Chocolate, Central District and Capitol Hill
On Friday I headed out to find the Dilettante
Chocolate seconds store and explore more of Central District and Capitol Hill.
This was the end of the week daytime activity to return to the normalcy of
Seattle's Fall doldrums. Apparently there is about 30 percent of the Puget
Sound population who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder - the Winter blues.
One of the most effective and proven countermeasures is to get outside - in
whatever sunshine there is - and to exercise. I'd add to that list,
chocolate.
Dilettante
Chocolate
and Central
District and
beyond
(Post-election distraction, Friday daytime)
Friday dawned clear (well, as clear as it gets these days, slight fog with low-hanging clouds but still blue sky and sun) and about 9:00 am I decided this was the day I'd explore a bit more of Central District and finally get to the Dilettante Chocolate "seconds" store. Dilettante is a local chocolatier with a long and proud history stretching back through three generations (only the present actually being a Seattleite). Dana Taylor Davenport's granduncle was a chocolatier to the Czar of Russia (the last one, btw) and prior to that had been master pastry chef for Emporer Franz Joseph of Austria. Dana's grandfather was a missionary in Hungary when he met the granduncle's sister. Fast forward a few generations to Dana's father and uncle building their first candy factory and selling confectionaries to a Portland department store. Then fast forward to 1977 and Dana opening his chocolate shop on Broadway in Capitol Hill. Dilettante has a "chocolate" factory now in Central District and a seconds store right across from the Central District community center at 23rd Avenue E and East Cherry Street - a really quick bus ride from downtown.
I'd walked by the seconds store previously on one of my walks trying to discover the Madrona neighborhood. On that outing I was in search of a new coffee shop which featured hand-baked cupcakes with honest-to-goodness real butter cream frosting - Verite Coffee and Cupcake Royale. That store did so well in Madrona they recently opened a Ballard location which, last time I was there (last week, my second time in the Ballard store), was going guns-afire.
The Dilettante seconds store is not particularly inviting. It's an eclectic building with ceramic moulding along the roofline which sits right on the northeast corner of 23rd and Cherry. The main door looks like the kind of door someone would put in the back of a warehouse to dis-appeal the place to thieves and beggars. It does have a "please come in" sign on it and when I arrived there was an "open" sign as well. Well, looks notwithstanding, I'll go ahead and enter. There were two things which struck me, almost simultaneously. One was the almost overpowering and totally infusing smell and atmosphere of chocolate - like I was in some kind of chocolate steam bath or spa. The other was how much like a St. Vincent de Paul, or Goodwill, or AmVets store it looked like. There were shelves everywhere with every kind of basket on the shelves, each holding a different collection of Dilettante chocolates in plastic baggies, all, presumably, seconds for some reason or other. My guess is the shape and perhaps outer texture. To my eye, they all looked pretty much as good as any Fanny Farmer, Sees, or Russell Stover shop or factory candy I've seen. Maybe that was the point.
You see, Dilettante is like Godiva. It's not your ordinary chocolate. Their candy bars fetch the same price as Godiva or Dove (Hershey's and M&M-Mars two high-priced chocolate brands - yes, our favorite candy companies also make "good" chocolate). In fact, some of Dilettante's candy fetches a higher price than comparable Dove or Godiva products. I've had a bar of Dilettante semi-sweet chocolate and it has the same hard crunch, the same deep and pure chocolate taste, the same wonderful aftertaste as the best Dove bar or the best Godiva bar or even the finest Ghirardelli bars. Not only that, Dilettante makes truffles - those wonderful little balls of outrageous filling completely surrounded by a fine chocolate with a fancy design on the top.
Now, normally, one would expect to pay anywhere from $1.50 to $2.50 for a truffle from Godiva or Dilettante (not sure that Dove and Ghirardelli even make truffles - though there are chocolatiers who supply Nordstrom and don't know who they are either). I hate to say this, but since I already will pay $3.00 or more for a double-shot cappuccino or even up to $4.00 for a double-shot mocha, it should come as no surprise that I'd pay $1.50 to $2.50 for a single, quarter-to-third ounce, chocolate truffle. Don't worry, perfume is still more expensive and you can't eat it. Well, imagine my delight and the wonder of finding that in the "seconds" store, Dilettante is selling their entire line of truffles, all two dozen differently-filled, dark and milk chocolate delights for a mere fifty-cents apiece. You've also got to realize that each truffle is probably the equivalent of a whole Snickers or Three Musketeers bar in terms of fat and calories - that's 200. Well, at fifty cents a pop, I had to have a few and picked a dark and milk chocolate mocha cream filling for two of them, a chocolate-filled dark chocolate covered additional one and a maple-walnut filled milk chocolate. Two dollars, there's no tax on food here in Washington state. I grazed the baskets, smelling the overwhelming mixture of cocoa, chocolate, cocoa butter and the delicious blend of raspberry, maple, orange and the rest of the fillings. I didn't find anything else which so motivated me as the truffles, though it's not for a lack of appetite, more out of a respect for my body.
