Trabant Chai Lounge
From UANotebook
Introduction
goes here.
- Opened in January 2004 (is that right?).
- In the Neptune building, of Neptune theater fame.
Link to photographs
Forebears
Previously, a cute little boutique was located here. It opened sometime after my arrival in Seattle (September 2002). I can't remember what was here before the boutique, however. If I'm not mistaken, the overall color scheme of the boutique was a rather bold pink with pink accents. I never felt cool enough to go into the boutique -- not that I was especially drawn to it. It seemed very much like the overpriced boutique "something Cherry" on 45th Street near Stone Way (which went under a few months after my arrival). It, too, was a little space sparsely populated with cute clothes, vintage goods, and other items; it was also overpriced. In any case, from peeping through the windows of the Pink Place, I never saw anything to draw me in. And I likely wouldn't have been able to afford it anyway.
Press Coverage
August 2004
Retrieved from the Seattle Weekly, August 18 - 24, 2004.
The Scene: Trabant Chai Lounge
by Emily PageFor a long time, the University District lacked a quality late-night hangout. Cafe Solstice catered to UW alterna-kids, while Espresso Roma played host to the ever-quirky population of Ave transients. Everything in between closed before an evening of studying, dating, or caffeine-induced philosophizing could really get started. Enter Trabant: All carefully preened subcultures seem to converge here and cancel each other out, producing a genuine, unstyled retreat where sorority pins and Emo tees can peaceably coexist. Caffeinated bookworms never appear bothered by the steady blips of a wi-fied computer game at the next table, and cinephiles just lean a little closer when discussing the latest anime flick over a local musician’s booming bass. Weekends and open-mike Mondays bring in a range of DJs, drum circles, poetry readings, and local or traveling musicians. And Tango Second Saturdays (midnight to 4 a.m.) provide the largely underage neighborhood with unconventional after-hours entertainment. The funky, bright, blue-walled interior gives the place an upbeat vibe; the chai, more dessert than drink, is almost secondary to the culture of the place. The Mount Rainier ($2.75–$4.35), a mixture of Irish cream and Kalua in vanilla chai, has a rabid following, though it tastes more or less like coffee to me. Not quite trendy but certainly not unhip, Trabant may prove just distinctive enough to avoid the sparkle-and-fade trajectory of too many U District cafes. 1309 N.E. 45th St., 206-675-0668. UNIVERSITY DISTRICT
May 2006
The Stranger
Seattle's Only Restaurants Section
May 11 - May 17, 2006
Retrieved from http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=32308
Tatiana Becker
Owner, Trabant Chai LoungeBY CIENNA MADRID
What compelled you to open a chai lounge?
There was a woman offering samples of her homemade chai at the University District Street Fair in 2003. My husband and I really liked it. Less than a month later we had a lease and a license to serve it.
Did you have previous food-industry experience?
Nope. My husband and I were both computer programmers at Microsoft—that's how we met. I had a crush on him for eight months before I sent my coworker over to talk to him in the cafeteria. She said, 'My friend has a crush on you. Will you go talk to her?' We've been together for four years.
Geeks! What's your favorite chai flavor?
The Mount Rainier—vanilla with Irish Cream and Kahlua (all nonalcoholic). But we offer 21 flavors that we've tweaked for this region so they're not as sweet.
Are Seattleites snooty about sweetness?
When we've offered samples of different chais, we noticed that people here liked them a little less sweet than the original recipes. So we tweak them a bit. Sometimes we even customize flavors for our customers.
That's so nice!
When I was going to school (for astrophysics and math) in Berkeley, there was one coffee shop that I really felt a connection to, and that's what we wanted to create around here. A coffee shop near a college campus creates community, especially for people under 21.
Interview by Cienna Madrid
Previous Writings
Notes and various journal entries recorded by Tom Dobrowolsky.
2004 March 14 o godz. 18:29
I like Trabant because it's so tall and hard-surfaced... and at night I can look out the windows and see the bzzzt-y neon signs of Taqueria Morelia across the street as well as Ave stuff... and the cars whizzing by... and I get to walk past that graffiti'd and beautifully ironic mural and the dark alley... it's all so wonderfully urban. It feels sorta like New York except perhaps a bit Newer and with considerably less York.
2004 April 8 21:09
I love this place! Right now, Po' Girl is playing over the speakers. They have begun recognizing me as one of the regulars... I hope the Solstice hotties don't get jealous of my two-timing them...
2004 April 14 00:17
...I'm really impressed with the pervasiveness and tenacity of The Breakfast Club, usually appreviated "TBC" all over the U-District. Its two most prominent writers are Cereal and Toast. (Someday I'll post all the pictures...) Both of them do some really good stuff down on the Campus Parkway viaduct underneath Roosevelt. Toast once drew some cute slices of toast as well as a toaster. Look for the playful "I like Toast" graffiti on that fantastic The Ave is Back mural at 45th/Ave.
