Club nights where being "plus" is a positive are full-size fun

Club nights where being "plus" is a positive are full-size fun

By Pamela Sitt
Seattle Times staff reporter

In nightlife, as in T-shirts, there is fallacy in the notion that one size fits all.

Melissa Habeck, a vivacious plus-size Seattleite, found that bars in Belltown and Pioneer Square just didn't fit right. They weren't comfortable, and they didn't make her feel fabulous.

So she did what any smart shopper would do — she kept looking. Her Goldilocks moment came when she discovered Abundance Northwest. Sold.

"I think the vibe is different from the Seattle bar scene," said Habeck, 33. "I mean, it's cliquey like anything else, but I guess we all have one common bond."

Abundance Northwest is celebrating one year of throwing what it calls size-positive club nights, where BBW (big beautiful women) and BHM (big handsome men) come together to mingle, drink and dance. It's not unlike adolescence in a way, what with the hormones and the uncertainty, the lessons in self-acceptance and the insider acronyms. Which is fitting, one supposes, because it took some growing pains to get here.

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