 3 for a series of events promoting urban farming to help Seattle residents gain access to healthy food.

At 7:00 pm he’ll be at Mercer Middle School for “Inside the Urban Farmer’s Studio,” a free, community-wide discussion about food, urban farming, and food policy.

You can find out more about Allen and the February 3 events at the Delridge Grassroots Leadership website.

Beacon Bits: Planning, protesting, and playing

One potential future for North Beacon Hill (looking north on Beacon Avenue, near McClellan. El Centro is in the upper right of this image).
One potential future for North Beacon Hill (looking north on Beacon Avenue, near McClellan. El Centro is in the upper right of this image).
Recently there were two open houses to display the most recent planning goals and strategies for the North Beacon Hill, North Rainier, and Othello neighborhood plan updates. Over 160 people attended these open houses to view and comment on some of the potential strategies for our Southeast Seattle neighborhoods. If you could not attend, the city still needs to hear from you! You can view the materials that were presented at the open house here, then submit your comments online here. The deadline for this comment period is October 30, 2009.

* * *

Neighbors living near South Stevens Street and 12th Avenue South have been asking why the large power lines on their street can’t be moved underground. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, an electrical system upgrade is about to do just that. — Capitol Hill Seattle

* * *

Our neighbors in the Central District share our pain when it comes to airplane noise. One CD resident, Patty Fong, has started an Under the Flight Path! group on Facebook to “advocate for environmental justice in Seattle’s affected neighborhoods (Central District, Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill, White Center, Burien and others under the flight path disproportionately) and for speedy advancements in reduction of airplane noise.” — Central District News

* * *

The Rainier Valley Cooperative Preschool is hosting a Fall Rummage Sale on Saturday, October 24 from 12 noon – 4:00 pm at Beacon Hill Lutheran Church, 1720 South Forest Street (between 17th and 18th). Along with the sale there will be a Fall Festival for all ages. The 1700 block of South Forest will be closed for the party, which will include games, crafts, a bake sale, Dante’s Inferno Dogs, and, at 1:00 pm, live music by Brian Vogan.

* * *

Youth in Focus, a non-profit organization that empowers urban teens through photography, is holding their annual Bowl-A-Thon fundraiser on Saturday, October 24, from 12 noon – 5:00 pm at the AMF Imperial Lanes, 2101 22nd Avenue South. The goal of the bowl-a-thon is to raise $15,000 to help Youth in Focus provide free photography classes and mentoring to underserved teens in the Seattle community. Teams of five bowlers will bowl in two shifts, noon – 2:00 pm, or 2:30 – 4:30 pm. This year’s theme is “Come as your own Superhero!”, so dress accordingly! All are invited. To sign up or get more information, please email Jessica at jessicag@youthinfocus.org.

* * *

El Quetzal on Beacon Avenue has applied for a beer/wine liquor license.

Beacon Bits: Bigger, craftier, and busking

More room at El Quetzal
More room at El Quetzal