If you’re tired of the same old, same old for New Year’s Eve, Cafe (un)American may be for you. It’s a 21+ takeover of historic Washington Hall by 35 performers (burlesque, music, and more), with specialty cocktails from Sound Spirits liquors, food from Madison Park Conservatory, and desserts by Victoria Yee Howe and Theo Chocolates.

Presenting artists include but are not limited to: Jherek Bischoff and band, DJ Darek Mazzone, Gabriel Teodros, Buffalo Madonna, Sten Skogen, King Dro, Jed Dunkerley, DJ Steve Miller, Kate Ryan, and Celeste Cooning. Also, I’m told there will be a kissing booth.

Your ticket will total $103.50, and include an open bar and a champagne toast at midnight. In the interests of full disclosure, I know some of the people behind this production, and have no doubt that this will be an incredible evening. Also, full disclosure, your name will probably go on some kind of FBI watch list, so you have that going for you, too. You can’t buy that kind of notoriety.

A watch list? you ask. Yes, do you know the strange saga of Cafe (un)American?

Many years ago now–who even remembers 2006 and 2007 any more?–there was an outlaw arts speakeasy that used to regularly defy the letter of Washington state law regarding liquor sales and gambling. Past closing time, you could stop in at the secret location for illicit cabaret, burlesque, music, and games–people went in costume, so to speak, decked out in their finest vintage wear. It was a traveling show, popping up once in a building owned by Costco’s Jim Sinegal.

Perhaps thanks to zombie institutional memory–remember that Capone and other gangsters were often behind the speakeasies that regular people used to attend, glory days, they’ll pass you by–the FBI came to believe that the proceeds of these evenings was funding “domestic terrorism.” (So did the Seattle Police Department, which has just been the subject of a major Department of Justice investigation itself.)

Here we refer you to Brendan Kiley’s definitive story on what became a major operation that, after years of surveillance, bagged a small-time dealer and put an end to Capitol Hill hipster poker games alleged to involve more than $5,000 per month in stakes:

“That would seem to be an absurd waste of state financing and funding,” Rick says. “And that actually scares me more than the charges… You guys aren’t after anything bigger than this? This is it?”

One of the accused, belatedly, was artist DK Pan, whom King County prosecutors portrayed as Le Chiffre-like in his poker skills, while failing to provide actual…ah, yes…evidence of his wrongdoing. After DK Pan decided to fight the charges, the State decided to drop them: “After filing this case, the State learned that Pan’s involvement is more minimal than first thought and more similar to individuals who were not changed as part of the gambling enterprise.”

All’s well that ends well…except for DK Pan’s $50,000 in legal bills, incurred in preparing to mount a defense. (You, the taxpayer, are on the hook for the State’s costs, and for that years-long investigation.) Thus, Cafe (un)American returns as a DK Pan benefit, in particularly poetic way of thumbing one’s nose at the authorities. Drink up.