There is a Denny's on 4th ave S.... still Seattle proper.

Fuck Denny's.

You forgot to mention 13 coins.

The kids can hump in the booths at 3 am after they eat a cheeseburger.

Laurel, you are correct. I edited the post to reflect that. Somehow, that Denny's escaped my attention all these years and didn't show up in my Google search.

@ Ecce-
I didn't forget 13 Coins. There's no way a high-schooler can afford to go there on any sort of regular basis.

Sunset Bowl needs to beef up it's 24 hr diner. They could totally pick up that slack.

I used to work across the street from that 4th Ave. Denny's. Until the company got bought out by douchebags in Renton.

It was our secondary emergency assembly area, actually.

That was a nice job.

Density, boy. Density.

Also, condos > Denny's. Denny's food is plastic trash. You can stumble down the street and find better fare for breakfast.

@1 is right. The UW owns it now.

But it's too bad - the Ballard Denny's would have made a fine Monorail station - now Ballard gets nothing for 50 years.

There's a 24-hour IHOP on Madison.

Gomez @8:
You don't go to Denny's for the food. You go for the atmosphere.

Also, there is the IHOP up on 43rd and Brooklyn...

My uncle was like family to those Denny's employees because he was in there so often. I had many an 'eggs over my hammy' there with him. (Yes, he died of a heart attack of course.) But it's nostalgic for me and I'll be sad to see it go.

I suspect that most of todays high school kids living in THIS city can indeed afford 13 coins. If nothing else, they can charge in on their platinum cards.

1st real job at denny's. eck.

wasn't it moons over my hammy?

Forget high school kids. Where's the Wet Spot crowd going to get food after closing?

fuck Denny's and fuck Denny's nostalgia.

I stopped going to Denny's when they stopped serving black customers.

you could put a denny's in the ground floor of a condo building.

just sayin.

Goodbye D-Zone, but we'll always have the foodfight with Juliette and Ms. Waldman.

It's nice that the real estate developers had enough change left over from buying off Mayor Nickels and killing the monorail that they could buy all that cheap land for more condos! Yeah!

Thank God for gentrification.

Fuck Condos? How about screw you damn biased reporters that have nothing better to complain about than higher and best use of land.

You are so slanted that you can't even see straight. When was the last time you visited that Denny's? It's horrible service, HORRIBLE food, and a national chain that sucks ass.

Let a mom and pop shop take up the ground floor of retail... something you will eat, something like a Gorditos, or a King Fish Cafe... Something with some class, some cool hip factor involved... and some decent food.

Growth is not the enemy. It's people like you that are stunting what Seattle could become. Go write in California!

Fuck Condos? How about screw you damn biased reporters that have nothing better to complain about than higher and best use of land.

You are so slanted that you can't even see straight. When was the last time you visited that Denny's? It's horrible service, HORRIBLE food, and a national chain that sucks ass.

Let a mom and pop shop take up the ground floor of retail... something you will eat, something like a Gorditos, or a King Fish Cafe... Something with some class, some cool hip factor involved... and some decent food.

Growth is not the enemy. It's people like you that are stunting what Seattle could become. Go write in California!

You'll have to go far north or east or south to get your bottomless cuppa coffee experience now. That's part of the adventure, driving way out to the sticks to annoy the crap out of the locals. Coffee all around and a single order of fries with gravy, lasted four or five of us for three hours or more. Nobody gave a shit how bad the "food" is.

There used to be HUNDREDS of these places. The process of drying up started long before the condo boom. There used to be a couple right on Broadway -- remember Andy's, where Septieme is now? What a wonderful place that was.

There's always Randy's down by Boeing, which has the finest decor of any diner in the area. How about the Pancake Corral in Bellevue? You can't go wrong with any place with "Pancake" in the name. But it's specifically the soulless chains that are better for coffee-loitering -- you don't feel bad about screwing them over by not turning the table. Soulless is good sometimes.

@ Overly Excited Andrea-

Let a mom and pop shop take up the ground floor of retail... something you will eat, something like a Gorditos, or a King Fish Cafe... Something with some class, some cool hip factor involved... and some decent food.

The problem with condo installations is that their ground floor retail tends to hover around $30 a square foot, which is cost prohibitive to "mom and pop shops."

I'm not anti-development but I'd argue that Seattle could withstand a brief moratorium on condo development.

11. If you go to Denny's for the atmosphere, I haven't much else to say about what must be a cold, empty, soulless existence.

I disagree jonah, how will I ever be able to afford to live in downtown seattle unless they build too many condos?

It's getting so boring listening to people whine about condos, get over it already.