I left the store, took a few pictures in the immediate vicinity and headed north on 23rd Avenue to see a little more of the Central District firsthand. Twenty-third Avenue runs in the shallow of a little valley which sits on the east side of Capitol Hill and separates Capitol Hill from Madrona and Madison neighborhoods. Further south Central widens considerably because the valley actually widens. This area historically has been at the forefront of a number of civil rights movements and has housed a considerable number of Seattle's grunge musicians. It looks pretty much like the flatland area of any big city, lots of one- and two-story storefronts and small factories and shops. Street after street of hundred-year-old houses many of which are being torn down for newer houses or conversion into duplex and four-plex condominiums. It's not a threatening area, more like a simple area with a face which could easily hide any number of things going on behind the doors and windows of the houses and shops. As 23rd crosses Madison the area steps up a bit and it's clear there's an invasion of the downtown-Belltown genre occurring. There's a brand-new Safeway on the ground floor of a huge new condominium complex, something which would be right at home in Northern Virginia, Montgomery County or even here across the Lake in Bellevue.
I open the little plastic sack containing my Dilettante truffles. I eat them all, one right after the other. My mouth is awash with the warm glow of real, pure, chocolate and I can feel the complex proteins moving through my blood stream and into my head and arms and legs. Yes, chocolate does strange and wonderful things to humans and these four truffles energized me. I won't say that the Central District suddenly turned pink and purple and aqua and tangarine, but it felt like I was somehow in a more enlightening location than I knew myself to be. Ah, those chocolates really do work.
I continued up to Roy Street where I had planned to turn west to intersect Broadway (actually 10th at this point on the hill) and begin a trek down Capitol Hill's main drag to pay a visit to the Dilettante Bakery and main candy shop and coffee house. However, when I crossed 14th Street, I realized I was just a stone's throw from Volunteer Park and hadn't been to the Asian Art Museum in a few months and that would be a nice little diversion. I headed north on 14th, climbed the water tower to see what the view was from on top and discovered that the morning fog was making a wonderful play with the city and the trees in the area as it slowly lifted. It was by now about noon. I climbed down and went to the Asian Art Museum, flashing my member pass, and taking a quick jaunt through all the galleries, reminding myself what a delight Asian and near-Eastern art is - especially after having seen so much truly good modern art the night before. There was a special showing of some Japanese panels - the classic "silk" screen approach to landscape painting. The show is called "Beyond the Paper Plain: Japanese Prints from the 1950s to 1970s ". This was a wonderful exhibition as well, showing off the evolution of the Japanese-styled landscape art, especially as there are several galleries with much earlier work from both Japan and China. I've always wanted a folding screen filled with silk prints of the mountains in the Upper Yangtse River basin. After spending some considerable time on Chinese web sites (check out this one, for instance, <http://pic.templetons.com/brad/photo/china/wu/ >) I've concluded that the mountains as depicted in Chinese silk paintings are not, as I had thought, ethereal and mystical, but rather really are that way - which is even more wonderful when you think about it.
I walked through the Asian Art galleries twice, mostly to see everything from a different perspective as I entered each gallery from a different direction on the two tours. I paused a few times in front of the various Budhas and thought again of the necessity of America remaining a secular nation. It's a true shame but the heartland residents are so ignorant, and I mean this in the classic sense of not having the knowledge. As great and powerful and empowering as Christianity is, this world and its civilizations have spawned so many great and powerful and empowering religions. To focus on one of them uniquely would be like removing Red, and Orange, and Yellow, and Green, and Blue, and Indigo from the spectrum and having only Violet left. What a colorless and drab world this would truly be. I just hope I can somehow find the method and the manner to be able to share with those who would be happy to remain oblivious to the wide religious choices there are, and the enrichment each of them brings to any individual, irrespective of one's personal preference or belief. Ah, art, it really does transcend so many differences.
