The Angel of Belltown
About a year after the fire, Tom and I moved to the building next door to the old Speakeasy Cafe. If we crawled up through our skylight to the roof garden, we could walk right into its burnt out hulk.
Category: Cafe
Feeling Less Helpless, Together
A memory that stands out is getting a phone call from a night shift tech telling me that the cafe was on […]
As the Windows Above Us Exploded
The rising air made the steel door to the staircase rattle like someone was trying to escape. When the slate pool tables exploded, the falling balls sounded like running feet upstairs.
The Fire
On the evening of May 18th, 2001, one of the cornerstones of Speakeasy’s ideology, community, and company culture was — quite literally — burned to the ground.
Press: 21 Dog Years – Timely look inside Amazon.com
Mike Daisey’s breakthrough work, 21 Dog Years, debuted in Speakeasy’s Backroom theater in early 2001.
We All Pulled Together
I always loved the old building(s) we were in, but being in the 2nd Ave office during the Nisqually quake in 2001 was fairly memorable, since I was pretty sure I was going to die.
LANsanity
Introverts from all over converged for LANsanity, a Quake 3 tournament with DJs, beer, and a $1,500 first prize.
Put it in Juakeem’s Box
At some point during my tenure as a barista, I became the curator of the cafe’s music selection. It was my job to buy CDs for the fifty-disc CD changer that served as a primitive iPod, providing the musical backdrop for caffeinated web browsing.
Giddy and Free
There are too many memories! There were a lot of good times, but the best times were spent in Belltown and the bestest times were spent before the cafe burned down.
Press: Nader for Prez!
The Speakeasy Cafe hosted a fundraiser for the Green Party presidential hopeful, Ralph Nader.