A Delightful Day in the CID

 

10/2/25 Panama Hotel Cafe

The weather forecast was iffy; rain or dry, it could go either way. Roy, Mary Jean and I decided to play it safe by meeting at the Panama Hotel Café. It’s a delightful, historic spot in the Chinatown/International District, where USk Seattle had met several times years ago (back in the day when our group was small enough that we could fit in the small café).

Designated a historic landmark, the 1910 hotel building has been transformed into a wonderful café space filled with photos, décor and artifacts about Seattle’s Japanese American community. It became well-known when the period piece novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, was published in 2009. The most interesting artifacts are some personal items that Japanese American citizens stored there when they had to evacuate their homes quickly for internment camps during World War II. Belongings that were never retrieved by their owners still remain in the hotel’s lower floor, visible through a Plexiglas window in the café floor.

Cafe decor and counter

A fun space to sketch, the café offers an unusual range of refreshments. Coming by to chat with us, owner Jan Johnson pointed out a shelf lined with bottles, noting that the café offers liquor, which is unusual in a coffee and tea shop. She told us that when she opened the Panama 25 years ago, it was the only café in Seattle to offer both high-end coffee as well as high-end tea – and the first to serve matcha. “Back then, the only tea you could get in a coffee shop was bags,” she said. “And a high-end tea shop would offer instant Folgers, if anything, to coffee drinkers.” Uniquely, the Panama offers a full range of espresso drinks and infused teas.

In addition to the usual cookies and muffins you’d expect in a café, the Panama also offers wagashi, which are traditional Japanese treats made of rice flour, sweetened bean or yam paste, and elegantly decorated and themed to the current season. I chose a matcha-flavored wagashi named “Scent of Fall” to eat with my matcha genmai-cha tea.

Miu Miu, the resident cat

The ambiance there is so cozy, comfy and fun to sketch that I could easily make it my “third place,” if only it were a little closer to home. It’s usually quiet, but the morning we met there, participants of a fairly large “breakfast club” were having a spirited discussion about current events. I could tell by the respectful way they spoke and listened to each other that these friends had been getting together regularly for a long time. (Eavesdropping as I sketched led me to deduce that they meet there every Tuesday and Thursday.) It was a truly delightful morning!

After lunch at the nearby Filipino restaurant, Kilig, where Roy helped us decipher the menu (and I enjoyed a delicious pancit and an even more delicious ube panna cotta), the afternoon turned out to be much sunnier and warmer than we expected. Not wanting to waste what could be one of the last nice days before true autumn weather hits, we went to sketch some more at Hing Hay Park. We all went home wistful that the enjoyable summer was coming to an end.

Kilig restaurant and Hing Hay Park

Autumn at Danny Woo Community Garden

9/27/19 Sixth Ave. South, Chinatown/International District

The Danny Woo International District Community Garden is a favorite of USk Seattle during the transitional seasons. If the weather is on our side, we can sketch the terraced gardens and distant views of downtown Seattle, but if not, we can duck into the cozy Panama Hotel Café across the street. Yesterday we lucked out, and the chilly morning eventually yielded to sunshine in time for the throwdown.

Happy that I wore my down parka, I was still cold with the brisk wind coming up behind me from the Sound as I sketched the view looking down Sixth Avenue South from Kobe Terrace Park at the top of the garden (left). The row of bright yellow trees punctuated by the ID’s iconic red street lamps caught my eye (and as soon as I finished, I realized the perspective of those lamp posts was way off!).

9/27/19 entrance to Danny Woo Gardens

After getting some hot genmaicha from the Panama Hotel Café to warm my hands, I pulled up my hood and went back out – and immediately saw the next view I wanted to capture: It was the trellised entrance to Danny Woo Gardens framed by more yellow trees.

My self-photobombing aim was a bit off, too.

A Big Bite at the Panama Hotel

2/19/18 Panama Hotel and teahouse

The historic Panama Hotel and teahouse is a wintertime favorite for the Friday sketchers. With two floors of cozy chairs and tables, vintage photos, unusual décor, and tasty teas and pastries, it’s a fun place.

