Like a failed facelift.....

In my trolling about (on eBay, that is) sometimes you stumble upon something that you have to look at twice because it looks sort of familiar, and then you realize that it's the younger, more attractive version of what you are used to seeing.

Take the Seattle King's Inn.....



This motel has been on Fifth Avenue for a million years. I see it because it is next door to Top Pot, where we often have office meetings. It's one of those places that will undoubtedly disappear one of these days for some horrible new condo or apartment development.

But take a look at it in it's younger days as the "Town Center"



Now that's svelte. This picture is obviously pre-monorail, because if you stood where that photographer stood to take the picture, you'd undoubtedly see the tracks lurking over it. But beyond that, all the sexy minimalistic touches have now been painted over or covered with those stupid teal awnings.

I'm sure that the Town Center was just as unpleasent of a place as the King's Inn is: Those courtyard hotels are nothing but echo chambers, and those nice big picture windows allow little privacy and nothing in the way of views. But at least the Town Center tried for some cool.

Speaking of cool, I KNOW that many of the readers of the Good Taste Chronicles are familiar with the Ballard Denny's. I've always wondered what it's story was - it doesn't look like any other Denny's I've ever seen, but I always thought it had started out life as some sort of Asian experience, but take a look at this:



If "Manning's in Ballard Buffet and Cafeteria" isn't the Ballard Denny's, I'm Whistler's Mother. But I suppose I should leave it up to the bowlers among us....

btw, For the life of me, I can't figure out what the difference between a "buffet" and a "cafeteria" is (from a restaurant standpoint) and I'll bet you the Manning's didn't either. They probably just thought putting the word "buffet" in the name gave the place a certain tone.....