Andrea, the chances of a "mom and pop" restaurant going into the ground floor of that building is nil. They won't be able to afford the rent. It'll be a Subway, or a Starbucks, or something like that.

Condos suck, mixed use DEFINATELY sucks.

How about spending 300,000 for a 1 bedroom condo right above a "Gorditos" that stays open on weekends 'till 3 am for every drunk jerk off in ballard. Yeah, now thats good livin'!

ecce@12, not anymore. The end-of-the-night stop throughout my college years is no longer there. It's now just an empty shell with an ugly roof.

Jonah, what about Minnie's at 1st and Denny?

Andy, thats too bad.

I spent many a sleepless college night sloped over a table there.

YEah, those "fucking condos!" We should prohibit condos, that will make the price of housing go down!
It's all the developers fault! Becuse they bought that Denny's site! they bought it from Denny's! Because Denny's sold it! Uh, yeah that's right. Denny's sold it to make money! If you sell your property you should voluntarily shave off 50% of the price ! you should sell it to who I want, or you should not sell it if I want!! or else-- we will cry and say fuck you on weblogs! there!!

Ballard just keeps drinkin' the Kool-Aid. That didn't take long. Ye olde Dennski's (Mike Miskowski's prefered tag) was often a destination spin-stopper for many of us back in the Mezzozoic era. Bleak's what you make of it. Kids today, tsk, no imagination.

The U District IHOP is gone? Holy crap. I worked there briefly, and ate there more often than I should have. (Especially after what I had seen while working there.)

Anyway, for those complaining that Denny's is just a crappy chain, etc., that's not the point. Of course it's crap. But it was crap that was open for 24 hours a day, which is quite useful for us night owl types. And our late night options have been dwindling for years. You can't fit everyone into the Hurricane or Beth's.

People, this isn't ANY Denny's we're talking about here. It was originally part of a local chain. The name escapes me at the moment, I need another cocktail to dredge it up. Was it a Clark's? a Pearsalls? (It's terrible getting old, darllings.)

I suppose it's progress per se, but I wish the funky building could somehow be incorporated into the complex. If nothing else, I wish developers could come up with less loathsome names. Ballard Commons? Really, how very yuck can you get? Who thinks these names up?

Fuck the Denny's in Ballard. I'm young enough to remember when it was Mannings, and the high, swooping ceiling gave my six-year-old self vertigo every time I looked up. Those bastards at Denny's Corporate installed a false ceiling and hid that glorious, swoopy, useless but cool expanse of wood. I've been waiting for it to go tits-up ever since, and good riddance! Bastards.

Jonah S-Lee:

I'm not anti-development but I'd argue that Seattle could withstand a brief moratorium on condo development.

Huh, at first when I read that "Fucking condos" line, I thought it was halfway tongue-in-cheek. Go figure.

I'm not one for "Big Brother" government micro-managing private businesses, but I wouldn't mind if the city had imposed a "brief moratorium" on local weeklies hiring reporters just before The Stranger hired Jonah here.

And my tongue is only about 35% in cheek when I say that.

...
Anyway, I'm not ruing the Denny's that has been there. I'm ruing the monorail station that would have been there.

Mannings! That's it! Thank you, Doctor!!!

And I'm with you about those false ceilings. IHOP did the same thing.

Philistines.

That explains the service I received the last time I went to Denny's Ballard.

The wife and I were hung way over, and we decided to remedy with greasy food. First we tried the Denny's bar, since the restaurant area was so crowded, but the lone bartender was completely swamped. It took her more than five minutes to tell us "It will be awhile." We went back to the restaurant, where they were calling our name from the list.

The people across from us complained about how long they'd waited and got their food comped. We just sat there, feeling sorry for our waiter, who was giggling about his attempts to serve people in a way that came close to timely. There was a lot of yelling from the manager. But what took the prize for the most colorful experience of the morning was when this bent over homeless guy with no fingers and some mental health issues was yelling and somehow propelling his bags, one, then the other, then the first again (no fingers) to the door. I ran out so fast I forgot my credit card, and had to be chased through the parking lot with some poor Denny's employee shouting my name.

Through our hangovers, it was very surreal.

Later I visited the "green" condos going up behind the Denny's and found out that for about half a million we could get into a small two bedroom. It's obscene to pay that much for something you then have to pay rent-like dues on, and renovate before you leave to make any money on resale. Let's balance density with accessibility, shall we?

If it's called the Ballard Commons, we can all go hang out there, right? It'll help sooth the pain of failing to build the South Lake Union one.