I headed back towards Broadway and made it to the Dilettante shop. I was the only one inside, all of the other customers had taken their coffees in "to go" cups and were sitting outside on the benches and chairs which lined the front of the chocolate-bakery-coffee house. It's about mid-way in the Broadway strip from Roy at the north to the Seattle Central Community College campus at the south end near Pine. A good spot on the boulevard and since there was no one else inside, I asked for a cappuccino, double shot, in a cup and sat at one of the dozens of tables and watched the outside pedestrian traffic through the windows and gazed at all the chocolate treats and cakes and other pastries which were on display. A single slice of Chocolate Mocha cake or German Chocolate cake (or any of the other dozen cakes, for that matter) was $5.75. Of course, if a single truffle is $2.00, it's easy to see how a single slice of cake could be nearly six bucks. I'd already had my chocolate fix, though, so I was not tempted. They did look gorgeous, though, they're a work of art in their own manner, each decorated differently based on the contents, much like the truffles each have a distinguishing marker to tell the aficionado what's inside.
I finished my coffee and headed back out to Broadway, passing the weird and wonderful collection of Seattleites who are the denizens and locals of Capitol Hill. Much more than Adams-Morgan or Dupont and bordering on the Village in choice and variety, Capitol Hill has a truly odd-mixture of all type and manner of individual, each flavor coming in the youth, young adult, middle adult and aged versions as well. If ever one wanted to totally freak a midwesterner fundamentalist the way to do it would be to set up a luncheon which included an outside table along Broadway. It would be way cheaper and achieve the same effect as an evening at a Village club. Besides which, compared to New York's Village, or Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square, or DC's Dupont Circle/Adams-Morgan neighborhoods, Seattle's Capitol Hill is an absolute bargain in price.
I reached Pine and headed downtown to get to the Pike Market area and catch a bus home. On the way I passed the beginning of what will be an interminable stretch of construction as the bus tunnel is beginning to be retro-fitted for the light rail. This project, which will tear up Pine Street and a few cross streets such as 7th and 6th, began recently and won't be finished for at least two years. Ah, more progress. At least in Seattle, the city closes lanes for cars but keeps pedestrian lanes open. Not many other cities favor pedestrians over cars and that's one more nice thing about Seattle.
I get to the market area and noted that my bus would be along in another twenty minutes, so rather than waiting, I headed south along First Avenue figuring I could easily walk the mile, burn off more of the Dilettante truffles, and catch the same bus pretty much about the time I arrived at Pioneer Square. First Avenue is always a fun walk, it's the most varied and eclectic of downtown Seattle's main boulevards and has the added advantage of being two elevated blocks away from the waterfront, affording Elliott Bay views at every cross street.
I caught the bus home and did a bit of housework, things like getting my antenna for my radio set up on the roof in a better, more permanent, manner, and waited till later in the day when I would head back downtown for a reading at Elliott Bay Book Company from one of my favorite authors - Ursula K. Le Guin.
And now some photos of Dilettante Chocolatiers, Central District and Capitol Hill
The Dilettante Chocolate "seconds" store at the corner of 23rd Avenue East and East Cherry Street. The view on the
left is looking east from across 23rd. The middle view is the corner view from the opposite corner. The view on
the right is the view across Cherry Street looking north at the store and it's unassuming front door. The roofline
of this old, converted, corner store had embedded ceramic tiles. The windows didn't allow for a look inside.
A sculpture in front of the Garfield Community Center, right across the
street from the Dilettante Chocolate seconds store. The Garfield
center is the community center for the Central District.
That's Madison Street heading down the hill towards Lake Washington and 23rd
Avenue in front. What struck me about this intersection was the color of the building
and the receding color of all the trees resplendent in their Fall colors. Sort of a
multi-spectral corner on this day.
The spire of St. Joseph's Catholic Church rising over the schoolyard of St. Joseph's
school. This is along Roy Street at 18th and 17th (if I remember correctly, it's a few
blocks west of 23rd Avenue). The church and school take up a whole block in what
is a very nice Capitol Hill neighborhood on the eastern slope of the hill.
The front of the main school building with the spire of the cathedral rising a little
further north along the block. The church, really a cathedral, is well known locally
as is the school. Of course, everyone wears a uniform, in this case green jackets
over black pants or skirts and white shirts. It's always odd to run across a Catholic
school because one sees first graders through seniors all dressed the same.
