"You're in."

That phrase, uttered by Heidi Klum, is keeping one local man's dream alive. But it was a nail biter.

Blayne Walsh, West Seattle's Hotwire Online Coffeehouse barista who made it into the final 16 of Bravo's addictive hit, "Project Runway,'' looked for a minute to be a goner. In the first round! That's what you get when you try to go out on a limb on a grocery store challenge with jump rope, linens and windshield wipers. One thing judges Nina Garcia and Michael Kors agreed on: he's not boring, or at least his design wasn't.

When host Klum excused Walsh from the two-person zone of elimination, you could feel the expulsion of air and relief in the packed room at the Ginomai artists' collective, where about 70 folks, mostly from the neighborhood, came out to support their local guy done good. Who got auf'd? That would be Jerry, who made a contraption out of shower curtains that judge Michael Kors called "a Handy Wipe gone wrong."

This is going to be a weekly ritual, so if you're interested, come by every Wednesday at 9 p.m. to cheer him on. Walsh wasn't there this time, opting instead to watch the premiere with his mother in Yakima.

"It's great to see somebody live their dream," said Karen Hedberg of West Seattle, who is a regular customer at Hotwire. Before Walsh pursued his "Runway" aspirations, he made her mochas and lattes every morning. What we saw on the screen at Ginomai -- a very tan, gregarious and funny Walsh -- is what you'd get in person. "That is totally him."

I sped from the zoo, where I was reviewing the Marc Cohn/Aimee Mann concert, to get to Ginomai on time, but I still missed Blyane's introduction -- barely. I heard the roar from inside as I was parking my car and I knew I was in the right place.

The collective buzz of those gathered was love for their neighborhood nice guy, who is part of a coffeehouse crew who knows customers by name and who have welded a tight bond with the community around them.

Judging by the peanut gallery cackles, this season has enough characters on it to fuel plenty of entertainment value -- and most of the designers impressed with what they were able to make from the grocery store run, using cups, coffee filters, mops and tablecloths. Lots and lots of it.

Blayne's first "Licious Girl" kinda bombed with the judges, but he still has a chance to make it work, and West Seattle will be right there every week, pulling for him.