El Gaucho Stranger Write up

Stranger Write up:

RESTAURANTS

Bar Exam
Pasties at Pampas: Burlesque at Seattle's Poshest Cabaret
by BETHANY JEAN CLEMENT

Pampas Room
90 Wall St
Seattle 98121
(206) 728-1337
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El Gaucho
2505 First Ave
Seattle 98121
(206) 728-1337
Mon-Sat 5 pm-1 am; Sun 5-11 pm


The posh Pampas Room—pronounced "pamp-as," not "pompous"—is the lounge adjunct of Belltown steak house El Gaucho. Those entering from Wall Street descend a long, carpeted stairway directly into the lap of luxury, where the bar curves off into infinity in the soothing dim. (The stairs are precipitous, but the distinct impression is that should you fall, you'd be cushioned by big wads of unseen money.) The room itself only nods to art-deco swank, but it feels as rich as the clientele. Jacketed waitstaff glide about anticipating desires, and there's a thrum of anticipation: It's opening night of the Blue Moon Cabaret, bringing burlesque to Pampas Room for the very first time.

How many people here are burlesque virgins? Hostess Miss Indigo Blue wants to know at the start of the show. She calls everyone "darlings," and after a little teasing and coaxing (her specialty), the answer is a surprisingly resounding cheer. Apparently this echelon of Seattle society has been waiting for the likes of El Gaucho to give burlesque its imprimatur; now they are here with bells on to see the Blue Moon Cabaret take it (almost) all off. With the show come various amuse-bouches, beet salad with bleu d'Auvergne, El Gaucho's famed filet (or, if you must, chicken or salmon), and a trio of desserts. For the amusement of mouth, eyes, and ears, the nearly sold-out house has paid $100 to $225 per person (the latter persons getting their posteriors front-row table seating and their interiors Veuve Clicquot).

Is it worth it? If you're asking the question, you're in the wrong place (though the dinner alone may be priced from El Gaucho's menu at approximately $75). The silver-screen-style beauty in the feathered white pillbox hat and her older gentleman friend seem to be enjoying themselves enormously from the get-go, and as the wine and cocktails flow, everybody gets in the mood. Onstage, performers plumb burlesque's classic era, peeling their couture-level costumes (by the likes of It's Mark Mitchell and Danial Hellman) away with all due lack of haste. The smiling Shanghai Pearl explores some old-fashioned "orientalism" with the help of an abacus; dainty Inga Ingenue dances with two pink-feathered fans, a couple handfuls of spangles, and nothing else; Ginger, the toast of Paris (looking suspiciously like local burlesque star the Swedish Housewife), demonstrates the improper way to pour Veuve. But it's the aptly named Alotta Boutté, all the way from San Francisco, who works the room, singing "Ain't Misbehavin'" and stealing the show.

The Blue Moon Cabaret alternates with the Dark Side of the Moon Burlesque most Fridays through December, and future lineups for both shows include male performers. If this is objectification, it'll be going at least two ways, darlings.

Pampas Room, 90 Wall St, 728-1337

Seattle PI article on our El Gaucho Show:

Seattle PI article on our El Gaucho Show:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/411560_burlesque27.html

There's a new feast at El Gaucho -- for your eyes
Blue Moon Cabaret brings burlesque to high-class Seattle steakhouse

By MONICA GUZMAN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF


Christopher Nelson Photography
The Shanghai Pearl, wearing Danial Hellman designs, performs during Blue Moon Cabaret at El Gaucho's Pampas Room.
On a recent Friday evening, not all diners at El Gaucho had to wait for the end of their meal to get their dessert.



View photo gallery
"I would take a deeper breath," Miss Indigo Blue crooned in her corset to a blushing crowd. "But I can't."

The big-eyed, big-wigged dame is one of the city's queens of burlesque, a brand of theatrical entertainment that combines fishnets, sequins and -- gasp! -- pasties in a dolled-up striptease that makes jaws drop as low as the performers' lace panties.

And on Oct. 16, El Gaucho, a Belltown purveyor of a $62 porterhouse and $280 Dom Perignon, became the seductive style's newest, most elegant Seattle host.

"It was scary at first. I was saying to myself: 'Oh God. Don't let this be a disaster,'" said general manager Cooper Mills, who signed Blue and a set of sultry performers for a six-show trial run in the restaurant's downstairs lounge this fall. "Then they did the show. I thought, this is definitely us."

Burlesque rose to popularity in the 1930s, hit its peak in the late '50s and is now in the midst of a nationwide revival that local performers swear is making Seattle swoon.