Fall was in full swing along Roy Street in the neighborhood sections
of Capitol Hill. The older neighborhoods have a relatively wide
selection of trees as generation after generation of Seattle resident
gardners have pruned and re-replanted their yards. Capitol Hill,
along with Queen Anne Hill, have wonderful streets for Fall strolls.
This map shows my travels Friday morning and afternoon. After arriving downtown by bus, I transferred
to a #3 which travels up Cherry Street and around the hospitals on First Hill and then heads east
on Cherry to Madrona, which is the end-of-the-line. The #3 and #4 run about every 15 minutes
as opposed to the 20-series buses I take from West Seattle, which run every 30 minutes. Total
walking distance, as shown by the green line, was just short of six miles, an easy walk for me.
Black Sun is a sculpture in front of the plaza at Volunteer Park's Seattle Asian Art
Museum. Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was the sculptor, an influential Japanese
modernist whose work influenced a number of others. There are other works
of his in the city and in quite a few other American cities as well as throughout Japan.
Depending on where one stands, the sculpture's port hole perfectly frames the Space
Needle, downtown, or Queen Anne Hill.
It also sits directly in front of the reservoir at Volunteer Park and in this view is framed
itself by the reflections of the reservoir and the Fall colors of the trees in front of the
gate house across the reservoir.
Another perspective of the Black Sun. Understated and organic in ways which require
many visits to the plaza to appreciate. Noguchi was very much a student of how art
can arise from the Earth, how the materials can integrate the land and the spirit and
how a civilization can interplay with art and individuals play "with" the art.
From the top of the water tower looking northwest out over the Volunteer Park landscape
towards Seattle Center. The Space Needle is barely discernible through the dissipating
morning fog.
The city's downtown rising up from the fog just beyond the changing colors of the trees
surrounding Volunteer Park.
Looking south towards the spire at St. Joseph's Church, again over the trees and fog.
The top level of the Volunteer Park tower has an engaging set of panels spaced about
every six feet on the entire circular upper level. Most of them depict the history of the
city's parks system and the evolution of the Olmsted Brothers and the various
philosophies they espoused in their municipal efforts. This one, however, relates
directly to the role of this water tower as a pressure reservoir for the city's water
distribution system. In this depiction, the dark red lines are the major conduits for
bringing fresh water into the city's reservoir and water distribution network. Of note
is the the tiny dot in the center which is the Snoqualmie River. The marked off
water sources on the top right and bottom right are areas of the western Cascades
from which the city receives its water, in the form of snow melt. Seattle city water
is a very good water and the city takes great pride in its water and the watershed
providing it. The city provides water service for most of the 1.8 million King County
area residents.
Volunteer Park foliage was no less colorful than the entire Capitol Hill neighborhood.
This is looking out over the fields on the southern side of the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
The mirrors on one of the walls inside Dilettante's Capitol Hill showcase cafe. I've blanked out the actual wall,
filling it with black to allow the mirrors to become more apparent. The reflections show the other side of the
coffee house, candy store, and bakery - the middle tall rectangular mirror reflects me sitting at one of the tables.
Behind me is an entire showcase of Dilettante truffles. I
wasn't tempted, though, since I'd already had four of them
at one-quarter their normal price. I always look stern in
self-portraits, so forgive the stern look, I wasn't feeling stern
but have never learned how to smile for a camera held
by my hand.
There's this great Harley-Davidson showcase right
on First Avenue within a block of the Harbor Steps. This
was a 1917 model which obviously had been lovingly
restored. It still had it's military color, though.
Here's another shot of the front struts. I couldn't get the
whole cycle in the picture because of the reflection off
the showcase glass window so I had to press the camera
lens right to the glass, which restricted the angle of view
I could capture. It looks just as mean and serious and fun,
though, as if it were made yesterday.
At the intersection of First Avenue and University Street is the downtown Seattle Art Museum. In front there's this great,
dynamic, sculpture of what looks like a guy using a hammer to forge - what - "art." Anyway, these three views capture
the motion of the forging arm. It's one of those things which when you first see it you think, "Gawd, how clunky." But, after
repeated sightings and watching this thing in perpetual forging motion, you realize it's a fantastic visual metaphor.
