Photo: Rick Dahms

Last week, I went up to Capitol Hill to see what Linda Derschang, proprietor of Linda’s Tavern, Smith, and King’s Hardware, had going on at the corner of 10th and Pine in the old Oddfellows Hall. At Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary bash on top of the Space Needle in July, Derschang told me she would be taking over the old Freehold space for what would be a “neighborhood hangout.” She was dubbing the joint, appropriately, Oddfellows.

When I arrived, I found Derschang and her partner in Oddfellows, Ericka Burke of Volunteer Park Cafe, in the basement of the building, examining a sign that a member of their crew had just uncovered. It was the original sign used by the Oddfellows fraternal order. It had some damage, but Derschang hoped they could salvage it to use in her space.

Derschang and Burke took me upstairs for a tour. Naturally, it’s pretty much just a dusty construction site at this point, but the two explained the whole layout they had planned. Oddfellows will open at 7 in the morning for coffee (provided by Stumptown), breakfast pastries, and other a.m. delicacies. It will switch over for lunch in the afternoon, offering sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, and the like. Derschang envisions people coming in in the mornings to order their coffee and food, which “they can either take it with them, or walk over with it and sit down and read their newspaper.”

Then, in the evenings, they’ll dim the lights for more of a lounge-y atmosphere. “And we’re going to have beer and wine to go,” Derschang said, mentioning the old shelving units they also found in the basement and hoped to use for this service. “People can come in, grab their chicken and a bottle of wine, and take them home.”

Says Derschang: “Really, I just want it to be a really cool neighborhood hangout.” She noted the lack of places like that in the Pike/Pine hood, and cited her frequenting of Burke’s Volunteer Park Cafe as an inspiration.

Even folks that don’t live on the Hill have reason to be stoked on the usefulness of Oddfellows: It will be one of the only places in the area where you can swing by and grab good food on the way to a show at Neumo’s or the Comet. No more waiting for a table anywhere!

Burke explained that the aesthetic will be all vintage mercantile. Derschang added that, for once, “I don’t think there will be any taxidermy.” She expects to open Oddfellows this December. Fingers crossed!