At first, I took that "Fucking condos" line to be pretty innocuous. But then after reading Jonah's "brief moratorium" comment, I got to thinking, "Hey, this is Seattle, where we never miss an opportunity to make a joke of our green reputation."

• In 1989 (way before I showed up here), people were going "Fucking skyscrapers," and next thing you know Peter Steinbrueck comes in and gets his paved-with-good-intentions building heights limit passed. The result? More sprawl. Businesses were going to go somewhere, and instead they went to the Eastside.
• In 1996, Seattle residents said "Fucking developers and their fucking parks," and there went any hope of getting something like Central Park or Stanley Park near downtown. (See Eric F. above.)

So unless the newcomers like me have truly changed Seattle, I'm a little afraid of the damage that sentiments like "fucking condos" could lead to.

Well, if Jonah here wants to put a moratorium on condos, perhaps he has a place in the exurbs in mind where those people should go live instead. Because you know, it's so much better for the environment when people can just go live somewhere else -- right, Jonah?

P.S. Has anyone noticed that, ever since the Knute/Skip Berger contingent got kicked off The Weekly, The Stranger has been doing a pretty good job picking up that faux-green, lesser Seattle mantle?

I was once threatened in the U District IHOP by a crazy man with a SWORD. That place was always a danger to life and limb.

Well Hell...

I have such fond memories of that Denny's in Ballard. It seems like just yesteryear that friends and I enjoyed our Christmas dinner there. (or was it Thanksgiving?) The experience stayed with us for days.

And did y'all know that this is one of the few remaining Denny's on the PLANET with a "Liquor Unit". That's the official Denny's-speak corporate lingo for the "bar". Back before the smoking ban, it was the best place around for a non-smoker to get lung cancer and watch a live-act version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the same time.

Ah, the memories!

Yeah to #37, who remembered that it used to be a Mannings. Growing up in Portland, I used to LOVE Mannings.

i wouldn't we too upset if i never ate at another denny's again in my life, but it is strange to think about how many dennys have closed down in this city
a little bit west of northgate mall
mercer by aurora
a bit farther up aurora
the ave
way up lake city
now ballard
maybe more

there are still plenty of late night places to eat around town, especially in the international district, though they may not be open alllll night.

and jonah, don't forget about sherri's
we will always have sherri's

Oh geez, you people are silly. The line was tongue in cheek. I'm not in love with Denny's but after growing up in Ballard, it makes me sad to see another part of "old Ballard" die. I don't 'hate-hate" condos, I just get annoyed when that's all that's going up in this city. Sure, there's a lot of development that's going to spring up around those condos and make downtown more liveable but I just haven't been sold on the idea that it's going to making housing in other areas affordable. Where are people going to go when they decide they want kids and a yard?

Fnarf,

You remember that night with the sword huh?

Well know this, I still have a quiver full of arrows that sing for your flesh.

I shall never forget the night when to thwarted my advance. I will seek your doom at an as yet to be determined 24hr seattle hotspot (hopefully in a room full of your poly-amorous friends).

Signed: the guy in the purple cape that hangs out at the bus stop at harrison and fairview.

Jonah:

Oh geez, you people are silly. The line was tongue in cheek....

... proceeds to explain why that line really wasn't tongue-in-cheek:

I just haven't been sold on the idea that [condos are] going to making housing in other areas affordable. Where are people going to go when they decide they want kids and a yard?

I didn't realize it was the responsibility of condo developments to make housing more affordable in "other areas," whatever those "other areas" are. So a "brief moratorium" on condos would do the trick? I suppose that must be the law of "lack of supply and demand" at work.

And I don't even want to get into the thing about a yard being a prerequisite for kids, although I do wish Seattle condo developments had more townhouses or something like that integrated in, the way they've often done in Vancouver.

I grew up in an apartment, and yeah, we had a yard. Two, actually. One was the handball court -- also known as the courtyard of my building. The other was just around the corner, a giant park where all the neighborhood kids went every day of the summer.

I have a yard now, and frankly, I have a lot of yard work I don't understand the need for, and if I had kids I don't think they'd know who the neighbor kids are. The neighbors certainly don't go out of their way to get to know the lesbians next door. There's a lot to be said for density, and it does not preclude kids. Parenting is a better safety measure than a fenced yard.

Dennys...
But Sunset Bowl is next. That will be the real crime. Kiss bowled there after one of their gigs at 3 am (no makeup). Why can't we have a decent diner that respects the architecture like they do in Portland. Doug Fir?

"Highest and Best Use" is a marketing term, not a realistic concept, which is why it's only been thrown around in more recent years.