Downtown Seattle would never be the same without this guy, Art-man, I call him. By the way, for those who can cross
their eyes to create stereoscopic vision - these images provide that - use any two adjacent images and cross your
eyes till a three-dimensional structure (the SAM building) emerges.
Next up the evening's company with Ursula K. Le Guin.
(Post-election distraction, Friday daytime)
Friday dawned clear (well, as clear as it gets these days, slight fog with low-hanging clouds but still blue sky and sun) and about 9:00 am I decided this was the day I'd explore a bit more of Central District and finally get to the Dilettante Chocolate "seconds" store. Dilettante is a local chocolatier with a long and proud history stretching back through three generations (only the present actually being a Seattleite). Dana Taylor Davenport's granduncle was a chocolatier to the Czar of Russia (the last one, btw) and prior to that had been master pastry chef for Emporer Franz Joseph of Austria. Dana's grandfather was a missionary in Hungary when he met the granduncle's sister. Fast forward a few generations to Dana's father and uncle building their first candy factory and selling confectionaries to a Portland department store. Then fast forward to 1977 and Dana opening his chocolate shop on Broadway in Capitol Hill. Dilettante has a "chocolate" factory now in Central District and a seconds store right across from the Central District community center at 23rd Avenue E and East Cherry Street - a really quick bus ride from downtown.
I'd walked by the seconds store previously on one of my walks trying to discover the Madrona neighborhood. On that outing I was in search of a new coffee shop which featured hand-baked cupcakes with honest-to-goodness real butter cream frosting - Verite Coffee and Cupcake Royale. That store did so well in Madrona they recently opened a Ballard location which, last time I was there (last week, my second time in the Ballard store), was going guns-afire.
The Dilettante seconds store is not particularly inviting. It's an eclectic building with ceramic moulding along the roofline which sits right on the northeast corner of 23rd and Cherry. The main door looks like the kind of door someone would put in the back of a warehouse to dis-appeal the place to thieves and beggars. It does have a "please come in" sign on it and when I arrived there was an "open" sign as well. Well, looks notwithstanding, I'll go ahead and enter. There were two things which struck me, almost simultaneously. One was the almost overpowering and totally infusing smell and atmosphere of chocolate - like I was in some kind of chocolate steam bath or spa. The other was how much like a St. Vincent de Paul, or Goodwill, or AmVets store it looked like. There were shelves everywhere with every kind of basket on the shelves, each holding a different collection of Dilettante chocolates in plastic baggies, all, presumably, seconds for some reason or other. My guess is the shape and perhaps outer texture. To my eye, they all looked pretty much as good as any Fanny Farmer, Sees, or Russell Stover shop or factory candy I've seen. Maybe that was the point.
You see, Dilettante is like Godiva. It's not your ordinary chocolate. Their candy bars fetch the same price as Godiva or Dove (Hershey's and M&M-Mars two high-priced chocolate brands - yes, our favorite candy companies also make "good" chocolate). In fact, some of Dilettante's candy fetches a higher price than comparable Dove or Godiva products. I've had a bar of Dilettante semi-sweet chocolate and it has the same hard crunch, the same deep and pure chocolate taste, the same wonderful aftertaste as the best Dove bar or the best Godiva bar or even the finest Ghirardelli bars. Not only that, Dilettante makes truffles - those wonderful little balls of outrageous filling completely surrounded by a fine chocolate with a fancy design on the top.
Now, normally, one would expect to pay anywhere from $1.50 to $2.50 for a truffle from Godiva or Dilettante (not sure that Dove and Ghirardelli even make truffles - though there are chocolatiers who supply Nordstrom and don't know who they are either). I hate to say this, but since I already will pay $3.00 or more for a double-shot cappuccino or even up to $4.00 for a double-shot mocha, it should come as no surprise that I'd pay $1.50 to $2.50 for a single, quarter-to-third ounce, chocolate truffle. Don't worry, perfume is still more expensive and you can't eat it. Well, imagine my delight and the wonder of finding that in the "seconds" store, Dilettante is selling their entire line of truffles, all two dozen differently-filled, dark and milk chocolate delights for a mere fifty-cents apiece. You've also got to realize that each truffle is probably the equivalent of a whole Snickers or Three Musketeers bar in terms of fat and calories - that's 200. Well, at fifty cents a pop, I had to have a few and picked a dark and milk chocolate mocha cream filling for two of them, a chocolate-filled dark chocolate covered additional one and a maple-walnut filled milk chocolate. Two dollars, there's no tax on food here in Washington state. I grazed the baskets, smelling the overwhelming mixture of cocoa, chocolate, cocoa butter and the delicious blend of raspberry, maple, orange and the rest of the fillings. I didn't find anything else which so motivated me as the truffles, though it's not for a lack of appetite, more out of a respect for my body.
