Our good friend Dan “The Sausageman” House has opened his new “Tin Cellars” wine, gift shop and bar.

His new “Tin Theater” is scheduled to open in mid-January or February, with the classic “Wizard of Oz” slated for the big premiere (stay tuned to the BTB for more details soon).

Here are the details for the Tin Cellars opening:

WHAT: Grand Opening of “Tin Cellars”

WHEN: Doors open Thursday, Nov. 12th at 11am; be sure to stop in, say hi to Chirlee and check out the place, as Dan is re-utilizing even more historic artifacts from the historic old Tin Shop that used to be in this location, making this another altar of sorts to the historic old Burien business which originally opened in 1930. Be sure to admire the old wooden sign above the new bar, circa 1940; here’s photographic proof:

WHERE: Tin Cellars is next to The Tin Room Bar at 923 SW 152nd Street in Olde Burien.

INFO: From their press release, which also includes updates on the “Tin Theater”:

Tin Cellars Is Opening!

We are proud and excited to announce the opening of Tin Cellars Thursday, November 12th!

Many of you have questions about Tin Cellars, the Tin Theater and Dan the Sausageman. Hopefully this will answer a few of them.

What is Tin Cellars?
Tin Cellars will be a wine shop featuring Dan the Sausageman sausages, assorted cheeses and Dan’s gift packs during the holidays. Hours of operation will be from 11 AM to 5 PM Monday thru Saturday with extended hours this Thursday for our Grand Opening Celebration. After Thanksgiving we will be open 7 days a week from 11 AM to 5 PM.

When will the Tin Theater open?
We are hoping for late January or early February.

What movies will you play?
Classics, foreign films and second run movies. We are hoping to hear from you on what movies you would like to see.

Can the theater be used for private parties?
Yes, you can book the entire theater as well as Tin Cellars, bring your favorite movie or DVD’s of family photos and enjoy your own theater for a night. Tin Cellars is available immediately for private parties so please call ASAP if this is something you would like as the days are already starting to be booked.

Why is there another bar in the Tin Cellars?
This will be the bar to service the movie theater when it opens. Also it will handle the overflow for the Tin Room allowing our guests to enjoy a new atmosphere, a drink and an appetizer while waiting for a table. You just might find it so comfortable and such a different experience from the Tin Room that you may just want to stick around.

Is the Tin Cellars open now?
Yes, it is open to handle whenever the Tin Room needs more space and it is available for private parties.

Thank you so much for your patience and we hope this is going to be a great new addition to the neighborhood. See you at the movies!

This month Kelley, Nikki and Kristin M are celebrating anniversaries working with the Tin Room. Kelley and Nikki will celebrate 5 years with the Tin room and Kristin M has been with us for 4 years. Chef Daniel and Rigo both have birthdays this month as well.

And, last but not least, the Tin Room will be celebrating it’s 5th birthday this month!!! Join us on Saturday, November 21st for an all out party where we will be giving away gifts and having an all-around great time. Thank you Burien for 5 great years! We’re looking forward to celebrating with you!

In a B-Town Blog exclusive, we’ve just learned from longtime Burien business owner Dan House, proprietor of both The Tin Room Bar and Dan the Sausageman, that he’ll be building a brand new combination movie theater/bar at 923 SW 152nd, in the space where his retail business was located.

The new theater/bar, to be called The Tin Theater, will not only show movies in an intimate setting, it will allow 34 moviegoers to eat and drink at their seats, similar in concept to McMenamins, a combo theater/bar with numerous locations in Portland.

Here’s a scan of the plans, exclusive to The B-Town Blog (click on the image below to see a larger size):

Below is a Q & A interview with Dan, who proudly became a father of a baby girl Monday July 6th, and he’s looking for name suggestions (see below):

Q: Why are you building “The Tin Theater”?

A: The same reason why we built the Tin Room, I think Burien needs it badly.

Q: How did you come up with this idea?

A: There is a bar owner in Portland that has done this for awhile and I always like the idea, they are the McMenamin bars, they have about five theaters.

Q: What kind of films will you be showing?

A: We will be showing all kinds of Movies, we may have James Bond week (Martini and a movie), Clint Eastwood week, etc. and I would like to have the Burien Film Festival, maybe have the Highline School District or local people enter short movies.

Q: What will you show as the the first film?

A: First movie I am leaning towards is The Wizard of Oz, for the Tin Man.

Q: What will make your theater different from others?

A: The Tin Theatre will be small and intimate, not a monster “get lost in the parking lot” multiplex. You will be able to eat and drink in our lounge-type setting. We are thinking the theater may be for rent so you can invite 45 of your favorite friends to view your best movie or see a screening of your wedding, vacation, graduation etc., or for sporting events, with this you will be able to have your own server/bartender.

Q: What will happen with the Dan the Sausageman shop?

