Ancient Order of Froth Blowers

DAN VOELPEL; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: October 4th, 2006 01:00 AM

The first e-mail arrived at 7:16 a.m. Sunday. They kept coming at the rate of one every 10 minutes for the next 12 hours. What got y’all stirred up? McMenamin’s and the Tacoma Elks building.I advocated in Sunday’s business column that the new buyers of the vacant Elks building, Williams & Dame Development of Portland, partner with the Portland McMenamin brothers on a restoration of the Tacoma landmark.

The McMenamins’ empire of 54 brewpubs, inns, theaters and restaurants – many of them in historic, renovated locations – seemed to me a perfect match for Tacoma generally and the Elks building specifically.

Then I asked you, if you agreed with me, to send an e-mail of support to Williams & Dame and the McMenamin brothers.

“My e-mail box is overwhelmed with positive responses to your story,” Matt Brown, Williams & Dame’s assigned project manager for the Tacoma Elks, said late Monday morning.By Tuesday morning, Brian McMenamin e-mailed and called about “a sea of e-mails, and it’s overwhelmingly positive. You should thank your readers.”

And, by the way, McMenamin wants y’all to know he and his brother, Mike, will “hook up with” Williams and Dame Development to discuss whether a partnership on the Elks building will work.

“You never know,” he said.

So, thank you for lending your voices to the cause of the Elks restoration, the desire to see Tacoma evolve or, as Rockne Eli of Puyallup put it, to quench a thirst for McMenamin’s Hammerhead copper-colored ale.

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