With shows filling up venues like the Triple Door, the Can-Can, the Pink Door and the Rendezvous, it was perhaps only a matter of time before a high-end restaurant considered the economy and gave it a go.

"The more I've been getting involved with this, the more I realize it's kind of all over," Mills said.

Opening night attendees watched three women unravel three times each to the taste of a four-course meal that included lobster medallions, braised leeks and chocolate ganache. With Blue as the emcee, Inga Ingenue, the Swedish Housewife and the Shanghai Pearl put on a naughty show for so proper a plate.

But while the recession never put El Gaucho in crisis and business has picked up in the last few months, Mills saw more people bring their own wine bottles and wanted to offer something truly different.

"We need to start adding stuff -- create not just activity, but life again," he said. "We're not necessarily reinventing ourselves, but doing something you won't see anywhere else."

The 80 or so people in the dark, velvety lounge -- known as the Pampas Room -- were older than your typical burlesque audience. And dressier. Tickets for tables by the stage sold for $225. The cheapest seats in the house went for $100 -- at the bar.

The audience was also -- despite Blue's start-of-show call to yell "semi-inappropriate comments" at the stage -- relatively tame.

Longtime burlesque fan Paul Philion noticed, and hooted anyway.

"It's the experience of powerful women," he said. "They're confident. Vulnerable, but strong. And I find that alluring."

Certainly there was something arresting in the way Inga Ingenue flashed bits of her body in a fan of lush, pink feathers. The Shanghai Pearl bit off her gloves finger by finger and the Swedish Housewife (as character Ginger!) doused her creamy skin in champagne. Near the back of the lounge, a gray-haired woman watched, rocking to the beat in her seat.

And the Pampas Room, which had recently only seen private parties, got a little hot.

"I've been lusting for that space," Blue said the day before the show. The room is classic, decadent and intimate, and Blue and co-producer Xavier Frost formed a show to match: more uptown, more artful, with almost academic references to early mistresses of the form.

The result was enough to make audience member and fellow burlesque queen Lily Verlaine gush about the acts, the venue and where the style appears to be headed after its fine-dining debut -- up.

"I haven't been this excited about a burlesque show in a long time," she said.

More burlesque shows at El Gaucho are scheduled for Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Nov. 20, Dec. 4 and Dec. 18. More info is here.

Xavier Frost Teaching at Burlycon

Oct 22-25th 2009 Burlycon:

Xavier Frost, CEO/Director of the 4 Horsemen/PURE Cirkus will be teaching a tax class for performers at Burlycon on Thursday the 22nd as well as presenting on the Fair compensation panel on Saturday.

http://www.burlyconseattle.com/

Here is the Video

 

Q13 Fox News on OUr Show at El Gaucho..

Here is the Link: http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-092309-burlesque,0,4820689.story

SEATTLE - Burlesque, originally popular here in the States from 1840 through the 1960s, is becoming popular again.

Burlesque blends satire, comedy and adult entertainment, and people everywhere are rediscovering the performance art that once involved every star and writer from Mae West to Bob Hope.

We'll assume Mr. Hope was a writer.

The interest in burlesque has grown so much in recent years, "how to" schools are popping up all over. Miss Indigo Blue is the headmistress and founder of the Seattle Academy of Burlesque. The three-time Miss Exotic World award-winner opened the school in 2003, where she offers classes for women and men in beginning to intermediate Burlesque Arts. The institution is the only one of its kind in the Pacific Northwest!

Women say taking these classes helps them feel more confident in their own skin. Many find it to be an empowering balance to their day jobs.

But the best way to understand burlesque is to experience it.

Miss Indigo Blue is bringing the Va Va Voom to the Pampas Room at El Gaucho's Seattle location. Catch "Nouveau Burlesque" on October 16th from 7:30 - 10:30 pm. Tickets, which start at $70 and run up to $200 per person, include the show as well as a four-course, select dinner menu with your choice of entrée. A select, discounted wine list will also be available during the show.

For tickets, call El Gaucho at (206) 728-1337.

To learn more about Miss Indigo Blue's Seattle Academy of Burlesque, click the link attached to this story.
Copyright © 2009, KCPQ-TV

Getting prepped for Le Cabaret Noir in Olympia

We are returning to Olympia Capitol Theater.. Its always fun to go down there since there isnt a whole lot of Burlesque or Drag in the city..

Last time we were there with the cirkus we brought along Inga Ingenue and they loved here.. i think they freaked out that someone was going to strip on stage...

We are care pooling it down that day...I hope we have a good turn out.. come see us!