Walrus and Carpenter featured in GQ!

Now we know we have officially arrived! GQ magazine features Dovetail project Walrus and Carpenter in their January issue and on their website, in their "10 Best New Restaurants in America" feature. This project also puts Seattle on the map, as the other restaurants listed are in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. Added bonus: their panna cotta with wild huckleberries is listed as one of the top five best desserts - in the whole country! Walrus and Carpenter is an oyster bar (and more) in Old Ballard, that we're very proud to have been part of creating. Please be good to yourself and make it out there.

Among the praise heaped on Walrus and Carpenter: "A pitch-perfect oyster bar, and more ... reminds me of the once wonderful Pike Place Market, before it got touristy and bland ... This kind of restaurant should define Seattle dining"

finishing touches on Rock Box on Capitol Hill

We are putting the finishing touches on Rock Box, a new Karaoke venue on Capitol Hill. Rock Box is a karaoke "box" in the traditional Japanese style, with 12 private boxes ranging from small (four to six guests), to medium (eight to ten), to large (12 to 14). It will also include a party room that accommodates up to 40 people and which will host a weekly, non-karaoke DJ night. Design for the build-out was by MW Works. Check out the Rock Box website for more info, and be sure to come on down and rock out with your friends!

Here's a few more pics of the buildout as we near completion:

The entry features salvaged wood and some really cool steel work.


The street-facing booth has glass that can go from clear
to frosted with a flick of a switch! Now that is pretty cool.


Site superintendent Roger Shurtleff demonstrates
proper 'chilling' technique inside a booth awaiting upholstery.

Molly Moon's featured in design blog

Molly Moon's Ice Cream on Capitol Hill, which we completed in 2009, was recently featured in the Schemata Workshop blog along with some pretty great images.

You can see some more images of the shop on our website. Whatever you do, head on up to Capitol Hill and have some ice cream at Molly's.

Wall + Roof Studio on ArchDaily

The ArchDaily Blog has an excellent post about a project we built not long ago, the Wall + Roof Studio by Hutchison & Maul Architecture. Although it has a small footprint, it's full of innovative details and concepts. ArchDaily posted some high resolution drawings, sketches, and photos of the project, including a great shot of our very own Chris Mega who lead the construction. Check it out!

More Dovetail work makes the papers

Above we see Cupcake Royale, a recent Dovetail commercial project, in a recent Seattle Times article by Tyrone Beason (image by Benjamin Benschneider / The Seattle Times) about the Pike/Pine business corridor in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Beason describes the tensions that can arise when a neighborhood emerges as an exciting and vibrant place, and the ways in which owners, developers, and business owners can try to maintain a healthy neighborhood once demand (and rents) increase. Here at Dovetail we are proud that the projects we've been involved with in the neighborhood (Cupcake Royale, Molly Moon's, Oddfellows Cafe, Nube Green, La Spiga, Quinn's Pub, and most recently Sitka and Spruce) are increasing the quality of the neighborhood and provide great places to come together over a nourishing meal, drink, or scoop.

Artisan Spotlight: Susan Zoccola

We've had the pleasure of working with Seattle artist Susan Zoccola on previous projects, and are excited to be working with her again. Susan works in a wide variety of scales, from tile design to colossal public art installations. In this residential remodel project, Susan has been commissioned to create an art wall (center of image above, in progress) to separate the stairs to the upper level. In front of the art wall will be a sunken pit filled with lead birdshot, and a sculpture by the owner's sister. Susan is creating a subtly nuanced texture on this feature element - let's have a closer look:
The texture is achieved by plastering small pieces of gauze to the wall, and then dripping wax as a final layer. Here we see Susan (top) working with her assistant Julia on the stair side of the same wall:
Stay tuned for more info on Susan and other artisans that we collaborate with!

Dovetail work makes the cover shot!

This past weekend's Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Sunday Magazine features a cover story about the central role that old buildings play in our cultural heritage, and the importance of preserving those buildings despite changing economic forces. At the bottom of the image we see Molly Moon's Ice Cream, a recently completed commercial tenant improvement project in Capitol Hill's historic Oddfellows Hall building. (In addition, Dovetail designed and installed the wooden building entry doors immediately to the right - they are more historically accurate replacements for aluminum doors from a previous remodel.) Below is a design drawing of the building facade for comparison with the photograph:


Here at Dovetail we're glad to have been part of the the important building preservation and adaptive reuse process in many of our commercial projects, including both locations of Molly Moon's Ice Cream, La Spiga, Quinn's, Essential Bakery, Via Tribunali, and the Oddfellows Cafe, also in the Oddfellows Building.