Eastlake Club Knows Its Niche: Site For A Sip, A Bite And Live Music

If you're going to open a nightclub or restaurant, you want a name that gives the prospective customer some idea of what he or she is getting themselves into. Calling your place the Drink Bar & Grill is about as self-explanatory as you're going to get.

"It kind of says it all, doesn't it?" says Damon Maletta, who along with partners Jeff and Steve Howard took over the space that formerly housed Rory's, at 2245 Eastlake Ave., Seattle, and gave it this point-blank moniker. Not that you'd notice immediately. The venue is so new, the sign hasn't gone up over the door yet.

The Drink quietly opened two Saturdays ago, but Maletta, who formerly operated RKCNDY, expects to make a bigger noise in coming months.

"As soon as I saw the kitchen, I knew we could have a Class H (hard liquor) license," he says. "Those have gotten harder to get, but I knew we had the right setup and we got it.

"Now we're in the process of getting our added activities permit, still going through all the hoops. Once we've got that we'll be bringing in live music, maybe jazz one night a week, a blues thing another (night) and a rotating night where some of the artists I met at RKCNDY over the last four or five years can come in and try some new things.

"I'm looking for some softer kind of music, something you can listen to if you want, but still be able to carry on a conversation. We're also thinking of having DJs in."

Eastlake Avenue isn't without live-music venues. Bandoleone, next door to the Drink, presents Latin/jazz music every Sunday. Serafina, just a few blocks south, also offers jazz Thursday through Saturday. Even the Eastlake Zoo occasionally hosts a band.

"Bandoleone and Serafina are pretty small places," Maletta says. "We think we can just do more with the space we have."

The front door to the Drink opens to the bar and restaurant area, plenty of places to sit and sip or grab some food. In the next room is a cozy lounge setting, slightly '50s in decor, but without being too retro or garish.

"I just want it to be a cool, comfortable place," says Maletta. "We're not going after the university crowd so much as we are people from the neighborhood and up from the city. People who want to kick back and, well, have a drink."

The kitchen offers an all-American grill menu, ribs, steak, chicken and a little fish.

The Drink is open 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Sunday. For more info, call 206-860-0284.

-- Home Alive, the local self-help, self-defense organization, celebrates its fifth year with a six-day Awareness Week beginning Monday. Festivities kick off at 7 p.m. with pool and bingo at the Garage at 1130 Broadway on Capitol Hill; an open house from 7 to 9 p.m. at Home Alive's offices at 1925 Eighth Ave.; and a benefit show at 9 p.m. at Cap Hill's Wild Rose, 1021 E. Pike St. Goodness' Carrie Akre and Garth Reeves, singer Vanessa Vaselka of Bell, the group Veronica 6 and singer-songwriter Greta Harley will perform. A donation of $5 (or more if you're feeling generous) will get you in.

-- The Easy at 916 E. Pike St. has changed hands. The restaurant and dance spot will reopen in a few weeks as Spintron. The Easy had been primarily a women's club. Word is Spintron will welcome all genders, all persuasions. Stay tuned for more. -------------------------------

Tom Phalen is a Seattle free-lance writer. His Ace of Clubs column appears every week in Ticket. Send club information to Clubs, c/o Ticket, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle WA 98111: or fax to 206-464-2239. You must include price and starting times to be considered for inclusion. Information must be received in writing 10 days before publication.