Cereal does some really cool moose heads... which I once also found drawn inside Trabant; this is why I have my suspicions about what that place is a front for...
2004 April 21 10:31
Oh wonder of wonders!
Flashback: 1993, Urbana, Illinois.
When my hausmates and I moved into the Screaming Meadows, we set up a haus network with our computers -- no big deal now, of course, but tres geeky Way Back Then. We joked about the fact that we no longer had to talk to each other because we could just email each other back and forth from our respective rooms.
Fast Forward to THE PRESENT DAY.
This morning, I walked into Trabant -- the emerging New EyeSkool Consulate _slash_ auxillary computer lab. I sat myself down on the extremely comfy purple couch (from which I am writing this) where Hellcat sat Just The Other Day and posted about Doing the Very Same.
Oh Temporality!
Anyway, after a while, who should walk in but none other than Springstreet... who will likely read this note from her laptop.... thus obviating the need for the actual conversation we had!
Oh Wonder of Wonders! Joy of Joys! Gott im Himmel! Diese ist der menschenschlager!
Fascinating how, in this very cafe, within a 10 foot sphere, there are two entirely different worlds going on: the material world and the net world... simultaneously and At The Same Time! And Springstreet and I are both engaged in both of these contexts!
Somebody pass me the smelling salts... this fluffy moment of Extreme Social Context is making me faint...
Oh Melodrama!
waves to springstreet
2004 April 21 17:54
It's more than just a cafe...
it's a front for something... perhaps some
Shady Mu Sic Underg Round.
It's all nice and tall and open and airy and I wish they had a terrazzo as well as outdoor seating On A Day Like To-Day.
Whereas Solstice has positively "out of your league" hot baristas, Trabant's cuteys all seem accessible, tender, emminently lickable, and thoroughly molestable -- not that I objectify or anything. Some have that "Just turned 18" look about them.
But don't be fooled! They're hiding something...
2004 July 21 22:13
I love Trabant
Just a few minutes ago, some punk ass kids were standing around the entrance to the north alley off of 45th. A handfull of them wandering into the alley while the two on bikes sped off onto the Ave.
Then, like just now, a cop turned into the alley and drove down slowly. He shined his punklight around some dumpsters and, a few seconds later, some punk ass kids came out fro behind it. I dunno if they were tagging or smoking or snorting or blowing each other, but he's parked in the alley as is probably giving them the business.
So much activity around this place. And that's not to mention the chic lesbians that kept walking by... I feel like a cat on a windowsill.
2004 July 22 o godz. 09:21
I like the cute little punk-ass kids that work there; they don't have the pretentious vibe of many other places (I mean I love Solstice and all but you gotta chuckle at the number of ironic t-shirts and the ironic uber-80s apparel sometimes)
And the atmosphere... relatively bare and tall and stark... very East German... yet colorful and happy at the same time... not East German. It's, like, Happy Stalinist decor.
2004 December 12 19:46
So I began typing up the final project for Content Analysis ...sitting at Trabant (ah, Trabant, I've been estranged from you all quarter for some reason) and rediscovering its joys. After a few hours I was up to a shitload of pages... outlining methodology and analysis and shit... really enoying it... everything coming together nicely. What a joy to work on...
This all, however, leaves me with the feeling of "why didn't the bulk of this quarter proceed/feel this way?" ...
Ed Note: Obviously, it must have been because I had not been hanging out at Trabant.
2005 November 26 01:46
Hipster Christians
I spent about 8 hours at Trabant today, working on My Little Paper. During 5 of those hours, one of the back tables -- My Tables or, rather, Our Tables... the preferred tables of [info]cthulhie, [info]meestagoat and me -- was occupied by two young men in their early 20s. They were carrying on, in considerate tones, various conversations about the Bible and attendant topics. They were considerate and non-proselytizing, seen but mostly unheard, as evangelicals ought to be. Occasionally, the music cut out to reveal their voices. They sounded very literate, albeit with a slight "j3sus is an awesome d00d!" accent.
They seemed a little like an infomercial. The man-child in the grey hoody, who spoke with the foil's customary straight man voice, offered what I thought were the more compelling insights. Of course, he was drowned out by the star power of the hipper guy, who spoke louder and more gregariously. He was the one with d00d voice. But perhaps better than his timbre was his appearance. Along with his jeans, he wore a white "softball" tee, the kind with 3/4-length sleeves of a different color: black, in this case. His hair was about shoulder length, dirty blond in color, and curly. Needless to say, he had a goatee. But the crowning feature was -- I Am Not Making This Up -- a green trucker's cap. On the front was not writing for some Ironic Sheetmetal and Pipefitting Company or Dr. Dingle's Fictitious Sex Juice Corporation. Rather there was only a grey cross centered prominently on the cap's white front.