I left the store, took a few pictures in the immediate vicinity and headed north on 23rd Avenue to see a little more of the Central District firsthand. Twenty-third Avenue runs in the shallow of a little valley which sits on the east side of Capitol Hill and separates Capitol Hill from Madrona and Madison neighborhoods. Further south Central widens considerably because the valley actually widens. This area historically has been at the forefront of a number of civil rights movements and has housed a considerable number of Seattle's grunge musicians. It looks pretty much like the flatland area of any big city, lots of one- and two-story storefronts and small factories and shops. Street after street of hundred-year-old houses many of which are being torn down for newer houses or conversion into duplex and four-plex condominiums. It's not a threatening area, more like a simple area with a face which could easily hide any number of things going on behind the doors and windows of the houses and shops. As 23rd crosses Madison the area steps up a bit and it's clear there's an invasion of the downtown-Belltown genre occurring. There's a brand-new Safeway on the ground floor of a huge new condominium complex, something which would be right at home in Northern Virginia, Montgomery County or even here across the Lake in Bellevue.
I open the little plastic sack containing my Dilettante truffles. I eat them all, one right after the other. My mouth is awash with the warm glow of real, pure, chocolate and I can feel the complex proteins moving through my blood stream and into my head and arms and legs. Yes, chocolate does strange and wonderful things to humans and these four truffles energized me. I won't say that the Central District suddenly turned pink and purple and aqua and tangarine, but it felt like I was somehow in a more enlightening location than I knew myself to be. Ah, those chocolates really do work.
I continued up to Roy Street where I had planned to turn west to intersect Broadway (actually 10th at this point on the hill) and begin a trek down Capitol Hill's main drag to pay a visit to the Dilettante Bakery and main candy shop and coffee house. However, when I crossed 14th Street, I realized I was just a stone's throw from Volunteer Park and hadn't been to the Asian Art Museum in a few months and that would be a nice little diversion. I headed north on 14th, climbed the water tower to see what the view was from on top and discovered that the morning fog was making a wonderful play with the city and the trees in the area as it slowly lifted. It was by now about noon. I climbed down and went to the Asian Art Museum, flashing my member pass, and taking a quick jaunt through all the galleries, reminding myself what a delight Asian and near-Eastern art is - especially after having seen so much truly good modern art the night before. There was a special showing of some Japanese panels - the classic "silk" screen approach to landscape painting. The show is called "Beyond the Paper Plain: Japanese Prints from the 1950s to 1970s ". This was a wonderful exhibition as well, showing off the evolution of the Japanese-styled landscape art, especially as there are several galleries with much earlier work from both Japan and China. I've always wanted a folding screen filled with silk prints of the mountains in the Upper Yangtse River basin. After spending some considerable time on Chinese web sites (check out this one, for instance, <http://pic.templetons.com/brad/photo/china/wu/ >) I've concluded that the mountains as depicted in Chinese silk paintings are not, as I had thought, ethereal and mystical, but rather really are that way - which is even more wonderful when you think about it.
I walked through the Asian Art galleries twice, mostly to see everything from a different perspective as I entered each gallery from a different direction on the two tours. I paused a few times in front of the various Budhas and thought again of the necessity of America remaining a secular nation. It's a true shame but the heartland residents are so ignorant, and I mean this in the classic sense of not having the knowledge. As great and powerful and empowering as Christianity is, this world and its civilizations have spawned so many great and powerful and empowering religions. To focus on one of them uniquely would be like removing Red, and Orange, and Yellow, and Green, and Blue, and Indigo from the spectrum and having only Violet left. What a colorless and drab world this would truly be. I just hope I can somehow find the method and the manner to be able to share with those who would be happy to remain oblivious to the wide religious choices there are, and the enrichment each of them brings to any individual, irrespective of one's personal preference or belief. Ah, art, it really does transcend so many differences.
