Crocodile Cafe to reopen in early 2009

The Seattle Times: Sept. 9, 2008

The Croc lives!

"Right now it still looks like it looked last time you or anyone else was in it," says Kerri Harrop, spokeswoman for the Crocodile Café, Seattle's best and most-famous rock club. The Croc's "abrupt close last year left a lot of people reeling," Harrop says, and the plan is to reopen in "late January/early February."

What's going on between now and then?

Construction." When that's done, "I anticipate capacity will be around the 400 mark."

There will be two businesses in the building and two entrances. According to Harrop, Via Tribunali will sell pizza "where the back bar was," and that the wall separating the concert area from the cafe area will be knocked out. She won't specify exactly how the Crocodile will bleed into Via Tribunali.

Last month, The Seattle Times reported that area bar owner Marcus Charles had obtained the Croc's liquor license (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2008091508_webcroc05.html). Says Harrop, "Marcus Charles has assembled a good group of investors that includes Susan Silver, Peggy Curtis, and Sean Kinney."

As for who will book the music, Harrop confirms no more than "a human being."

Former Croc and current Chop Suey booker Pete Greenberg said he's not been asked to book the club, and Steven Severin, who books and runs Neumo's, said, "you can write that I don't know what the hell is going on."

Perhaps most important, "Jim Anderson will still be running the sound," says Harrop. In the past, he made the Croc Seattle's best-sounding rock venue. "All efforts are being made to make sure the room sounds and looks perfect," says Harrop.

There are new Croc photos online, on artist David Choe's Flickr profile, here — http://www.flickr.com/photos/invisiblehour/page6.

Andrew Matson, staff reporter
The Seattle Times: Sept. 9, 2008 (fourth article in the link)

Pan African Market - a dash of west Africa in Pike's Place

Sometimes you miss what's right in front of you, just as I have for so long. The punishment - living in the Seattle for years, going to the Pike Place Market, let's see...at least 52 times a year AND missing out on some fine West African delicacy from Pan African Market on 1st and Pike. It's a great place to sit outside on a sunny day and enjoy a plate of Beef Tibs, which is a delicious tender cut of beef sauteed with onions and peppers or my favorite - the spicy lamb stew - small tender pieces of (carnivorous) heaven which they often run out of and the vegetable sampler - a succulent medley of six different vegetables, almost forming the color of a rainbow and includes cabbage, spinach, peas, carrots, and more. Everything comes with their store made, really soft Injera - a delicacy from west Africa in the form of a flat bread.

Now if you want to go all out - don't be shy to order everything in one plate, roll up your sleeves and jump in with you hands - you won't regret it.

Snowing like under an evil spell

Well that may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but Seattle and the rest of the northwest is a bit snow struck this winter. This is the fifth cycle of snow in the Puget Sound, where usually it stops at two. Looking out through the window every morning, seems more like looking past the wardrobe and Narnia greeting on the other side. Reality of course, is a little less magical, icy roads have turned even the shortest commute into a nightmare, with many accidents in the road and some in the homes too. On top of that, many neighborhoods have lost power again and schools and work places have lost control over any scheduling.

Ahhh well...it could be worse...this could be Narnia, under the spell, frozen in eternal winter with no Lion and no saviors coming to the rescue!!!

Stormed in without power

Seattle and surroundings had quite a storm Thursday night with a gust going about 70 mph, double of that in the Rainier area. This left most of the area with no power and 700,000 victims. For some it came back by Friday but for most it was sometime on Sunday while many are still left out in the dark. This meant no light, no heat, no cooking for most and no hot water for many, with the temperatures dropping down below freezing by Saturday night. Puget Sound Energy had to call for backup, not only personals but also for machinery's as they scurried to move fallen trees and reestablish the power...which for some areas mean rebuilding poles and setting up new transformers.

Many houses were destroyed by fallen trees, fences took flight and some also caught fire because of candles or accidents with propane tanks. Services in the gas stations were interrupted, causing a wave of panic and even fist fights in some gas stations while waiting for hours for gas. The grocery stores that remained open on Friday with dim lights had to throw out all of their perishable goods and items such as fuel, torchlights, candles and easy to make foods were soon out of stock.

It wasn't too bad for us though, even though we were mocked by the neighborhood across the street which got it's power back by Friday (for good reason though - there's a hospital couple of blocks away). We called up our buddies and met over at a kind friends house (with gas stoves) and cooked a hearty meal...us Bangladeshis managing to make a feast out of a disaster. Then we realized another friend, who's out of the country, had full blown power in their neighborhood. We took refuge there (keys left with another friend). The 15 of us had a wonderful weekend, cooking, eating, playing board games and watching movies.

Personally, it was a great way to spend time, especially on the Independence day of Bangladesh - December 16...what better way to be than with a bunch of Bangladeshis and do what we do best - cook, eat, chat and play.

(Don't mean to pour salt in the wounds of the less fortunate ones with property damages or who were stuck in hotels or office building or trying to keep warm in front of the fireplace)

...more snow...DOT better DOT your i's

so it did end up being a nuisance...well I think more because Seattle is just not ready for so much snow and the weatherman forcasting rain rather than snow. A 15 min commute ended up taking 2 hours with cars pointing at all angles, a number of accidents and stranded vehicles along the way. Many neighborhoods lost power (or still don't have any), icy gridlocks, more accidents, school and office closures.

hey at least the seahawks beat the packers in their first ever snowed in home game...not too shabby! For most the commute back was a nightmare though, an unlucky chap was stuck in traffic for 14 hours before he got back home in Portland.

Now we're getting ready for another one to hit us tonight followed by icy rain (even worse)...

...hopefully DOT has DOTted their i's this time...

Snowing in Seattle

Look out through the window...it's snowing! It's quite nice when it's snowing, especially when it snows like it does in Seattle - never a nuisance but just that dash of white to brighten up the day...