Belltown
Check out the artist studios, try your hand at glass blowing and end the day at a near by restaurant, coffee house, bistro or pub… There is something for everyone in Belltown.
Seattle Cold Readers Belltown
No longer are scripts doomed to dark drawers, gathering dust. No longer are actors relegated to coffee shops with nothing to read. No longer is the community deprived of the art and genius of their own budding stars.
Now, on the third Thursday of every month, Seattle Cold Readers invites the community to the Spitfire Bar and Grill to enjoy an engaging evening of cold readings of great scripts, written by local playwrights & screenwriters, and read by some of Seattle's top actors. Don't be left out of the fun.
Spit Fire Bar & Grill
2219 4th Ave
Seattle, WA 98121-2058
(206) 441-7966
Map
How Denny Hill Became Belltown
Legend has it there were once seven hills. Not the ones in Rome we all learned about in school, but right here in Seattle.
One of the seven was Denny Hill, located just north of what is now downtown Seattle. In 1892, then City Engineer Reginald Thomson had a vision of straight and level roads in his city. Denny Hill stood in the way of that vision. Second Avenue was a bluff that dropped straight to the tide line below, confining the original Belltown to First and Western Avenues and largely isolated from downtown Seattle.
Thomson decided that dumping Denny Hill load by horse-drawn load over the bluff might just solve his problem. However, this was slow going with a hill a hundred or so feet high. Thomson, having sometime witnessed a hydraulic mining operation, decided he could get rid of the offending hill by sluicing it away hydraulically. So water was pumped from Lake Union to wash away Denny Hill once and for all. And finally, in 1930, the job was finished (with the help of steam shovels).
Belltown or the Denny Regrade, as it is also known, was at one time a working-class neighborhood, home of labor unions and their meeting halls. There were the usual hotels, apartments, cafes, restaurants, taverns and clubs serving the neighborhood residents and the occasional visiting seaman.
Today, Belltown reflects a neighborhood in transition. Gone are the single-family homes and their old neighborhoods, replaced by high-rise condos and office buildings, up-scale restaurants, coffee shops, night clubs, boutiques and art galleries.
However, some of the old apartment buildings and brick storefronts still remain, renting to the young, the single, the artist or musician. As you look around at these vintage buildings and storefronts, you catch a glimpse of the Bohemian element that survives in this mini-SoHo colony. Check out an artist’s studio—with work in progress—or a nearby café with an all-organic menu. Most of all, enjoy the eclectic and trendy offerings of Belltown. A neighborhood rediscovering itself.
Big Picture Seattle
2505 First Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121
Phone: 206-256-0566
www.thebigpicture.net
You have to be an adult (21) to get in here. The Big Picture is the only place in Seattle you can go to the movies and have a cocktail delivered to your seat.
There is a cocktail lounge in the lobby; enjoy martini olives that are stuffed with real blue cheese and shaken with love, and popcorn which is fresh popped and served in Champagne buckets with white cheddar cheese sprinkled on top. It’s a perfect place to sneak away to for a little private one on one time. Only in Belltown… and, well, Redmond.
Seattle Cinerama Theatre
2100 4th Avenue
Seattle, WA, 98121
www.cinerama.com
map
Ticket Info: (206) 441-3080
Box Office: (206) 441-3653
Visit the only remaining Super Cinerama theatre in the world. Saved from the wrecking-ball by Seattle native and billionaire Paul Allen, the newly refurbished theatre reopened in 1999, as glorious as when it originally opened in 1963.
The Cinerama’s 90-foot-long by 30-foot-high screen is constructed of 2,000 independently angled louvered strips that provide a clear, brilliant picture for patrons sitting anywhere in the theater. However this screen is only used for special Cinerama presentations like 70mm classic “2001: A Space Odyssey” and 3-strip films like “How The West Was Won”. For screening modern day first run movies a second modular 68-foot –long screen is erected. This isn’t just another “movie theatre” – its the Cinerama!
Seattle Glassblowing Studio
2227 5th Ave
Seattle WA 98121
Phone 206 448 2181
www.seattleglassblowing.com
map
Hours Open Everyday 10am to 6pm
Admission: Free
Seattle Glassblowing Studio is not just an art studio that produces beautiful works of art and lovely functional pieces like sinks and lamps. The Studio also provides classes and training to the next generation of glass artists. Visit the gallery and hotshop between Bell and Blanchard St. on 5th Ave, under the Monorail. Come watch live glassblowing 7 days a week!
The Seattle Glass Gallery (a satellite) is located at:
2200 Westlake
Seattle WA
206-708-6711
2200 building in South Lake Union on the corner of 9th Avenue and Westlake Avenue, right around the corner from Whole Foods.
