The multifaceted Sole Repair, home to concerts, politcal rallies, weddings, and once a month, the Seattle Makers Market.
Mary, proudly standing in front of her works of art. She lets her general interests inform what she works on. She originated and maintained the Dinosaur News column on the local favorite blog- Slog, so you'll find lots of fossils and other prehistoric creatures featured in her work.
A few months later, the Makers Market now shows off their stuff at a new Capitol Hill destination- Optimism Brewing. A family friendly space that will educate you all about beer.
Their facilities are on full display as you enjoy your food and beverages.
Order for here or fill a growler to go.
Above the fray, the Makers market their wares.
And Mary smiles, sharing a space with fellow creatives, enjoying meeting the community who enjoys her art.
SUIKA Seattle is another new kid on the block, hailing from Canada, having took over the space vacated by popular local hangout- 611 Supreme.
Mary told me she was wary of coming the this new place, having been a regular of 611. The old place was one of the first places that she felt welcome at when she moved to Seattle from Cleveland in 2004. When she finally came to SUIKA, she noticed a table of the old bartenders and waitstaff chatting with the new owner at a table in the corner. At that moment, she knew she didn't have to feel like a traitor and could enjoy this new, great space as much as she had the last place.
Speaking of the owner, Kan stopped and chatted with us for a few minutes and told us about the process of setting up a new bar in a new country, and how grateful he was about the family back home supporting his effort. He designed and built chandelier you see above his shoulder, using old sake bottles from the restaurants back home.
The multicolored ceiling panel is made of kimono fabric from a designer in Vancouver who donated unusable excess material.
And the gaming cartridges seen below were a gift from a friend who had been collecting them for years and wanted to make an awesome display. Kan really wanted to make a fun place for people to just hang out and wanted the decor to reflect the variety of art that can be created from recycled material.
Enjoying her Taylor Whiskey, made with homemade ginger beer, Mary and I talked about her journey from Cleveland to Seattle.
While still having a deep affection for her hometown, Mary felt more comfortable in Seattle almost instantly than she did for 30 years back in Ohio. A self-described, "low-grade freak", there was a sense that people of nerdy persuasion needed to hide who they were in Cleveland, but Seattle is a City of Nerds!
There was an adjustment period to settling into a new city. Mary told me about a party she attended when she had just moved to Seattle and didn't leave with 5 new instant friends like she would have in the mid-west, where people exchange numbers casually, and have more casual/superficial friends.
Seattle does have a reputation for being hostile to outsiders, the infamous "Seattle Freeze", but Mary dismisses this description of her adopted home. She actually finds Seattle more friendly than the mid-west, in the way people here tend to have deeper friendships with fewer people, but no one feels they have to hide themselves to fit into a larger group.
Of course, she will always feel a source of pride in her hometown. The one thing she misses most about Cleveland is the amount of "robber-baron" money that went to public institutions like museums and parks. And she couldn't help but feel a moment of pride when she saw Chris Evans as Captain America, hanging out in the cemetery she used to frequent, "as a young goth."
Thanks, Mary, so much for letting me tag along and chronicle a small piece of your life. I feel lucky to be included in your "casual good-friends" group.
And next time, your intrepid blogger returns to Europe!
