Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Manning's & Denny's

Manning's aka Denny's is now gone, with the brisk movements of the mechanical the building was leveled in a little over an hour. There are some pictures and video on our friend's blog at http://www.myballard.com/. This is not a rant, nor is it gossip but once again a feeling of disappointment as the character of Ballard is being swallowed up by cookie cutter Starbutecture. Denny's served a purpose in Ballard, it was affordable (especially true for the senior population in Ballard), had parking, and open 24hrs. It also was a familiar building to everyone in the city. The gateway to Ballard. Who ever would have thought that an old Denny's would create such a stir, but it didn't matter if you were from Crown Hill, Beacon Hill, or Medina you know the Denny's on 15th & Market.
The Benaroya's will now build a new building on this land where up until 7am a googie masterpiece stood. I hope they will try to build something that serves as a landmark to everyone visiting Ballard. I hope they think about the importance of this gateway piece of land they now will develop, and not provide us with another beige box.

3 comments:

Ballard Gossip Girl said...

We are so sad that this building is gone! However, we would like to take this opportunity to admit that we only went to that Denny's a few slightly drunken times - and remember waiting with our head on the table for what seemed like hours for a plate of eggs at 4 a.m.

Our biggest regret about the ole Denny's is that we never personally went to the bar there. Why? We don't really have a good reason except to say that one night our our Ex(for a reason)boyfriend ended up in a knock down drag out wrestling match/drunken brawl with his best friend in said bar resulting in hilariously placed scrapes and bruises. We were morally outraged at such behavior and quite humiliated so we tried to avoid said bar to save what little public respect we may have had in the first place.

RIP Ballard Denny's. May the path to heaven be paved with plates of Moons over My Hammy and cups of steaming hot Joe.

-Keith said...

If a relatively intact Mannings had been demolished that would have been something to regret. I don't really miss the Denny's which is the type of chain store that people are always complaining will take over Ballard.

What is a shame is that the developers got the land at all. The only reason that Denny's owners sold was that Seattle needed the land for the monorail and would have taken it by eminent domain. The monorail really killed the Denny's.

See the following:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/263410_monoproperty17.html?source=rss

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/271111_monorail22.html

Ballard Gossip Girl said...

Yep - we agree Keith. See our previous rant about the monorail and Denny's. We totally get it. A lot of people don't. http://www.ballardgossipgirl.com/2008/05/dennys-to-be-demolished-final-answer.html