How Fremont’s Dreamland Constructed Seattle’s Most Common Drag Brunch

Drag has grow to be so mainstream in recent times that it may possibly now not be contained in nightclubs. For many years drag was an underground artwork kind relegated to late-night dance flooring, however the popular venue for a lot of attendees is now on weekend mornings at drag brunch the place gorgeous appears to be like are served alongside the standard brunch choices of bacon, eggs, and bottomless mimosas.

Sadly, anybody who has been to a drag brunch earlier than is aware of all too properly that there’s often a option to be made between good meals and good leisure; it’s a uncommon incidence that patrons can get each of excessive caliber. However there’s a place the place one doesn’t need to compromise: That place is Fremont’s Dreamland.

The renegade reputation of their weekly Dreamgirls brunch speaks volumes in a metropolis like Seattle, the place there’s completely no scarcity of drag brunches. Proprietor of Fremont’s “floating metropolis” Cera Grindstaff has created a totally immersive occasion by placing equal emphasis on the meals, leisure, and ambiance for added impact. Strolling into Dreamland right this moment is like strolling right into a diner run by the homeowners of Studio 54. A tiered crystal chandelier hangs like an upside-down wedding ceremony cake on the entrance, technicolor murals and a line rendering of Cher take up complete partitions, and each journey to the toilet takes you thru a mirrored hallway bedecked with disco balls and laser lights. The expertise has grow to be probably the most sought-after weekend tickets within the metropolis, sometimes promoting out months prematurely.

Wren Morrow

After all of the work of operating the area behind the scenes, Grindstaff remains to be one of many first faces you see when strolling in on the weekends operating drinks or seating events. And but she’ll be the primary to say that placing collectively a brunch occasion at this degree is a workforce effort. “I will be the producer of Dreamgirls, however I’m all the time telling my queens to inform me how one can make this work. They know what makes a great drag present significantly better than I do.”

Grindstaff was already a co-owner of the close by Stampede Cocktail Membership when she acquired the keys for the 7,000-square-foot area that used to accommodate the much-loved Crimson Door in March of 2020 with the intent of constructing the area a 24-hour diner. This was mere days earlier than Seattle’s first COVID-19 shutdown pressured eating places to shut and other people to lock themselves up at dwelling, so these plans had been dashed — she might hardly plan a dinner service, not to mention a 24/7 schedule. At first, it appeared like downtime they may use to get the area arrange for a June opening, however because the virus continued to unfold Grindstaff was pressured to shut and reopen a number of instances that summer time.

“It was a extremely bizarre summer time, with all of the back-and-forth I really feel like we did like seven comfortable openings in my thoughts,” Grindstaff says. “I blocked out loads of it.”

Enterprise began slowly when Dreamland lastly acquired to remain open in 2021; patrons had been nonetheless cautious of consuming out, however Grindstaff observed how weekend brunch providers had been protecting the enterprise afloat. It turned her mission to determine how one can make what was already working for them even larger. As a longtime fan of drag herself, the reply appeared apparent: “The entire drag exhibits had gone away due to a pandemic, so I figured doing a drag brunch would mutually profit each us and the native drag scene. I’ve all the time liked drag, however I didn’t know what I used to be moving into.”

Luckily, the menu was already giving 10s throughout the board when Grindstaff determined to lean into drag exhibits. Grindstaff nonetheless took loads of inspiration from her authentic plan when making the menu with a choice of reimagined consolation meals and diner favorites. Dreamland’s tackle a Monte Cristo takes the everyday ham and cheese sandwich and dunks it in a candy coconut custard that each one will get crusted in cornflakes for an added layer of tropical sweetness and crunchy texture. The Salted Caramel Macchiato French Toast takes savory ham and cheese out of the equation, utilizing the identical coconut and cornflake brioche and subs in a flood of salted caramel and coffee-scented whipped cream. And whereas you may get an espresso martini on draft instead of (or alongside) your morning cup of Joe, they make a stiff Irish espresso slushie that may each wake you up and knock you out when you’ve got too many — and belief me, you’ll need a couple of.

With the meals already taken care of, Cera centered on recruiting drag performers. After scouting for native expertise on Instagram and conducting interviews, Grindstaff appointed Irene “The Alien” DuBois because the host of brunch. DuBois had been doing drag brunches for about 5 years when she acquired the gig at Dreamland — simply earlier than she was enlisted for the fifteenth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2022.

