The bread service was a definite highlight, featuring a laminated brioche with miso butter. It took pastry chef Armar Nasir weeks to perfect the techniques that resulted in a coil of distinct, shatteringly flaky layers of bread, all dusted with salt crystals. 

Dessert came in the form of buckwheat tea and an array of delicate little mignardises.

Consider yourself warned: If you’re truly hungry, don’t count on this petite menu to fill you up. However, you always have the option to add courses, including uni toast ($48), the restaurant’s most Instagram-famous dish, and an entree of wagyu beef ($78). 

Lee says the idea stemmed in part from wanting to make sure the restaurant’s dining room felt full and energetic, even on weeknights. “We love fine dining, but we don’t love quiet dining rooms,” he says. So they came up with a way to bring in new diners and give regulars (and yes, Saison does have regulars) a less time-consuming option. It has clearly been popular. Reservations for the six-seat bar are available on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, and they tend to go fast. 

“If you would have asked me a year ago if you could sit at the bar and have bites, I would have politely said no,” Greene says. 

Sharon Magness Blake, known throughout Colorado as one who “Gives so selflessly to those who need it most,” was honored as the 2025 Citizen of the West at a dinner Monday, that raised some $647,000 for the National Western Scholarship Trust.

An equine enthusiast — four of her Arabian horses have gained fame as Thunder, mascot of the Denver Broncos — entrepreneur and philanthropist, Magness Blake has spearheaded events that have raised over $100 million for dozens of organizations, including Volunteers of America, Denver Council of Boy Scouts of America, the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, the Denver Health Foundation, the National Repertory Orchestra and the University of Colorado Foundation.

She founded, with Jean Galloway, Western Fantasy that for 30 years was VOA Colorado’s signature fundraiser, raising $35 million for VOA’s mission of feeding the hungry, providing emergency shelter and offering human service programs designed to enrich the mind, body and heart. VOA’s former chief executive, Dianna Kunz, showed her appreciation for Magness Blake’s generosity by offering the invocation that preceded dinner.

Western Fantasy always began with Magness Blake riding Thunder around the perimeter of the National Western Event Center as Lee Greenwood, either in person or via video, sang “God Bless the USA.”

So it was only natural that an adaptation of that tradition would be part of the Citizen of the West dinner, which also was held in the National Western Event Center.

Just six weeks into recovery from back surgery, Magness Blake gingerly mounted Thunder to make the red-carpet ride from the event center’s paddock area, site of the pre-dinner cocktail reception, to the stage-side table shared with her husband, retired attorney and former Breckenridge mayor Ernie Blake — and a host of friends.

As she rode in, a video played of Greenwood and members of the military singing “God Bless the USA.” Later, in a video salute to Magness Blake, Greenwood joined other close friends such as Garth Brooks and Michelle Sie Whitten in singing her praises.

“Sharon and Ernie are two of the best human beings on planet earth,” Brooks said. “She truly embodies the spirit of the West.”

Magness Blake acknowledged her health in her acceptance remarks.

“In the last two years I’ve had some serious health issues, so I am very grateful just to be here,” she said. “I’m just a horse girl who grew up in the concrete streets of Philadelphia” who attended her first National Western Stock Show 38 years ago and instantly became enamored of all that it stands for.

Since then, she has become a trustee of the show and member of its $150 million Honoring the Legacy Capital Campaign committee.

“What a great and glorious evening it is to honor our friend Sharon Magness Blake,” said capital campaign chair Pete Coors, who also served as chairman of the Citizen of the West steering committee. “Where there’s thunder, there’s lightning and you are our lightning.”

The 1,000 guests included the governors of Colorado and Wyoming, Jared Polis and Mark Gordon; Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who thanked the honoree for giving him “One of my childhood delights,” seeing Thunder gallop across the field at Mile High Stadium whenever the Broncos scored a touchdown; and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.

Also:

• Paul Andrews, who is soon to retire following 15 years as the National Western’s president/CEO
• Former Citizens of the West Dick and Eddie Robinson
• Kelly Brough, president/CEO of the Fitzsimons Innovation Community
• J.J. Ament, president/CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce
• Former Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey and wife, Maggie, who chaired the Citizen of the West Arrangements Committee in 2015 and 2016
• 2025 Arrangements Committee Chair Jennifer Jones Paton
• Miss Rodeo America Callie Mueller, Miss Rodeo Colorado Sierra Southerland and Miss Rodeo Wyoming Dusty Miller
• Dr. Gregg LaBerge, director of the Denver Crime Lab
• Political consultant Katie Behnke
• Dr. Lorenzo Trujillo
• Rico Munn, former superintendent of the Aurora Public Schools who is now vice president/Metro Denver Engagement and Strategy for Colorado State University
• Attorney Holly Shilliday, managing partner of the Colorado office of McCarthy & Holthus
• Robert and Judi Newman. He founded J.D. Edwards and now owns and manages a venture capital company, Greenwood Gulch Ventures. She served on the Citizen of the West Steering Committee
• Brandis Becky, a 20-year Steering Committee member who purchased a table to honor the memory of her late mother, Anita Becky, who had been active in the National Western Stock Show since the early 1960s when she and her husband, the late Dr. Joseph Becky, started raising Angus cattle, buffaloes and quarter horses on their ranch in rural Colorado.

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A bill introduced by Seattle Council President Sara Nelson this week is set to reignite a debate over allowing housing on Seattle’s industrial lands and the future of the SoDo neighborhood. The industrial zone in question is immediately west and south of T-Mobile and Lumen stadiums, abutting the Port of Seattle. That debate had been seemingly put to rest with the adoption of a citywide maritime and industrial strategy in 2023 that didn’t add housing in industrial SoDo, following years of debate over the long-term future of Seattle’s industrial areas. This bill is likely going to divide advocates into familiar old camps during a critical year of much bigger citywide housing discussions.