I headed back towards Broadway and made it to the Dilettante shop. I was the only one inside, all of the other customers had taken their coffees in "to go" cups and were sitting outside on the benches and chairs which lined the front of the chocolate-bakery-coffee house. It's about mid-way in the Broadway strip from Roy at the north to the Seattle Central Community College campus at the south end near Pine. A good spot on the boulevard and since there was no one else inside, I asked for a cappuccino, double shot, in a cup and sat at one of the dozens of tables and watched the outside pedestrian traffic through the windows and gazed at all the chocolate treats and cakes and other pastries which were on display. A single slice of Chocolate Mocha cake or German Chocolate cake (or any of the other dozen cakes, for that matter) was $5.75. Of course, if a single truffle is $2.00, it's easy to see how a single slice of cake could be nearly six bucks. I'd already had my chocolate fix, though, so I was not tempted. They did look gorgeous, though, they're a work of art in their own manner, each decorated differently based on the contents, much like the truffles each have a distinguishing marker to tell the aficionado what's inside.
I finished my coffee and headed back out to Broadway, passing the weird and wonderful collection of Seattleites who are the denizens and locals of Capitol Hill. Much more than Adams-Morgan or Dupont and bordering on the Village in choice and variety, Capitol Hill has a truly odd-mixture of all type and manner of individual, each flavor coming in the youth, young adult, middle adult and aged versions as well. If ever one wanted to totally freak a midwesterner fundamentalist the way to do it would be to set up a luncheon which included an outside table along Broadway. It would be way cheaper and achieve the same effect as an evening at a Village club. Besides which, compared to New York's Village, or Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square, or DC's Dupont Circle/Adams-Morgan neighborhoods, Seattle's Capitol Hill is an absolute bargain in price.
I reached Pine and headed downtown to get to the Pike Market area and catch a bus home. On the way I passed the beginning of what will be an interminable stretch of construction as the bus tunnel is beginning to be retro-fitted for the light rail. This project, which will tear up Pine Street and a few cross streets such as 7th and 6th, began recently and won't be finished for at least two years. Ah, more progress. At least in Seattle, the city closes lanes for cars but keeps pedestrian lanes open. Not many other cities favor pedestrians over cars and that's one more nice thing about Seattle.
I get to the market area and noted that my bus would be along in another twenty minutes, so rather than waiting, I headed south along First Avenue figuring I could easily walk the mile, burn off more of the Dilettante truffles, and catch the same bus pretty much about the time I arrived at Pioneer Square. First Avenue is always a fun walk, it's the most varied and eclectic of downtown Seattle's main boulevards and has the added advantage of being two elevated blocks away from the waterfront, affording Elliott Bay views at every cross street.
I caught the bus home and did a bit of housework, things like getting my antenna for my radio set up on the roof in a better, more permanent, manner, and waited till later in the day when I would head back downtown for a reading at Elliott Bay Book Company from one of my favorite authors - Ursula K. Le Guin.
And now some photos of Dilettante Chocolatiers, Central District and Capitol Hill
The Dilettante Chocolate "seconds" store at the corner of 23rd Avenue East and East Cherry Street. The view on the
left is looking east from across 23rd. The middle view is the corner view from the opposite corner. The view on
the right is the view across Cherry Street looking north at the store and it's unassuming front door. The roofline
of this old, converted, corner store had embedded ceramic tiles. The windows didn't allow for a look inside.
A sculpture in front of the Garfield Community Center, right across the
street from the Dilettante Chocolate seconds store. The Garfield
center is the community center for the Central District.
That's Madison Street heading down the hill towards Lake Washington and 23rd
Avenue in front. What struck me about this intersection was the color of the building
and the receding color of all the trees resplendent in their Fall colors. Sort of a
multi-spectral corner on this day.
The spire of St. Joseph's Catholic Church rising over the schoolyard of St. Joseph's
school. This is along Roy Street at 18th and 17th (if I remember correctly, it's a few
blocks west of 23rd Avenue). The church and school take up a whole block in what
is a very nice Capitol Hill neighborhood on the eastern slope of the hill.
The front of the main school building with the spire of the cathedral rising a little
further north along the block. The church, really a cathedral, is well known locally
as is the school. Of course, everyone wears a uniform, in this case green jackets
over black pants or skirts and white shirts. It's always odd to run across a Catholic
school because one sees first graders through seniors all dressed the same.
Fall was in full swing along Roy Street in the neighborhood sections
of Capitol Hill. The older neighborhoods have a relatively wide
selection of trees as generation after generation of Seattle resident
gardners have pruned and re-replanted their yards. Capitol Hill,
along with Queen Anne Hill, have wonderful streets for Fall strolls.
