Seattle is, as they say, a city of neighborhoods, and when we first moved to Queen Anne, the local 5 Spot restaurant was particularly welcoming. We liked to sit and eat at the bar, watch a UW game or the Mariners, and befriend the bartender. Hank may have been the first person in town to remember our names every time, and so the 5 Spot became for us, the local Cheers bar.
Every now and then we feel in need of that again. Earlier this week, at a time of high election angst, we returned. (It is important to note here that this was before Hurricane Sandy made landfall). The intensity of the election was, at that time, Category 4, all consuming and draining. As Anne Lamott put it, “This is no way to live–rooting around the internet and twitter sites like a truffle hound, looking for better polls.” We had to get out of the house.
Once again, the 5 Spot was just the ticket. For those who are unfamiliar, the 5 Spot continually celebrates an “American Food Festival” by changing its theme every three months. Sometimes it’s Texas, New Orleans or New York. Currently the theme was Washington D.C. Of course it would be.
Customers entered via a red or blue door to a restaurant decorated with every red, white and blue cliché: stars & stripes, beads, hats and streamers. It felt like one enormous rally. It felt like election night. And it occurred to us that maybe this was one way to deflect from the election, by just stepping right into it. Soon it would all be over, in other words.
“Vote with Your Liver” screamed the cocktails menu. Although I knew we would be ordering our usual iced teas, it was a good read:
Let Me Be Clear Martini, “no details, perfectly clear”
Bain Baubles & Bubbles, “silly, what recession?”
Joe’s Scranton Manhattan
Private Sector Sunrise, “we build, you drink, no interference”
Hair of the Dog, “for those mornings when you feel like you were tied to the roof of your car”
One of my goals this campaign season was to change my mother’s mind, to get her “to vote like a woman.” I wrote a blog post on the subject, “Don’t Call Me During the Debates,” and told mom that I had written it for her. And in every conversation I tried in some way to convince her. Then one day she informed me that it was too late.
“Your father and I have already voted,” she said.
“So there’s no sense talking to you anymore?” I quipped.
Mom laughed, I laughed.
Well, maybe I will try a Hair of the Dog cocktail afterall.
The specialty menu at 5 Spot offered Congressional House Hash, Marion Barry Cakes, White House Standoff, Koch Bros. Memorial Super Pac Porkity Pork Wich, and Initiative 502 “Herb” Salad (in reference to Washington state’s marijuana legalization initiative). I went with my usual, Cobb Salad.
There was no room for dessert. We had so much on our plates. Slurping to the bottom of my Hair of the Dog I was thinking, we can’t go back and protest for women’s rights again, not twice in one lifetime! I want to pray, please let Obama win so I can get on with my work!
Meanwhile, over on the Eastern seaboard, global warming was at our door. And she didn’t knock, and she didn’t just huff and puff, but blew our house down. How many times do we have to be reminded? Nature rules.
Vote, and vote intelligently.
a little elbow room
a little elbow room 
I love the 5 Spot, always fun and welcoming. You never know quite what you are going to get, but it is always fun and tasty. I wish politics were a little more like this….happy voting.
I may have to go back for the Memorial Super Pac Porkity Pork… sounds good. I must say the counter on the red door was not faring too well!
You will get a kick out of this. The 5 Spot locked the blue door for awhile to give Romney a chance to catch up! I love Seattle.
Kim,
Very solid piece, I mused after the first read and read it again.
It is solid, I thought after a second reading but what’s so solid about it? She jumps all over the place, East Coast, West Coast, Seattle, DC, the election, her mother, Sandy. What’s this all have to do with The 5 Spot. I quibbed?
The 5 Spot is a great little picture you’ve put up for display. I can see it, smell it, hear it and even get a little buzz from the drink menu. I would love to have joined in on the bs sessions that produced names for the special menu’s drinks and fare. I cannot think of anything nice for a drink at this time but something will popup later since I spent a few years behind the plank myself. That was years ago when folks ordered, a ditch water, or simply a ditch (cheap, blended bourbon). Perhaps something else involving tequila such as, A Path to Citizenship (with coffee) or a Greencard ( with coffee and Kalua), might catch on. Or something from up your way such as, An illegal, (Canadian Blended) served neat from a small, clear, carafe for two.
I think a Mitt Romney, Let Them Eat Cake, platter would be appropriate.
I warned you, nothing nice yet comes to mind.
But right then, something solid hit me. Right on the chin it landed and laid me out on the canvas, flat. The referee hovered over me with a slow count, one….. two…… three……. “Not twice in one lifetime!” …eight, nine, ten and yer out! That’s a powerful statement, Kim. Surely a counterpunch whose strength and speed Mighty Mitten has underestimated.
Alexander Finn
I love it that you liked it afterall. Here’s to you with a couple more cocktails from the 5 Spot: Dirty Politics Martini and Capitol Beltway Bonecrusher.
We could all use one.
Great article Kim and so vital at this moment. Wish we had a place like that in Uxbridge.
I just saw “struggle”, a show on Link TV-that showed how during the Bush/Kerry elections there was blatant vote stealing and very dirty tricks.The republicans pulled out voting machines in the poorest districts if Cincinatti,Dayton,Columbus and Cleveland and gave them to richer districts-causing the lines in the poorer areas to be 5 to 6 hours long ! But many were unfased and waited it out-can’t believe this happens in America.I guess the dirty tricks have been going on for along time In 2004 they made sure Bush won by a large margin so it wouldn’t be challanged like Gore/Bush in 2000. Crazy stuff.