Party Crasher

Seattle bars with the word “cloud” in the name—no matter the
spelling—have doom in the mixers. Take the Cloud Room. We
gazed into dirty martinis at the piano for decades; then a developer
twisted the place into a sobering condo penthouse. And for the past two
years, we soaked in the McLeod Residence (pronounced like a
Scottish cloud), a bar and art gallery tucked into a brick building on
Second Avenue in Belltown. Now, strict fire regulations have shut it
down.

Hundreds of mourners jammed into the McLeod Residence for one last
hurrah, making the risk of a fiery death seem totally plausible. The
crowd pressed against the best wallpaper on earth. A flock of
hipster paparazzi popped flash bulbs. We waited in a long, long, long
line for a drink. Three hundred photos now feature the backs of our
heads. While some people rejoiced the days bygone, others reflected on
the loss.

“The closing of the McLeod Residence means there is one less of very
few places that would show pieces like mine,” lamented artist Joel
Kollin, who exhibited a large sound and light installation in the
gallery last year. Nobody bought it. “They could take chances on
experimental art that might not sell because the bar
subsidizes
the art.”

“The good news is that the real-estate market is collapsing, so they
can find a better place than this,” says Kollin. “But it may be a
while.” Fortunately, to reincarnate the space, the Clan McLeod must
replicate only the wallpaper. And maybe drop the cursed name.
St. Clouds in Madrona, watch your back.

Want The Stranger to squeeze into the potential fiery
death trap at your house party? E-mail the date, place, time,
and party details to partycrasher@thestranger
.com.