Saying Goodbye to a Seattle Restaurateur

I used to publish a neighborhood newspaper and the best part of it was the restaurant reviews and food news contributed by my friend Ronald.

I was very protective of the drop off spots for this newspaper. One time I was delivering a stack of papers to a new Belltown condo. The workers at the desk — all wearing matching polo shirts with the logo for the condo on them — didn’t want to take the papers. I whipped out a pocket knife to cut the straps on the bundle, gave them a menacing look, dropped the papers and left. The knife had the logo for local weekly the Stranger on it. A Christmas bonus from the publisher when I worked there.

Another time I was dropping papers off at a restaurant and the owner refused to take them. This was when she was located literally in the basement of a bookstore where plenty of other free papers were given away. I mentioned to her that we had given the restaurant favorable reviews over the years and had never once approached her about advertising.

Years later I worked at a restaurant with a guy who left to work for this person and I felt really sorry for him.

—Alex

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