T(ea) Gallery closing its Admiral location
West Seattle’s sole tea-only shop is shutting down – 2 months after opening a downtown location, T(ea) Gallery proprietor Tracy Shafer is going to focus on that store. Here’s the announcement she just sent out:
To my friends, neighbors, supporters…
I want to let you know the T(ea) Gallery’s Admiral location will be closing as of the end of January, 2008. The past 2 years have been wonderful. I’ve gotten to know so many of my neighbors and have made some wonderful friends. The location has always been “challenged” for this type of business, but it was truly a labor of love for me and a wonderful learning experience. I hope to re-open a West Seattle shop sometime in the not too distant future, but there are some circumstances that warrant closure at this time.
I plan to offer delivery service to my West Seattle customers and I’m in the middle of working out the logistics on that. Please keep an eye on my website for details …
The T(ea) Gallery’s downtown location (at 5th & Columbia) is doing well due in large part to all of you!!! Spring will bring some wonderful events and I hope you can visit soon.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all of your support.
The website Tracy mentions is here, and includes a blog page where she talks more about the shutdown decision here.
Next move for Fauntleroy Place
Here’s the latest on Fauntleroy Place, the mixed-use megaproject with the future Whole Foods Market that’s been in the works almost 2 years for Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th. Eric Radovich with BlueStar Management, the FP developer, tells WSB today that they’re still hoping for groundbreaking by April, as reported in our last update in September. But first – the project has to get through one more key public meeting, for which the date has just been set — the Southwest Design Review Board “recommendations” meeting for Fauntleroy Place has is now on the city schedule for February 14. As noted on the BlueStar site, the architect on the project has changed to CollinsWoerman, but Radovich says the rendering above from the previous architect is still fairly true to the plan — 5 stories, Whole Foods and a new Hancock Fabrics store at ground level, more than 150 apartments above, parking garage with room for more than 500 vehicles (city project page here). We also asked about BlueStar’s more-recently revealed West Seattle mixed-use project, Spring Hill (no relation to the future restaurant) at 5020 California just south of The Junction (as reported by WSB here and here) — the first Design Review Board meeting for that is listed on the city site as January 10th, but Radovich says that might be changed to later in the month. He also says there’s no publicly available rendering for Spring Hill just yet.
West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/25/07 (the finale)
Found this nicely lit corner house in Arbor Heights, at 34th SW & SW 114th. Now that Christmas has arrived, this will be the last of our nightly photo posts, but if you’re still planning to tour West Seattle’s best and brightest, you’ll be able to find all 38 featured locations on our Christmas lights map on the WSB Holidays page through New Year’s Day. Thanks to everyone who sent photos and suggestions … and of course, everyone who decorated their home, apartment, and/or business, with displays of all sizes, for others to enjoy … Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Next up: West Seattle celebrates New Year’s Eve
If you don’t have plans already – we’ll be digging a little deeper in the next few days for details of what’s up around West Seattle for New Year’s Eve. A few possibilities are already on the WSB Holidays page, and e-mail arrived today with new details on two of them — first, from Kenyon Hall (7904 35th SW):
The Kenyon Hall Family cordially extends an invitation to you and your family to join us Monday evening, December 31, at 9 pm, for our annual New Year’s Bash.
The party will feature actor David Ketter, baritones Hugh Hastings and Peter Becker, sopranos Mary Jo Dugaw and Connie Corrick, organist Andy Crow, pianist Lou Magor, and comedy juggler Bob Bailey III.
Refreshments are complimentary, and we’ll have appropriate NYE Bash paraphernalia for all. No alcohol for anyone! Festive attire is encouraged.
Tickets are $25 for a reserved table seat, $20 for general row seating, and $15 for senior/student row seating.
Kenyon Hall is taking reservations by e-mail (kenyonhall@earthlink.net). Meantime, an e-mail update arrived from Skylark today too, and here’s the New Year’s Eve plan there:
We’ll open at 7 pm for our annual party\, featuring Indie/Electro act BEEHIVE and guests. No cover charge to get in. 21+ after 9 pm.
