Romping Through The Ruins -- They Turned An Old Warehouse Into A Reason To Party

May 19, 1996

John Hinterberger

THE NAME IS enigmatic; the location is handy but elusive; the signage almost nonexistent.

Yet, The Ruins, a two-year-old private Seattle supper club, signed up almost 800 onto its membership rolls quickly. Night after night, singles and couples wander in and out of what looks like a dimly lit abandoned warehouse right near the middle of town.

It's not particularly exclusive. You don't need to be wealthy or socially prominent to join. But an invitation to a party at The Ruins has become one of the city's most coveted tickets.

Located two blocks north and east of Seattle Center (the street address is 570 Roy St.), the 11,000-square-foot club is owned and run by the team of Joe McDonald and Virginia Wyman, founders of the Market Place Caterers. McDonald founded it 20 years ago; Wyman joined him two years later.

To find The Ruins, you drive north on Fifth Avenue to the intersection of Roy Street, where thousands of cars daily turn left toward the Center garages. Instead, you turn right and go a couple of blocks east, down a dusty street to the club.

The exterior is a warm, monochromatic, nondescript brown. The interiors are a series of interconnecting dining, drinking and drawing rooms, almost operatic stage sets, decorated with towers of books, life-sized sculpted animals (including a gold-gilt horse covered with a Technicolor blizzard of appliqued paper blossoms), festoons of flowers, dozens of venerable pieces of period furniture (from Virginia's late mother's collection) and faded Oriental carpets. The ornate, almost theatrical spaces include the main dining room, the smaller Chocolate Room (where almost no one orders chocolate), the Library Bistro and the Ha Ha Ballroom.

"I originally wanted to do the entry like the stage set for the opening scene of `Cats,' " McDonald said. "Old tires, inner tubes, garbage cans, sheets of laundry and so forth, that the members would have to tiptoe through, but we gave up on that."

Why Ruins?

"I really don't know," he said. "I knew I didn't want to set ourselves up as Chez Chateau or the Grande Maison or the Palace. Maybe it came one day when I looked at myself in the mirror."

However it came by its name, The Ruins evolved into a remarkably cozy hangout for a widely diverse, congenial (sometimes quirky) membership. It is hardly formal - although some of its dinner parties look that way.

"A party at the Ruins is like stepping onto a set of `The Avengers,' " said a young professional woman who did not want to be identified. "It all looks very elegant - but with a sense of mystery. You are not quite sure who you are going to run into, who might be entertaining around a corner, or what is going to happen next."

She put down a chilled drink on the back of a 2-foot-high porcelain elephant that had been arranged in front of her, like an exotic totemic cocktail table.

Mauny Kaseburg, Seattle radio food-show host says: "I've been to four parties at The Ruins. What has always been surprising to me is that the food has never disappointed. The kitchen is as exciting as the ambience."

A well-dressed, middle-aged couple walks smartly out of the Bistro. McDonald, finishing a late supper of prawns and aspic and a platter of short ribs, raises a glass of merlot in greeting:

"Are you two still here? You've been here since lunch! You might as well stay all NIGHT!"

They laugh, come over for five minutes of conversation and part like close friends who expect to see each other again before the week is out.

Some nights the place is sparsely populated: a few singles or couples sit sipping in corners. Other nights (especially Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, when The Ruins rents out space for private, catered parties) the main room is jammed with evening clothes or what has lately become known as "festive" attire. Yet, adjacent to a lively party, the Library Bistro may be serving intimate late dinners (and devastating martinis) from a pared-down menu to two or three quiet couples into the late hours.

The Ruins originated when McDonald and Wyman, who had long wanted to try assembling a dinner club, put together lists of their clients from previous parties staged by the Market Place Caterers ("It seemed that Peter Donnelly was on about one third of them . . .") and invited them all to a party.

A prospectus was put together (initiation dues of about $500, plus $120 a year; for information: 285-7846) and the gathering was asked if any of them wanted to join. Out of a crowd of about 30, almost 90 percent said yes. At present, there are 780 members. The original cut-off was intended to be 900. But it may be extended.

"Joe McDonald does everything to the nines," said club member Carlyn Steiner. "Nothing is second-rate.

"When we (with husband George Steiner) go to some of the other clubs in town - the Rainier Club or the Tower Club - they don't feel like clubs to me. The Ruins does. I go there and I know and enjoy the people I see."

With its weekends available for private catered parties, and events for guests, its hidden interiors are becoming known to increasing numbers of nonmembers.

If you get the chance, go.

John Hinterberger's restaurant and food columns appear in The Seattle Times in Sunday's Pacific Magazine and Thursday's Tempo. Benjamin Benschneider is a Times photographer.