During past outings, I’ve always chosen comfy subjects like my food or other sketchers. I’m not sure what compelled me on this visit, but I decided to sit in one corner of the main café area and take on the whole long counter and room. It was like shoving an entire watermelon into my mouth – the proverbial bite of more than I can chew. Still, it helped to remember the principles I learned in Gabi Campanario’s “Pocket Urban Sketching” workshop that I took almost exactly a year ago. Even though I used a spread twice as large as a pocket sketchbook spread, it was a formidable challenge to get it all in. I usually manage two or three sketches at USk outings, but I worked up such a sweat chewing this watermelon that it was the only one I did! 

We had another great turnout, including a couple of new faces, and even a few hardy souls who sketched outdoors!

Vivian is holding my sketch for me!

Playing and Eating

 

1/30/26 Panama Hotel Cafe, Chinatown/International District

The Panama Hotel Café is one of our favorite places to sketch. Roy, Mary Jean and I hadn’t been able to get together since before Christmas, so it was especially fun to meet up there for a morning of art play. My view (at left) wasn’t especially fun to sketch, but I didn’t care; the Panama’s ambiance is quiet, relaxing and, we all agreed, comfortable as a second home.

More fun was when we began our portrait party. Taking turns as the sitter, we made blind contour drawings and also sketched with our non-dominant hand. Hilarious both ways!

Mary Jean with my right hand

Mary Jean as blind contour

Roy as blind contour

Roy with my right hand

For lunch we tried E-Jae Pak-Mor, a Thai restaurant that had received a favorable review recently in the Seattle Times. With many items on the menu that I don’t see on typical Thai menus, it was clear why the Times called it one of Seattle’s best restaurants. I hastily sketched my Pakmor salad bowl before devouring it.

E-Jae Pak Mor (journal page incorrectly dated)

Full of that delicious lunch, I still had one thing that had been weighing heavily on my mind all day: Jan. 30 was National Croissant Day! Where would I get a croissant in Chinatown/International District? Googling “croissants near me” yielded literally nothing within walking distance, but MJ recalled seeing croissants at Fuji Bakery. I’d only ever had their amazing Crunchy Creamy Malasada doughnut, which had blinded me to all other pastries at the time, but sure enough, Fuji offered many types of croissants, too. It was just as well that they have only a takeout counter and no seating area, as I was too full for one just then – but take one out I did.

Later at home, I enjoyed my pain au chocolat, relieved not to miss observing one of my favorite holidays of the year.

Eating and drawing with good friends – does it get any better?

A Walking Tour of Chinatown-International District

 

6/13/26 A lion dance kicks off our walking tour of Chinatown-International District.

Taha Ebrahimi

Mature, urban trees can witness many changes in a neighborhood. Historian Cynthia Brothers of Vanishing Seattle and Taha Ebrahimi, author of Street Trees of Seattle, offer an intriguing walking tour of Chinatown-International District, one of Seattle’s oldest neighborhoods. I joined about a dozen others last Saturday afternoon on the first in a series of such tours. All six free tours, supported by local cultural grants, sold out within 90 minutes, and more than 500 people are now on the waiting list! I was lucky to grab a spot!

Gathering at the historic Panama Hotel Café, where I’ve sketched many times, the tour began with an energetic lion dance performed by martial arts organizations. Then, for the next two hours, we made 15 stops around the District for notable buildings and trees. Cynthia and Taha told many fascinating stories about people, the community and the trees that make up this diverse neighborhood.

You may recall that I used Taha’s book a couple of years ago as my own walking and sketching guide to street trees in Maple Leaf and other neighborhoods. It was illuminating to hear the stories in person of seven specific CID trees that she had written about.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to listen, observe, sketch and take notes, all at the same time! My pages are a scribbly mess, and my notes are probably indecipherable, but they serve as a great memory of an informative and fun afternoon.

A really special part of the tour was visiting Connie Chen's shop, Sun May Co., located in Canton Alley. Her family has owned the shop since 1911.

Connie Chen at Sun May Co.

After the tour, some of us went to Bush Garden, Seattle's second-oldest Japanese restaurant, which recently moved to a new location. We were offered a Mar-tree-ni, a special cocktail designed just for us!

Cynthia Brothers talks about a mural dedicated to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.

Group photo courtesy of Taha and Cynthia.