Unfortunately, the Funhole is closed for the forseeable future. We just couldn’t make it fiscally viable. We tried. Thanks for all your support this year in our venture!
September 3, 2009
July 2, 2009
Photo by Daniel Berman/SeattlePI.com
The amazing Fremont Solstice Festival flew by in a flash!! In case you aren’t aware of this Festival, it takes place in downtown Fremont each June and is especially famous for featuring 200+ nude painted bicyclists. The Stranger called it Seattle’s “best parade of the year,” and The Funhole called it “tasty and mindblowing!” With the help of more than a dozen friends and family (including my mom who flew in from Maine to help!), The Funhole served successfully more than 250 people in a period of just over two hours. Thanks for all the help, guys!! We offered free lemonade to naked bike riders; t-shirts were double-priced for the nudies.
We now offer milkshakes in seven flavors, including cheesecake, malt, banana, green tea-cherry, and marshmallow. [update -- the Health Inspector wants us to file additional and expensive paperwork before we continue offering milkshakes, just fyi]. We also offer a new dog: The Seattle Fire Department, which includes three kinds of hot sauces with horse radish.
But by far my favorite news of the week: local comic and fine artist Jim Woodring stopped by last week and ordered an official Jim Woodring Dog which includes sriracha, pineapple and cream cheese. He wrote a blog about his experience. I love love love his work, and he was completely sweet and experiential!
Woodring writes:
If further proof were needed that Seattle is your kind of town, this menu from The Funhole (!) would be the icing on the trout. Signature Dog #2, inaugurated without my knowledge but with my full post-event approval is made with top-quality local materials and is stunningly delicious.
A painting by Jim Woodring (title unknown)
May 26, 2009
I spent this weekend at the Sasquatch Music Festival, which was wonderful, camping out three nights at The Gorge Amphitheatre with good friends and scenic vistas, laughing and smiling more than the US National Debt, and experiencing some of the best bands on our planet. Of Montreal’s performance was especially beautiful. If you ever get a chance to check them out live, I recommend it like I recommend sunscreen and hydration in 85 degree sunny summer days — even with SPF 45 I received uber-sunburns at Sasquatch. Taking a shower the morning-after felt like pellets of razor blades being shot at my neck, forehead, ears, etc.
This musical vacation interlude was much needed as I’ve tended to see the pessimistic side of owning a business lately — worrying about finances and inventory, hoping the place doesn’t fall apart when I’m not there (it didn’t!). My friends tell me we are doing about as well as could be hoped for at this point, that our philosophy is golden, our product is quality and in demand, and our process/service is working. I still worry. I guess its just in my nature, that until things are perfect I will spend emotional energy to get there.
I’m currently getting quotes from t-shirt printers. People have been asking for shirts and stickers with our logo on it which sounds like a fantastic deal to me — folks are basically purchasing the opportunity to support us, becoming walking, talking billboards! We want to offer hats as well. The big issue is the initial financial commitment, getting screens made and printing on sizes that will fit everyone. A decent run of shirts is pricey. But I’m on it.
There is something fascinating and amazing about owning a business that doubles as a landmark. We are a destination for tourists and plenty of people stop by just to take a photograph of our Funhole sign. I’m sure our smiling faces are on a lot of Flickr accounts.
May 16, 2009
The Funhole is named after a Fremont punk club from the 70’s. George and I uncovered some old articles on the original joint from the PI and the UW Daily, and Bonnie compiled the results into this fascinating miniature essay:
The Funhole first opened its doors in the summer of 1977 as Seattle’s first legitimate punk rock venue. In true punk rock fashion, the opening night show, featuring the bands Red Dress, Chinas Comidas, The Feelings and Mondo Bando, was shut down by the Seattle Fire Department before Red Dress could play. Citing fire code violations, the Sunday night continuation of the opening weekend “Punk Rock Showcase” was cancelled. Despite initial difficulties, the Funhole remained a memorable Seattle music venue, sustained by all ages of fans and local music producers, and helped to bolster the beginnings of a local alternative music scene in Seattle. Opening only a few months before the Ramones first visited Seattle, the Funhole invited Seattle punk bands to play a show the same night entitled “Fuck the Ramones”. Amidst many arguments between concertgoers and music journalists about whether or not bands such as Mondo Bando and The Feelings were truly punk (and what that really meant), the Funhole established its reputation as the first anti-capitalist, all ages, punk owned and operated venue in Seattle, fostering the local punk scene and providing what one fan called “a place to see punk bands where you can actually dance”.
While details on the lifespan of the original Funhole are fuzzy, one thing is clear: long before Seattle was nationally known for its music scene, the Funhole emerged as one of the first places in the city to offer local artists creating their own sound a chance to perform. A queer friendly club before Capitol Hill became a gay neighborhood, The Funhole was well known as the place to go to hear Seattle punk, no matter who you were. Providing a venue for such early Seattle punk bands as The Mentors, The Knobs and Vizzion, the Funhole has an important place in the scattered history of the Seattle music scene.
Two blocks away and 32 years later, J.J. Stein and George Soto are reviving The Funhole in Fremont.
May 11, 2009
As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, my DC-based brother Ted is working on a website for us pro bono! His friend drew the artwork below. I don’t think it is quite ready — Lenin actually had reddish hair and we don’t offer cola — but it’ll make a fine t-shirt, don’t ya think? I adore that Troll.
May 11, 2009
We opened! After 6 months of time and our entire life savings invested, The Funhole is back in business. Opening days are jam packed endeavors, the culmination and the beginning at the same time, an educational experience and a report card. And things didn’t fall apart! We sold some food successfully, received plenty of acclaim on the quality of our products, learned that we have lots of work to do on the efficiency of cooking and on financials. Running a business is hard. For most businesses, profit is all important. For us, ethics is number one. We want to avoid things like bottled water and corn syrup and corporate food conglomerates, even if we could make higher profit margins serving Coke products and 20 cent hot dogs invented by food scientists. Ethics. I want to educate our customers on the importance of buying local, sustainable, tasty, healthier foods.
Opening weekend was exciting and exhausting. I promise to post specific details about this wonderful and educational weekend in the coming days. I’m just too scrambled to do this now after spending 18 hour days focused only on The Funhole. But yay! Thanks for supporting us everyone!
This is only the beginning.
May 9, 2009
Yep, it is really happening. It is 1:53am on the Friday eve before we open to serve you! I just finished programming the cash register (a frustrating abomination of a machine). Over the past week we got a phone number (206-547-HOLE), a web domain (www.thefunhole.com — it is currently directed to this blog, my brother is making a fully featured website), recycling and compost service, street signage, and so much more!
So many people have helped George and I, too many to name. Some of the most important: Marc Taylor, Pure Fe, Bonnie, Justin, my mom, Bonnie’s mom, Kelsey, Malia, Green Go, Homegrown… the list keeps going. And thanks to all our friends and family for emotional support. Working in our non-profit careers while starting up a restaurant isn’t as easy as checkers, you know. Thanks thanks thanks!!
So the menu is almost complete — just some final editing and we’ll print our versions tomorrow morning. Can I tell you about our Funhole Sundae? Soft serve ice cream, with Ghirardelli chocolate and caramel syrups, whipped cream rainbow sprinkles and a cherry, all inside a fresh vegan Mighty O Donut and an edible waflle cup!!
Come visit us tomorrow and all weekend long. We’ll be open late — 11am-2am on Saturday, and 11am-11pm on Sunday. I’ll report back soon with photos.
Thanks thanks thanks again!!
