Two business notes from recent West Seattle departees

Notes from two businesses that recently moved out of West Seattle and headed east — Marilyn Murphy from Murphy’s Furniture Studio e-mailed to say her new store in Pioneer Square is now open at 314 1st Ave S., next to Elliott Bay Books, and she’s offering a 15% discount on any one item this month to anyone who comes in and mentions West Seattle. (If you missed the news, an Italian restaurant called Cafe Revo is moving into the ex-Murphy’s space.) Meantime, Herban Feast, which is now based in SoDo but still has a booth at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market on Sundays, is planning to offer barbecued wild-salmon burgers at the market this Sunday, in honor of Father’s Day.

chas redmond June 10, 2008 (10:30 pm)

It’s great that these two local businesses are doing well and have expanded into new territory. It’s distressing that the new territory is outside West Seattle because those owners and employees have reduced the local employment base by some small degree.
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What seems to be the issue here is access. I’m not sure how much more yelling and screaming one can do and even if one did the attention paid by the city’s administrators would still be nil.
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I’d also be interested in knowing how much of their old West Seattle customer base was still with them – pretty much for the same reasons – access. I’m down in SoDo and P-square as much as I am anywhere else in the “rest of the city.” But, it’s no where near as many times as I’m at Morgan or Alaska or Admiral Junction or even down on Alki or Harbor or Wildwood Place or White Center or Delridge.
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We’re still a long way from having sustainable communities and as long as Seattle remains inaccessible in so many areas to so many of its residents, we will continue to be unsustainable.
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I’d love to go to Archie McPhee’s on a lark but I can’t really. I’ve got to either give up several hours (via transit) or burn precious fuel and dump CO2 into the atmosphere.
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What this city lacks more than anything else is real transit which is grade separated. Notice I said “what this city” needs. King/Sno/Pierce Counties don’t need Link, they need Sounder. Why again are we spending money on Link?
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grrrrr

Paul June 10, 2008 (10:58 pm)

From what I understand its a space issue. There is no good space available for the larger businesses, such as Murphys and Herban Feast. Herban Feast now has parking and a venue that can hold many people, I think but am not sure up to 500. We have no space in West Seattle to house a venue like that, and I am sure if the space was here it would be booked all the time. I agree, precious jobs are again lost and moved out of West Seattle.

Chano June 11, 2008 (12:11 am)

Very true Chas, I am one half of Cafe Revo… And I love Seattle very much, But I agree that building our local economy and jobs is very crucial. Sofia and I have long dreamed of opening a restaurant here and working with local products for the same reasons you mentioned. Your comments validate my thoughts exactly.

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