This map shows my travels Friday morning and afternoon. After arriving downtown by bus, I transferred
to a #3 which travels up Cherry Street and around the hospitals on First Hill and then heads east
on Cherry to Madrona, which is the end-of-the-line. The #3 and #4 run about every 15 minutes
as opposed to the 20-series buses I take from West Seattle, which run every 30 minutes. Total
walking distance, as shown by the green line, was just short of six miles, an easy walk for me.
Black Sun is a sculpture in front of the plaza at Volunteer Park's Seattle Asian Art
Museum. Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was the sculptor, an influential Japanese
modernist whose work influenced a number of others. There are other works
of his in the city and in quite a few other American cities as well as throughout Japan.
Depending on where one stands, the sculpture's port hole perfectly frames the Space
Needle, downtown, or Queen Anne Hill.
It also sits directly in front of the reservoir at Volunteer Park and in this view is framed
itself by the reflections of the reservoir and the Fall colors of the trees in front of the
gate house across the reservoir.
Another perspective of the Black Sun. Understated and organic in ways which require
many visits to the plaza to appreciate. Noguchi was very much a student of how art
can arise from the Earth, how the materials can integrate the land and the spirit and
how a civilization can interplay with art and individuals play "with" the art.
From the top of the water tower looking northwest out over the Volunteer Park landscape
towards Seattle Center. The Space Needle is barely discernible through the dissipating
morning fog.
The city's downtown rising up from the fog just beyond the changing colors of the trees
surrounding Volunteer Park.
Looking south towards the spire at St. Joseph's Church, again over the trees and fog.
The top level of the Volunteer Park tower has an engaging set of panels spaced about
every six feet on the entire circular upper level. Most of them depict the history of the
city's parks system and the evolution of the Olmsted Brothers and the various
philosophies they espoused in their municipal efforts. This one, however, relates
directly to the role of this water tower as a pressure reservoir for the city's water
distribution system. In this depiction, the dark red lines are the major conduits for
bringing fresh water into the city's reservoir and water distribution network. Of note
is the the tiny dot in the center which is the Snoqualmie River. The marked off
water sources on the top right and bottom right are areas of the western Cascades
from which the city receives its water, in the form of snow melt. Seattle city water
is a very good water and the city takes great pride in its water and the watershed
providing it. The city provides water service for most of the 1.8 million King County
area residents.
Volunteer Park foliage was no less colorful than the entire Capitol Hill neighborhood.
This is looking out over the fields on the southern side of the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
The mirrors on one of the walls inside Dilettante's Capitol Hill showcase cafe. I've blanked out the actual wall,
filling it with black to allow the mirrors to become more apparent. The reflections show the other side of the
coffee house, candy store, and bakery - the middle tall rectangular mirror reflects me sitting at one of the tables.
Behind me is an entire showcase of Dilettante truffles. I
wasn't tempted, though, since I'd already had four of them
at one-quarter their normal price. I always look stern in
self-portraits, so forgive the stern look, I wasn't feeling stern
but have never learned how to smile for a camera held
by my hand.
There's this great Harley-Davidson showcase right
on First Avenue within a block of the Harbor Steps. This
was a 1917 model which obviously had been lovingly
restored. It still had it's military color, though.
Here's another shot of the front struts. I couldn't get the
whole cycle in the picture because of the reflection off
the showcase glass window so I had to press the camera
lens right to the glass, which restricted the angle of view
I could capture. It looks just as mean and serious and fun,
though, as if it were made yesterday.
At the intersection of First Avenue and University Street is the downtown Seattle Art Museum. In front there's this great,
dynamic, sculpture of what looks like a guy using a hammer to forge - what - "art." Anyway, these three views capture
the motion of the forging arm. It's one of those things which when you first see it you think, "Gawd, how clunky." But, after
repeated sightings and watching this thing in perpetual forging motion, you realize it's a fantastic visual metaphor.
Downtown Seattle would never be the same without this guy, Art-man, I call him. By the way, for those who can cross
their eyes to create stereoscopic vision - these images provide that - use any two adjacent images and cross your
eyes till a three-dimensional structure (the SAM building) emerges.
Next up the evening's company with Ursula K. Le Guin.
Posted: Sun - November 7, 2004 at 10:14 AM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM