We’re sorry to report the news about Gabe and Heidi Claycamp’s popular cooking school, which began in West Seattle seven years ago and recently moved to Beacon Hill. There’s a lot of information to absorb from the rather long press release, so following the jump I’ve extracted a few paragraphs with pertinent details for Culinary Communion’s fans, students, and friends, and have identified the subject matter for each extract in case you just want to browse through (alternately, you can read the full text on CC’s website.). Regarding reasons for the closure:After over seven years of operation, Culinary Communion must close its doors. We have explored every option, and nothing will work to keep our heads above water. . . . When we moved into this building in mid-2007, we borrowed heavily to finance build-out costs. The past 18 months have been spent playing catch-up from that expenditure. We did manage to finally recover from the bulk of the construction costs late this past summer, just in time for the economic bust; we saw a 90% downturn in our business in November. Regarding remaining improvements/the future of The Swinery, the Claycamps’ cured-meat business, which has been in the works for months:Recently, however, the building has run into permitting trouble related to its construction prior to our lease: the basement requires a second exit, a stairwell for emergency egress. If such is not designed and fully permitted by April 10, the city has told us they’ll lock our doors and fine us, even though responsibility for amelioration of this issue falls upon the building’s owners. . . . Should the owners put in the exit, and/or assuming that situation is eventually resolved, The Swinery will take over Culinary Communion’s lease. The Swinery will also continue to operate Lunch Counter from this building. Lunch Counter will reopen on Monday, March 23.

Regarding good-byes:We have given everything we have and all that we are to Culinary Communion; it has been much more than a business to us. It’s been our life, our baby. There were so many nights of sitting around the table with students; sharing stories, wine, and laughter; growing friendships. CC is so dear to us that this is like cutting off a limb.Regarding refunds for canceled classes:We are extremely sorry to let you down, but funds received for March and April classes have already been used to pay CC’s staff. There will be no more classes or dinners whatsoever. However, it is not our intention to slip away quietly, leaving a pile of debt and bad feelings behind us. Even though Culinary Communion will be closed, Gabriel and Heidi will make good on every one of those registrations, although we realize it may take awhile. We have three options for honoring these obligations: 1) We are having a sale of assets to raise funds to pay refunds and debts; more on this below. 2) Anyone who so desires may transfer their refund amount owed by Culinary Communion to a credit for goods from The Swinery, including lunch at Lunch Counter. 3) Should we be unable to honor all obligations through the methods described above, we will make arrangements with students on a case-by-case basis for Gabriel to provide individual, in-home instruction as recompense. Regarding the going-out-of-business sale:The Swinery does not need CC’s teaching equipment, so we’re selling it off to raise funds for staff and students. From knives and pans to SubZero refrigerators, we’ve got a lot of stuff to sell: equipment, dishes, containers, tools, you name it. We can also sell wine by the bottle. We hope to raise enough money to give our employees their last pay and then give refunds to everyone (from last Friday on), and ideally, to pay a few debts, too. We want to make sure these funds get to the students for whom they are intended; therefore the sale is CASH ONLY, even for the big stuff. I guess it’s pretty obvious in this situation that all sales are final. For the bigger items, we’ll use a silent auction format. WHEN: Saturday, March 21, 2-6 pm. WHERE: CC House, 2524 Beacon Ave S., Seattle, 98144