House of host selling for most
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The Queen Anne residence of KING-TV "Evening Magazine" host John Curley just went on the market. But be warned: It's not a house for everyone. It's wildly contemporary with orange and red interior walls and original murals.
One friend described it as "like living inside a Salvador Dali painting."
Asking price for the Warren Avenue North house, listed with Windermere Real Estate's Jeff Valcik, is a new high for the immediate neighborhood: $769,950. But on the good side, all the unusual furnishings, artwork and the well-equipped gym in the basement of the three-story house are part of the deal.
Curley and his then-wife, Paula Grooms, remodeled the three-bedroom home themselves. The couple's divorce was final yesterday. Grooms has returned to her native New York City. Curley says he's here to stay and is looking for other digs.
Stars out tonight: Monday's shuttering of Stars restaurant, an anchor tenant at Pacific Place shopping center, has shocked the restaurant world. Not only that, but it has the city's glitterati crying real tears into their martinis.
Opened a little more than two years ago, the restaurant has hosted some of the city's most glamorous events, including last year's FilmAid Oscars Night, a gathering of 750 beautiful people.
Seemingly, Stars had everything going for it: handsome room, innovative food and scintillating bar scene. Why then, in a move that blindsided everyone from General Manager Peggy Boston on down, would San Francisco-based Stars Bar & Dining close it?
One theory: Stars was the wrong fit. Seattleites out for the evening tend to seek out a bistro for cocooning, a more intimate setting than a destination restaurant with an elegant, expansive, airy California style.
Survivor, Seattle-style: Once a year, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe law partners schedule a retreat. And while they're away, the firm's associates redecorate their offices. One year, the pranksters turned a golf-playing attorney's office into a putting green with sod that lasted until it hatched bugs.
This year's theme was "Survivor II" in honor of summer associate Nick Brown, one of 10 survivors still appearing on the reality-TV show. (Brown, a second-year Harvard law student, is recognized all over town. The other night, his party was seated immediately at Wild Ginger after first being told there would be a 45-minute wait.)
When the partners returned Monday, they found two offices had been turned into tribal headquarters, complete with a live pig, a fish swimming in a pond and an egg-laying hen.
The associates, dressed in khaki, were filing into the "tribal council" office to vote for which partner should be next to leave the firm.
Quake quencher: Former state House Speaker Joe King says he was walking in downtown Olympia at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, about 90 minutes after the Nisqually Earthquake. He was amazed to spot a sandwich board on the sidewalk advertising $2 "earthquake pints."
Says King: "There wasn't another business on that block that was open. But that little beer hall seen their chance and took it."
Jean Godden's e-mail: jgodden@seattletimes.com.