When I got there, the boys were have a hot beverage and eating some sandwiches from elsewhere. No doubt it was a well deserved meal after a hard day preachin'. At times in the conversation, I heard Rev. Hipster saying something about how he preaches or how he feels when he preaches or somesuch. At one point shortly before they left, a man, perhaps in his 30s, came in to use the bathroom. He was muttering something to some beat going on in his head; it was very soulful. I don't know what he was doing in the bathroom, nothing dirty, but he let out a few good utterances of satisfaction. When he walked out, he engaged our young disciples in conversation. I wasn't able to hear it clearly but it was a polite discussion having to do with Hinduism, the Koran, a "Pagan view of things", and how those ideas were all wrong, nay, lies. The Satisfied Bathroom Man mentioned something about missions to which Rev. Hipster mentioned the names of a few. After some negotiation, Bathroom Man said he didn't want to go down to Pioneer Square. "That place is full of demons," agreed the good preacher.
I don't know if the good preacher gave the man any money but he did offer him a prayer. After several "Father God" this-es and "Father God" that-s, Bathroom Man went on his way. "We'll pray for you tonight," said the preacher. This got me to thinking. For the sake of argument, let us suppose that no spare change was given. Does offering a person down on his luck nothing but a prayer count for something? Is that better than me, who can't give every single person change though still empathizes with most and hopes the best for people regardless? Or is offering a prayer just a way of cleansing your conscience by passing the metaphysical buck?
I can't answer such questions. But what I can do is rewrite a little song... in honour of the Rev. Hipster "Dude, where's my Grace?" Christian and his long, arduous, and sometimes lonely path. All of you 80s hair metal fans, join me on this one -- sung to the tune of Night Ranger's "Sister Christian":
Hipster Christian Oh the time has come And you know that you're my Chosen One To say Amen Where you going What you preachin' now You know those kids Won't want to pray no more with you It's true You're Witnessing What's your prayer for grace It's right atop your face You are already saved Your Bible quotes Are changing lives so fast And Satan's worrying His reign won't last So hey let's pray Hipster Christian There's so much sin And don't you dare give in Before all evil's slain For Truth For Truth yeah Witnessing What's your prayer for grace You wear it on your face And you're driving out those snakes Witnessing What's your prayer for grace It's right atop your face You are already saved Witnessing What's your prayer for grace It's right atop your face You are already saved (repeat) Hipster Christian Oh the time has come And you know that you're my Chosen One To say Amen So you're witnessing You're witnessing
2005 November 28 07:20 pm UTC
It's a great place... what with snuggling youngsters on the couch (though I've been guilty of that), rubiks-cube-puzzle-solver guy, and a whole host of quirky regulars with the occassional incursion of sorority girls. You can tell who the sorority girls are by looking at their feet: they wear thong flip-flops in 30-degree weather. They are the most hard core of us all. Oh, and the owners are really cool. Trabant is so cool that it even has its own LJ community...
2006 February 21 21:47 PST
A painfully thin hipster woman with long straight black hair walked into Trabant several minutes ago. Several minutes later, she is joined by her friend, equally rather tall, who has diametrically contrasting blonde hair. Both woman are stylishly dressed (read on) and, according to conventional wisdom, would be considered "hot".
Blonde Woman wears a short, orange sweater over a black top, short and tight black skirt, opaque black tights, and patent black knee-high boots. However, it is the outfit sported by Original Woman that has spurred this post. She is wearing a form-fitting, long-sleeved black top that extends to the widest part of her hips. She is also wearing red, opaque tights. She is wearing black pumps on about 3-inch heels. Now the all-important detail: under the clingy top and over the red tights are very snug blue jeans... cut off -- DIY style -- two inches above the knees.
I don't know what to make of this. I certainly wouldn't do this -- although I did do the early 90s thing of wearing cut-offs with tights, albeit looser and cut higher than these. Yet I can't quite bring myself to rain down fashionazi-fire and brimstone. It's a bit odd but, at the same time, it also projects quite a bit of avante-garde, experimentalist panache. I think a large part of it may be the confident delivery and detached hipster demeanor of the wearer. Maybe it is the combination of bold colors, colors that are proud to be what they are (I hate wishy-washy pastels). Who knows.
They are now sitting all the way up front at the bar fronting the full-length windows to the outside world. As that is a great spot for people-watching, they are undoubtedly peeking up from their important work to evaluate and critique the sartorial choices of passers-by. That is what avante-garde fashionistas do.
