(WSB photo: The Westy’s bar takes shape)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

It’s become almost routine for new enterprises to do some crowdfunding – asking friends, family, online supporters to chip in to help cover startup costs. The Westy Sports and Spirits, under construction at 7908 35th SW in Westwood, is joining that crowd – but not via the usual donation drive.

The Westy has just become the 15th area enterprise to launch a drive via Community Sourced Capital – which you might call crowd-loaning instead of crowdfunding. And unlike the major donation-type crowdfunding sites, CSC is based in Seattle (see who else it’s worked with).

After hearing about The Westy’s campaign on Thursday, we returned to the under-construction space Friday afternoon to check in with its proprietors.

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After Puerto Vallarta Restaurant owner Eduardo Morales-Cardenas was charged in November with trafficking in stolen liquor, we asked the state Liquor Control Board what that meant for the restaurant. At the time, a spokesperson told us, the LCB had taken no action. But today, we received a reader tip that Puerto Vallarta’s license had been temporarily suspended, and we have just verified that with the LCB. It’s a ten-day suspension – 3 pm yesterday until 3 pm January 12, according to a flyer posted in the restaurant’s window. LCB spokesperson Mikhail Carpenter tells WSB that the penalty is for “liquor purchase from an unauthorized source,” and that the penalty was either a thousand-dollar-fine or a 10-day suspension, and the latter was levied, he said, because “the fine wasn’t paid on time.” Carpenter says additional penalties are possible pending the outcome of the criminal case; Morales-Cardenas, arrested in September, is one of five people charged. We just checked the online case files, which show his next hearing set for January 13th.

If you’re looking for someone else to do the cooking on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day – our annual “West Seattle restaurants open on Christmas” list is now available for your perusal. See it here. Please note the disclaimers – this is compiled via more than 100 phone calls/e-mails over the course of multiple days, and if an establishment changes its plan, we won’t necessarily get notification. But we hope it’s helpful. Also note that it includes New Year’s Eve/Day listings, if available. If a local restaurant is NOT listed here at all, it means either they are closed on all four days we asked about OR that they did not return our phone calls/messages. We’ll continue to add any information that comes in, including changes on the holidays themselves; e-mail is the best way to get information to us – editor@westseattleblog.com. Thanks!

Today we’re welcoming Proletariat Pizza as a new WSB sponsor – as they invite you to join them for lunch!

Proletariat Pizza is serving not only pizza (slices as well as whole pies) but also sandwiches, salads, and other specials for lunch, starting at 11 am weekdays. Proprietors Mike and Stefanie Albaeck (Highland Park residents, shown above with Hollis) say it’s an idea they’ve been working toward or a long time; originally, they were thinking about opening a sandwich shop, but decided instead on pizza. And now that Caffé Delia is renovating its own space next door, after starting off in the Proletariat space during mornings/early afternoons, it’s lunch time for Proletariat!

Proletariat Pizza‘s daily lunch menu rotates – regularly featuring a cured-meat sandwich as well as a quinoa salad – in addition to the full Proletariat dinner menu (see it here). Slices are also available, and lunchtime continues until 3 pm, when dinner begins. Daily lunch specials are often featured on the Proletariat Facebook page. Stefanie and Mike also want you to know that the daily lunch specials always include a gluten-free option, as does the dinner menu.

Proletariat Pizza also recently expanded its space, as noted here, and they want you to know that space is bookable for parties – just contact them, 206-432-9765, or e-mail proletariatpizza (at) gmail (dot) com. They’re at 9622-A 16th SW in downtown White Center; online at ProletariatPizza.com.

We thank Proletariat Pizza for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.

The buildout starts next week at 2820 Alki SW, future home of French restaurant Cassis, according to proprietor Jef Fike, who just shared this update, including a menu preview and news of his choice for chef:

Construction of Cassis begins this Monday the 16th. We are projecting opening within the first two weeks of February.

Although I’m sure there will be some changes between now and then, I am attaching the opening menu to give you an idea of what we’ll be doing. Our hours to begin will be Wednesday-Monday, closed Tuesdays. In April or May we will open for Saturday and Sunday brunch and in June open 7 days and nights through the Summer months. We will also be doing a happy-hour menu daily from 4-6.

My Chef is Andy Dekle, a neighbor in West Seattle, formerly Head Chef at The Ruins, Local Vine, and currently at Portage Bay through the end of the year.

