These folks would be right at home at the new Benbow Room”In the beginning, there was the Admiral Benbow Inn–a place so beloved by the people of West Seattle (and Seattle at large) that when it closed, pirates showed up to mourn its passing, the mayor made an appearance, and the fixtures were sold right off the walls. “When the Admiral Benbow finally shut its doors for good in 2002, the space remained primarily dark. It was briefly occupied by a blues and Cajun joint, but according to Jay Wergin, all that place did in its eight-month existence was manage to ruin the space even further than the closing night parties, estate sale and final abandonment ever did. “‘They did more damage than good,’ he says, referring to how they painted the whole place in shades of black, white, and gray and marginalized the Spanish galleon-themed bar that was like a grown-up’s version of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, complete with rum and blood and smoke, real wenches, true debauchery and a vibe that surpassed camp and made straight for that rare inner territory of honest love for the weird.”When Wergin (the brains) and his partner, Jeff Loren (the veteran chef with 25 years in the whites) first picked up the space, they weren’t even necessarily thinking of doing a restaurant. The name on the building’s paperwork? The West Seattle Sausage Company.”‘We thought about making it into a place to sell sausage,’ Wergin explains, because sausage was what he and Loren were really interested in. The making and the selling. But with Wergin having spent 20 years in the printing business and Loren just being a white jacket with a nice resume, he admitted that there was just too much they didn’t know about running a retail operation. A restaurant, though? They thought they could make that work. “And then they saw what was left of the Admiral Benbow.”From Pirates of the Misissippi, this week’s review of the Heartland Cafe and Benbow RoomSwear to god, most of this week’s review is about the Heartland Cafe, the new restaurant in West Seattle dedicated to the greater glories of Midwestern food. There’s a lot of talk in there about casseroles, about cream of mushroom soup and bratwurst and tater tots. Most of what I write about has to do with the opening of (and menu at) the Heartland, which exists in the front of the building that also houses the Benbow Room.But seriously, the Benbow Room? There’s a great story behind it that beats like the heart of this week’s piece. And there is just no way to talk about one without talking about the other.So come tomorrow, you can read all about it. And after you’re done reading, you can go there yourself and see what a little love, a lot of luck and a whole shitload of tater tots can do to transform history into reality and bring the pirates back to Admiral Way.