Piano man returns with opening of Mirabeau Room in Queen Anne

By Marc Ramirez
Seattle Times staff reporter

	ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Piano man Howard Bulson will be back in his old digs when he plays the Mirabeau Room, formerly Sorry Charlie's, Sunday nights and weekday happy hours.
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Howard Bulson is the kind of piano man who goes out to hear other piano players on his days off, but for nearly eight months, the baby grand he played for 16 years has been confined to the loneliness of storage. Tomorrow, Bulson and his Steinway reclaim the Queen Anne spotlight when the Mirabeau Room opens to the public in the space once home to the legendary Sorry Charlie's.

Gone are the classic cocktail bar's copper-tinted water glasses, the old menus, the "specials" board advertising hot beef sandwiches for crusty regulars of the place once considered among Seattle's quintessential nightspots. The kitchen has been downsized and shiny new red vinyl has replaced scuffed black, while in another sign of the times, split pea soup has given way to green-pea hummus.

No, it's no longer 1970, or 1950, or whatever past place Sorry Charlie's, which closed last summer after 29 years in business, seemed to inhabit depending on who was crooning the tunes. (Over the years, Bulson backed up everyone from Seattle Opera moonlighters and genteel matrons cooing pre-WWII melodies to body-pierced Gen-Xers belting out Sinatra standards.)

But new owners David Meinert, Jeff Steichen (owner of the Showbox) and (Presidents of the United States drummer) Jason Finn have infused the Mirabeau's spiffed-up surroundings with a '60s-era feel and a blending of old and new.

Among the notable keepsakes are a wood-slatted wall, a splash of funky orange-ish wallpaper and, of course, the dapper elder statesman of piano men himself, Bulson. The laconic lounge luminary, who has been whetting his musical appetite as the keyboardist at Julia's on Broadway, will now play the Mirabeau on Sunday evenings and during weekday happy hours.

(Julia's regulars: Don't despair. Howard's lights won't go out on Broadway — he'll continue to play there in addition to his new gig.)

The Mirabeau name, says co-owner and booking agent Meinert, pays homage to a hip Seattle restaurant from decades past — and even farther back, a family of French revolutionaries. The club features a taller ceiling and a new, 14-inch-high stage in back where a closet-sized office once protruded clumsily from behind Bulson's piano.

"The whole thing we tried to do was create space," he says. "But it keeps some of the classic elements that were nice. Or, that were interesting."

The new owners updated bathrooms plagued by crumbling ceilings; they gutted and revamped the once cave-like bar area, which now enjoys a big, round window with a view to Queen Anne Avenue. "There were a lot of reasons as a customer not to go there," Meinert says.
 
Not that Sorry Charlie's was without its regulars, but their numbers had dwindled over the years as cellphone-slinging owners of spiffy new condos have slowly replaced the neighborhood's longtime population of elderly renters.

Mirroring the changing face of lower Queen Anne, the Mirabeau's new sound system will showcase music theme nights including hip-hop, laptop, Bollywood and UK garage. This week's lineup includes tomorrow's grand opening party with urban dance grooves, burlesque by the Atomic Bombshells on Thursday and, on Saturday, the first installment of the Sabado Sessions, a weekly, DJ-driven night of hip-hop and soul.

Can a mere piano man survive such modernism? Are you kidding? Can Howard Bulson smoke a cigarette?

When Meinert & Co. bought Sorry Charlie's last summer, they operated it for two months before ushering it out to pasture. But not, Meinert says, before realizing they wanted Bulson and his decades-spanning repertoire to be part of its reincarnation.

"We just fell in love with Howard," he says. "He's so talented. "

Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com

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