I encourage folks to like our Cassis page on Facebook. I’ll be doing updates on our progress as we chug along towards the opening.

Cassis’s previous incarnation was on Capitol Hill a decade ago; the Alki plan has been in the works for almost a year, but the location – formerly home to Alki Arts (which still has its Harbor Steps gallery downtown) – wasn’t finalized until this fall.

Tonight during West Seattle Art Walk, Mackenzie Berg and Miguel Cornelio are featured artists at Chaco Canyon Organic Café (3770 SW Alaska; WSB sponsor) – read about them and preview their work here.

Chaco Canyon is also celebrating two big achievements: An anniversary and an award. (And read through to the end to learn about an expansion!) The announcement from proprietor Chris Maykut:

Fresh off celebrating our 10th anniversary on September 1st, the Chaco Canyon Organic Café received its biggest accolades to date, winning the 2013 Green Washington Award in the Food and Beverage category of the annual event put on by Seattle Business Magazine.

Being recognized in the same forum as such luminaries as Fred Hutchinson, Microsoft, and the University of Washington, we are truly honored that our small business was recognized for the one thing that our mission and outright existence are built around: creating a more sustainable planet and enrolling our community in this.

Excerpts from our award acceptance speech, which we were told by the host of the evening was the “best of the night”:

“First off, I want to thank Seattle Business Magazine for this award and for celebrating the concept of business taking a leadership role in the concept of community sustainability. This award is dedicated to the hundreds of former and current employees that we have had through our 10 years of existence. It wasn’t always like this, as you all know. I graduated from Berkeley in the ’90s with a business degree and the clear message that the concept of sustainability and profit were mutually exclusive.

“Much has changed in the last 20 years, in both curriculum and practice, but disparity still reigns in our society. In founding the Chaco Canyon Organic Café 10 years ago, I’ve been driven to prove the messaging I received wrong, and to create a business that can succeed by being completely unreasonable with regards to our green practices: Namely, putting sustainability first at almost any cost. We’ve done pretty well with that, and I couldn’t be prouder of all of my incredibly hard-working staff that have come together to collaborate and make us who we are over the last decade, culminating with this award tonight.

“I’ll leave you all with a call to action. In the course of your businesses over the next decade, push the envelope with this ethic. Be unreasonable. Choose a green strategy not because you think it will save you money or bring you more business, but simply because it’s the right thing to do. What we do as innovative business leaders can create a ripple effect throughout our community, and who knows what we can change together?”

Opened in a tiny 800sf space on Brooklyn Avenue in 2003, Chaco Canyon Café has grown to 2 locations and 53 staff in our 10 years. We are obsessed with sustainability, and have built into our mission statement that the more we grow as a company, the closer we will adhere to our values. We plan on opening our third location in Ballard by the fall of 2014.

P.S. Rejoining the WSB sponsor team recently, Chaco Canyon has a new coupon on the WSB Coupons page – 10 percent off your ticket – get it here.

One week after our sneak peek inside sports bar/restaurant Redline WS, it’s officially open as of today. We stopped by for a photo a short time ago, after getting word they’re ready for customers. Here’s manager Chris Ramsey with the beer taps:

They’re open 11 am-2 am for starters; the menu is now online. You’ll find Redline WS on the ground floor of The Residences at 3295, on the southeast corner of 35th/Avalon, with some parking available in the building’s garage.

(From left, Scott Goerig, Mike Bauer, Joshua Huckabay)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The new family-friendly sports bar/restaurant Redline WS is days away from opening.

While it’s just across 35th SW from the site that until three years ago housed the Redline, whose then-proprietor Scott Goerig is now a consultant for Redline WS, this is not a re-creation or relocation. This is something new.

Mike Bauer, retired from the telecom industry, is Redline WS’s owner; he and Goerig talked with us on Monday as finishing touches were well under way.

We found out they’re intending the establishment on the street level of The Residences at 3295 to be not “just” a sports bar and restaurant, but also a coffee shop geared toward the numerous commuters who catch and/or change buses steps away at the busy 35th/Avalon intersection.

“Our biggest hope is that people will understand we are trying to take this to the next level,” Goerig enthuses.

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12:05 PM: After a few days of “heading this way” but not getting within view of West Seattle, we’re told orcas ARE now in view off our shores – Trileigh Tucker just called from Lincoln Park. (Thanks also to Jeff Hogan from Killer Whale Tales for reporting earlier this morning that they had again been seen off North Seattle and were southbound again.)