A: In front of the Theater will be a new Dan the Sausageman/Tin Cellars focusing on our wines, sausages and cheese but it will also be the area to hang out and mingle with Chirlee (my mother) and wait for the movie to start.

We will be taking our internet business off site to make room for the Movie Theatre, and we are looking for a location in Burien with warehouse space that we can build our gift boxes from and ship out; we have been around for 21 years and have no plans of stopping.

We just had a baby girl today at 4:04, we need a name, got any ideas?

Please post your baby name ideas (or thoughts on The Tin Theater) in the Comments below and we’ll make sure Dan gets ‘em (our suggestions: a name that can be shortened to “Tin” like Tindal, Tingley, Tinnea, Tinney, Tinsley, etc.).

by Scott Schaefer

That’s New York Times best-selling Author Robert Dugoni above on the left, along with Burien businessman Dan House, right. Dugoni has incorporated the Burien area into his latest novel, “Wrongful Death,” including this pivotal scene set in House’s The Tin Room:

Dugoni will be celebrating his creative ties to Burien with a reading and book-signing party at The Tin Room at 6pm on Wednesday, May 6th.

We recently caught up with Dugoni, along with longtime Burien resident and businessman Dan House (aka “Dan the Sausageman,” and yes, his name was purposely misspelled in the book as “Hause”), and spoke with both about Burien, writing, and the importance of using authentic locations in a story.

House asked Dugoni why he chose to set the novel’s main character David Sloane’s home in Burien, and why he included The Tin Room.

“Burien is a very interesting place,” Dugoni said as he sipped an iced tea. “On one hand you’ve got this relatively remote, rich area with gorgeous views and beautiful waterfront homes, while just up and over the hill there are pockets of poverty. I just love the contrast, and the possibilities it allows for a mystery are tremendous.”

Another reason Dugoni may have decided to include The Tin Room could be because it’s located next to House’s other retail business, “Dan the Sausageman.”

“One time I was driving through Burien and I saw this odd red neon sign that said ‘Dan the Sausage‘ and I just had to stop,” Dugoni laughed. “I parked, went inside and spoke with an older woman (Dan’s Mom Chirlee) who pointed out that the sign actually read ‘Sausageman‘ but because it was bent to go around a corner it looked like it only said ‘Dan the Sausage.’ I thought that was very unusual. Then I ate at The Tin Room and that was it.”

Dugoni, who makes his home in Kirkland, has family ties in Burien and often spends summer days down on the beach at Three Tree Point. This is his third novel, with the previous two being “The Jury Master” and “Damage Control.”

Here’s the synopsis for Wrongful Death, along with some early reviews:

Acclaimed attorney David Sloane (from the New York Times Bestseller, The Jury Master) agrees to take on a wrongful-death claim with a strong emotional tug. Beverly Ford, the widow of a national guardsman killed in Iraq is convinced her husband perished under nefarious circumstances. Sloane soon learns that established case law makes the prospect of victory over the federal government nearly impossible. When Sloane discovers that other members of Ford’s platoon have died under suspicious circumstances since returning to the U.S., he suspects a conspiracy to conceal the truth. In a battle for justice, Sloane must keep himself, and those he loves, from becoming the next casualties.

Mixing the suspense of a Grisham legal thriller with the political angle of a Baldacci. Dugoni is knocking on the A-list thriller door.
- Booklist

Page-turning action…
- Publishers Weekly

An entertaining thriller. Good guys to like, villains to hiss, windmills to attack.
- Kirkus

And here’s a publicity video produced for publisher Simon & Schuster that showcases some Burien areas – see if you can identify any:

Here’s Dugoni’s bio:

Robert Dugoni was born in Pocatello, Idaho and raised in Burlingame, California. Growing up the middle child in a family of ten siblings, Dugoni jokes that he didn’t get much of a chance to talk, so he wrote. By the seventh grade he knew he wanted to be a writer.

Dugoni wrote his way to Stanford University where he majored in communications/journalism and creative writing and worked as a reporter for the Stanford Daily. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and worked briefly as a reporter in the Metro and San Gabriel Valley Offices of the Los Angeles Times before deciding to attend the UCLA law school. Dugoni practiced law full-time in San Francisco as a partner at the law firm, Gordon and Rees and is currently of counsel for a law firm in Seattle.

While practicing law he satisfied his artistic thirst studying acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, appearing in equity and non-equity shows throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. His longing to return to writing never wavered, however, and in 1999 he made the decision to quit the full-time practice of law to write novels. On the 4-year anniversary of his wedding, he drove a u-haul trailer across the Oregon-Washington border and settled in Seattle to pursue his dream.

For the next three years, Dugoni worked in an 8 x 8 foot windowless office in Seattle’s Pioneer Square to complete three novels, two of which won the 1999 and 2000 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contests.