The already in style brunch service gained extra traction after DuBois was included within the official solid announcement the next 12 months. “It simply began blowing up. I’d launch my tickets and it could promote out in an hour,” Grindstaff remembers. She and DuBois quickly agreed to supply two Saturday seatings, a morning present at 11:30 a.m. and a day present at 1:30 p.m., to maintain up with the demand.

Wren Morrow

In comparison with performing in nightclubs the place most patrons are accustomed to drag, DuBois enjoys how Dreamland’s brunch permits her “to behave as an envoy and liaison of the drag neighborhood.” DuBois steps out in the beginning of each brunch service decked out in her trademark spacey, Venusian glamour and all the time asks who has seen a drag present.

“Once I ask who’s right here for his or her very first drag present at a brunch, the quantity of fingers that go within the air is far greater than a membership. Nightclubs are stuffed with frequent viewers of drag, the place it’s important to go the additional mile to indicate them one thing new to impress them. At brunch, merely being a drag queen is usually sufficient, assuming you’re good at it,” DuBois says.

Then DJ Jane Don’t fires up the audio system with a mixture of Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, The Pointer Sisters — no matter tune the upcoming queen has deliberate for her quantity. When the beats mingle with the scents of fried rooster, Dreamland’s McDreamy burgers, and the breakfast fare, the air turns into an intoxicating cocktail that permits you to know a celebration is about to start out.

Jane Don’t, who additionally leads brunch at Kamp Social Home in Madison Valley, began as a visitor DJ earlier than taking on the job at Dreamland solely and masking internet hosting duties for DuBois now and again. Don’t says that Grindstaff’s help for the queens is what helped to “holistically elevate” Dreamland’s brunch head, shoulder pads, and wigs above the remaining.

“They’ve actually listened to us as performers in a manner I hadn’t as much as that time skilled. I feel typically administration tends to imagine they know higher than performers, however finally that is what we as drag queens do,” Don’t says. “Cera has all the time been such a collaborator and so supportive of the artists in a manner that’s allowed the present to profit from our expertise and created a extremely joyful working setting, which I feel interprets to all the things else.”

Grindstaff talked about that every queen fulfills a sure trope, “Irene is our weirdo alien, Jane is our traditional golden glamour woman,” and fellow solid common and Irene’s drag daughter Norvina DuBois is “a rainbow rockstar, which supplies you a way of all that Seattle drag has to supply.”

There’s a palpable pleasure to a Dreamgirls present that remembers the rowdiest nightclub performances. Because the queens excessive kick across the patio, waiters hang around on the sidelines ready for the precise second when the performing queen strikes to the opposite aspect of the room to allow them to swiftly ship plates and refill drinks. All this occurs whereas greenback payments are flying and patrons are screaming together with the present. Grindstaff says that determining the timing of when to run plates is a science her employees can solely determine with expertise on the ground. “It’s loads of transferring elements, nevertheless it’s a part of the job, it’s a part of the hat it’s important to put on. Now we have to be like a transformer like we’ve acquired to have the ability to shift and transfer,” she says.

Dreamgirls turned a serious funding as soon as Grindstaff observed how in style it was getting. She retrofitted the 80-seat coated patio from “only a concrete slab and large picnic tables” to the trendy tropical oasis it’s right this moment. Strolling out of the disco glam of the primary eating space, the patio the place Dreamgirls is held resembles extra of an elegant Rainforest Cafe. Company are greeted by a stone lion head bust and neon rainbow lights. The cavernous stone wall on the far finish of the patio adorned with bushels of ferns makes the area really feel like visitors have stumbled right into a secret paradise.

“We had no speaker system [in the beginning]. We had been utilizing Sonos and I bear in mind following round Irene with a speaker linked to a microphone with a wire, however there was nonetheless a three-second delay. However we paid into it as soon as I noticed it was going someplace. I purchased a $20,000 new sound system. I purchased the crème de la crème microphone. I figured we had been gonna simply go all in,” Grindstaff says.

The investments have greater than paid off, with current occasions just like the ABBA and Cher tribute performances promoting out solely inside 20 minutes of the tickets being launched. The present has even gotten some shock visitors within the viewers, like when Sarah McLaughlan was in attendance not too long ago (Grindstaff describes that second as “one among our greatest wins”).

With the renegade reputation, Grindstaff can solely consider the place to take Dreamgirls subsequent.

“There are enhancements I wish to make right here, like higher lighting. However one other aim of mine can be to simply open a unique area, begin one thing in a unique neighborhood, and even model Dreamgirls like Hamburgers Mary’s, and go do a Dreamgirls in a unique state,” she says. “In the event you dream it, we will do it.”