We’ll add WS NYE events on the Holidays page as we find them, and as you let us know about them.
Update: West Seattle (slightly) White Christmas after all
The snow shower here in Upper Fauntleroy is pretty serious … if this goes on much longer, it just might stick. We’ll post any pix we get (or just leave a comment with the report from your part of town … already got e-mail from Westwood noting snow there too). 2:37 PM UPDATE: Looking south down California, you can see the dusting on cars & roofs:
And this photo just in (thank you & Merry Christmas!) from KA at California/Webster on Gatewood Hill:
3:05 PM NOTE: It’s almost stopped here. Just in time for Christmas dinner! 3:45 PM UPDATE: National Weather Service forecast is updated. “Light coating of snow possible.” 4:55 PM ADDENDUM: Thanks to SO near The Junction for this festive, snow-coated photo:
Christmas in The Junction
Found one restaurant open as of 10:30 am – Be’s. As noted below, Hotwire is open for coffee. There’s a sandwich board outside Matador that says “open for lunch” but we just tried calling and got no answer so it may just be a holdover.
Merry Christmas! Read “The Red Plush Coat”
Christmas is always a time for memories, making new ones and reliving not-so-new ones. We received the following story from West Seattle writer Georgie Bright Kunkel, to share with everyone in WSB-land. P.S. Georgie notes the picture preceding the story was taken “a few decades ago”:Read More
West Seattle Christmas light, 12/24/07
Yes, we do mean “light” singular – tonight we spotlight the fact that, as the photo above (taken under the Our Lady of Guadalupe tree) shows, there’s still light in the sky after 5 pm because THE DAYS ARE GETTING LONGER!!!! The OLG tree, by the way, is one of the 37 West Seattle light displays on our clickable WS-wide map, usually available on the WSB Holidays page but here now for your Christmas Eve convenience (click the “view larger map” link beneath the map to go to a page with a full list of all locations, or click any one of the blue icons in the map for a thumbnail photo):Read More
Tree alert: West Seattle Nursery discount
Just received this note from WD (thank you!):
Just FYI: West Seattle Nursery just marked all big trees $10 and small ones $5 about an hour ago – although there are only a handful left. Got myself a real nice one!
We called West Seattle Nursery to confirm and they say it’s true – but they also note that as of this moment, they have only nine trees left. They’re open till 4 pm
West Seattle last-minute gift idea (add yours!)
Out of the WSB inbox, from Annie:
Just thought I’d give a shout-out for a last-minute gift idea that is a win-win for all. I just visited the Admiral Theater and contributed to their adopt-a-seat campaign. It’s the perfect gift for many folks — especially movie lovers, but also the person who has everything. For a $40 donation, my gift recipient will have a name plate on a new seat and will also receive two movie passes and a VIP invitation to a private show once the new seats are installed.
The Admiral’s open for matinees today (2 & 4 pm) and evening shows tomorrow (7 & 9 pm). Got another last-minute gift suggestion that’s unique to West Seattle? Leave a comment here.
West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/23/07
Not one of the brightest displays in West Seattle but on this Christmas Eve-Eve, we’re going for whimsy:
That’s a snowman on the roof, and a JackoLantern headed scarecrow-ish character in the yard to the right, northwest corner of 49th/Alaska. Now it’s on the clickable West Seattle Christmas Lights map that you can find on the WSB Holidays page (along with lots of other info including Christmas coffee, Christmas Eve/Day church services, and events through New Year’s); the photo features are all archived here. Bonus link: Pam at Nerd’s Eye View toured West Seattle displays, some of which we have featured here and some of which we have not; her post with a Flickr gallery link is here.
Christmas what’s open/what’s closed update
Finally finished surveying almost all the West Seattle coffee shops – so far, we’ve found six that will be open on Christmas; 
the list is on the Holidays page, as is our list of West Seattle Christmas Eve/Christmas Day church services (still a few more phone calls to make but even at this point we have Christmas Eve services for 15 WS churches), as well as our supermarket survey. And in the new WSB Forums, we’re still looking for West Seattle restaurants that will be open Christmas Day; jump in on the topic if you’ve found one.
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