The idea of allowing residential uses around the south downtown stadiums, creating a “Maker’s District” with capacity for around 1,000 new homes, was considered by the City in its original analysis of the environmental impact of changes to its industrial zones in 2022. But including zoning changes needed to permit residential uses within the “stadium transition overlay district,” centered around First Avenue S and Occidental Avenue S, was poised to disrupt the coalition of groups supporting the broader package.

Strongly opposed to the idea is the Port of Seattle, concerned about direct impacts of more development close to its container terminals, but also about encroachment of residential development onto industrial lands more broadly.

While the zoning change didn’t move forward then, the constituency in favor of it — advocates for the sport stadiums themselves, South Downtown neighborhood groups, and the building trades — haven’t given up on the idea, and seem to have found in Sara Nelson their champion, as the citywide councilmember heads toward a re-election fight.

“There’s an exciting opportunity to create a mixed-use district around the public stadiums, T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field, that prioritizes the development of light industrial “Makers’ Spaces” (think breweries and artisans), one that eases the transition between neighborhoods like Pioneer Square and the Chinatown-International District and the industrial areas to the south,” read a letter sent Monday signed by groups with ties to the Seattle Mariners and the Seattle Seahawks, labor unions including SEIU and IBEW, and housing providers including Plymouth Housing and the Chief Seattle Club. And while Nelson only announced that she was introducing this bill this week, a draft of that letter had been circulating for at least a month, according to meeting materials from T-Mobile Park’s public stadium district.

Under city code, 50% of residential units built in Urban Industrial zones — which includes this stadium overlay — have to be maintained as affordable for households making a range of incomes from 60% to 90% of the city’s area median income (AMI) for a minimum of 75 years, depending on the number of bedrooms in each unit. And units are required to have additonal soundproofing and air filtration systems to deal with added noise and pollution of industrial areas.

But unlike in other Urban Industrial (UI) zones, under Nelson’s bill, housing within the stadium transition overlay won’t have to be at least 200 feet from a major truck street, which includes Alaskan Way S, First Avenue S, and Fourth Avenue S. Those streets are some of the most dangerous roadways in the city, and business and freight advocates have fought against redesigning them when the City has proposed doing so in the past.

The timing of the bill’s introduction now is notable, given the fact that the council’s Land Use Committee currently has no chair, after District 2 Councilmember Tammy Morales resigned earlier this month, and the council has just started to ramp up work on reviewing Mayor Bruce Harrell’s final growth strategy and housing plan. Nelson’s own Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee is set to review the bill, giving her full control over her own bill’s trajectory, with Councilmembers Strauss and Rinck — the council’s left flank — left out of initial deliberations since they’re not on Nelson’s committee.

As Nelson brought up the bill in the last five minutes of Monday’s Council Briefing, D6 Councilmember Dan Strauss expressed surprise that this was being introduced and directed to Nelson’s own committee. Strauss, as previous chair of the Land Use Committee, shepherded a lot of the work around the maritime strategy forward, and seemed stunned that this was being proposed without a broader discussion.

“Did I hear you say that we’re going to be taking up the industrial and maritime lands discussion in your committee? There is a lot of work left to do around the stadium district, including the Coast Guard [base],” Strauss said. “I’m quite troubled to hear that we’re taking a one-off approach when there was a real comprehensive plan set up last year and to be kind of caught off guard here on the dais like this, without a desire to have additional discussion.”

On Tuesday, Strauss made a motion to instead send the bill to the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan, chaired by D3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth. After a long discussion of the merits of keeping the bill in Nelson’s committee, the motion was shot down 5-3, with Councilmembers Kettle and Rinck joining Strauss. During public comment, members of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters specifically asked for the bill to say in Nelson’s committee, a highly unusual move.

Nelson framed her bill Tuesday as being focused on economic development, intended to create more spaces that will allow small industrial-oriented businesses in the city. Nothing prevents those spaces being built now — commercial uses are allowed in the stadium overlay — but Nelson argued that they’ll only come to fruition if builders are allowed to construct housing above that ground-floor retail.

“What is motivating me is the fact that small light industrial businesses need more space in Seattle,” Nelson said. “Two to three makers businesses are leaving Seattle every month or so, simply because commercial spaces are very expensive, and there are some use restrictions for certain businesses. And when we talk about makers businesses, I’m talking about anything from a coffee roaster to a robot manufacturer, places where things are made and sold, and those spaces are hard to find. […] The construction of those businesses is really only feasible if there is something on top, because nobody is going to go out and build a small affordable commercial space for that kind of use”

Opposition from the Port of Seattle doesn’t seem to have let up since 2023.

“Weakening local zoning protections could not come at a worse time for maritime industrial businesses,” Port of Seattle CEO Steve Metruck wrote in a letter to the Seattle Council late last week. “Surrendering maritime industrial zoned land in favor of non-compatible uses like housing invokes a zero-sum game of displacing permanent job centers without creating new ones. Infringing non-compatible uses into maritime industrial lands pushes industry to sprawl outward, making our region more congested, less sustainable, and less globally competitive.”

SoDo is a liquefaction zone constructed on fill over former tideflats and is close to state highways and Port facilities, but not particularly close to amenities like grocery stores and parks. The issue of creating more housing in such a location will likely be a contentious one within Seattle’s housing advocacy world.

Nelson’s move may serve to draw focus away from the larger Comprehensive Plan discussion, a debate about the city’s long-term trajectory on housing. Whether this discussion does ultimately distract from and hinder the push to rezone Seattle’s amenity-rich neighborhoods — places like Montlake, Madrona, and Green Lake — to accommodate more housing remains to be seen.

Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including Capitol Hill Seattle, BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.