Crocodile Rocks For Lawyer In Search Of A `Better Way'

The Crocodile Cafe, 2200 Second Ave.. Open Tuesday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Live music Friday, Saturday and Tuesday from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Tonight, The Tiny Hat Orchestra. Tomorrow, Terry Lee Hale's record release party, Somebody's Daughter and The Bolo Brothers. Cover $5. 448-2114. ------------------------------------------------------------ Stephanie Dorgan didn't think being a corporate lawyer in a prestigious Seattle law firm was a passionate way to live her life, so she opened a restaurant in Belltown.

Richland born, Dorgan's only previous restaurant experience was working in a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor as a teenager. She eventually moved to San Francisco, got her law degree at UC Berkeley and returned to Seattle 2 1/2 years ago to join Davis, Wright and Tremaine.

"It was the sensible thing to do, but I always had a gut feeling there was a better way," she says.

She was playing darts with friends at the Frontier Room one day last September, bemoaning the brevity of good places to go in Belltown, when that better way struck her.

Dorgan had the idea to meld culinary, visual and audio arts. Through the law firm she had met Craig Graham, a Seattle artist whose company, Exhibit A, did art installation. He liked the idea of installing art in his own place and joined a general partnership with Dorgan.

Graham developed the classic diner design in the restaurant and brought Mardi Gras masks, carnival posters and glass work by William Morris into the cafe's Live Bait Lounge. The art installations will change periodically.

Graham, who came up with Crocodile Cafe while visualizing "mean fish" to accompany the Live Bait room, says he can throw out concepts all day long, "but I'm lousy at business. Stephanie handles all of that."

Dorgan and Graham incorporated and then sold limited partnerships for operating capital.

"Mostly to lawyers," she says, laughing.

She corralled Craig Packard, a friend of her sister and head chef at Chez Shea, to design the restaurant's menu. He left Chez Shea and joined up full time.

"We wanted to keep everything on the menu under $10," Dorgan says. "And Craig is adamant that the food be strictly fresh and made from scratch. We don't even have a freezer. We want quality, not just a greasy spoon to support a liquor license."

Terry Lee Hale, former owner/operator of the Central Tavern, will handle the live music bookings. Last Friday he scored his first Live Bait coup by bringing in The Posies, on the sly, to open for Love Battery.

"We had an $8 boom box that we listened to while we were remodeling," Graham says. "I don't know how many times I heard the Posies during that period. So to walk into my lounge last Friday and have them playing there live, it was just unreal. It was great."

Dorgan emphasizes the sound is state-of-the-art and says a lot of money was spent on sound insulation.

"We want to be a welcome, working part of this neighborhood," Dorgan says. "It's really important to us. We don't want an adversarial relationship. We want to belong."

Asked how the neighbors have taken what Graham calls their one-stop-shopping-spot, she beams.

"We're already getting regulars. And the condo next door, they sent flowers opening night."