Saving funky old Seattle

RUBY Montana's is gone. The Doghouse is gone. Couldn't something be done to save the Twin Teepees from a similar fate?

In the branded landscape that is urban America today, saving the oddball, one-of-a-kind symbols of an earlier time is no small task. Just ask Peter Bevis, the sculptor who's on a mission to salvage the rusty old ferry Kalakala.

Who will save the Twin Teepees? Hard to say, but here's why it's worth asking the question. The vintage restaurant building opened to some fanfare in 1937.

It represents pre-Starbucks Seattle as much as the Hat n' Boots service station on East Marginal Way or the gaudy, pink "ToeTruck" on Fairview.

The striking silhouette of Twin Teepees on Aurora Avenue North near Green Lake has attracted the stare of motorists for decades. Longtime residents remember stopping there for traditional roadside meals of burgers, steaks, omlets, and, later, pancakes.

A fire damaged the building earlier this year. Owner Robert Pierides says he'd like to rebuild but the obstacles--financial and otherwise--are formidable.

Pierides confessed to a Times reporter recently that he has strong emotional ties to the place. He started out as kitchen help and bought it in 1985. "The place was almost like a girlfriend," he said. "I was always there."

We tend to become complacent about the good old joints, the funky landmarks that always seem to be there.

Aurora Avenue's Twin Teepees is another reminder that it takes more than one romantic soul to assure that funky Seattle is not left only to memory, old news clips and aging photos in a scrapbook.