12:41 PM UPDATE: Jeff just texted that the orcas have apparently turned and are now headed back NORTHBOUND, last seen off Colman Pool.

2:10 PM UPDATE: Didn’t have any luck seeing them ourselves this time, but others certainly did, including the KING 5 helicopter, whose video is embedded above (commercial that plays first is theirs, not ours). The Orca Network Facebook page‘s latest sighting report has them headed back past Bainbridge, so that’s likely it for our area for today. P.S. This is the season for orcas to venture south; last major day of sightings here was in late September.

2:31 PM UPDATE: OK, not a whale, but still wonderful – Mark Wangerin, who shares wildlife photos often, sent this harbor-seal photo, noting that it was taken “from Lincoln Park where we saw Orcas, Harbor Seals, Bald Eagle fishing, and a river otter, not to mention Loons, Grebes, etc. Amazing West Seattle Wildlife!” (P.S. The resident orcas, today’s visitors, do NOT eat seals. Transient orcas – who visit sometimes, but aren’t here now – do.)

The third restaurant on the southwest corner of 61st/Alki since the abrupt Alki Bakery closure three years ago, which also happens to be the first Fatburger in the Seattle city limits, is now open. The franchisees decided over the weekend to open at 11 am today; it wasn’t in the cards when we talked with them last Friday, to set a time this morning to come in and take photos. But as noted in our West Seattle Monday preview (thanks to a reader tip), a sign went up on the door this morning, almost three months after we first reported Fatburger was coming in after the closure of Bada Bistro.

In addition to the Fatburger menu focused on burgers and fries (gluten-free bun available for an extra charge, by the way), this location also is co-locating Buffalo’s – which, you might correctly guess, focuses on wings – and a full bar (the menu posted on the window lists a variety of specialty drinks).

Proprietor Bruce, working fast to get ready to open, told us this morning that this isn’t a “soft open” – this is it. Hours are expected to be 11 am-9 pm for starters. If you’re not familiar with Fatburger – it was founded in Los Angeles in 1952; in Western Washington, it’s had Eastside locations for years, but the Alki location is the first one in Seattle.

Back on Wednesday, the first day of the “soft launch” for the new ‘Zaw take-and-bake pizza shop at 35th and Fauntleroy, Jennifer shared that photo of her son Owen with pizza maker Aidan, as they picked up the first of dozens of free pizzas given away via RSVP. No more freebies, but today is the shop’s official opening day; hours are 2-9 pm Fridays and Saturdays, 2-8 pm Sundays-Thursdays. Here’s their menu, all takeout – pizza, salad, take-and-bake dessert, and beverages, including wine and beer. ‘Zaw is a local chain with eight other locations in Seattle and on the Eastside.

Four West Seattle food notes to share:
FATBURGER’S TIMELINE: Lots of questions about when the first Fatburger within the Seattle city limits is opening; as first reported here in August, it’s in the heart of Alki, in the former Bada Bistro/Beachside Café/Alki Bakery spot at 61st and Alki. Today, an answer from its owners: The restaurant is expected to open in two to four weeks. Hours are likely to be 11 am-9 pm for starters, but given that it’s the offseason at the beach, that might evolve once they’re open and see how it goes. If you’ve been to a Fatburger on the Eastside, note that this one will come with something extra – two things extra, actually – wings and a full-service bar. (Photo: Illuminated sign visible through Alki window.)

(Photo added 7:41 pm – sign’s up at the new West Seattle location)
ZAW PREVIEW FREEBIES: As noted here two months ago, Zaw Artisan Pizza – which is a take-and-bake shop – is opening a West Seattle store in the for-sale strip mall on the northwest corner of 35th and Fauntleroy. Via its Facebook page, it’s offering “sneak preview” freebies this Wednesday-Friday, by advance reservation.

TERRA COLE BUTCHERY OPENS IN THE JUNCTION: The new meat-and-more shop in the former Coffee to a Tea spot in The Junction, featured here last month, has soft-opened. (Don’t go today, though – they’re closed Mondays.)

COPPER COIN’S ANNIVERSARY: Proprietor Aaron Shepherd says they’re celebrating the Admiral District restaurant’s first anniversary tomorrow (Tuesday, October 15th) with a special that incorporates a taste of political advocacy as the November election approaches:

Four seasons and Seven menu designs ago we opened the doors of The Copper Coin to our friends and neighbors in West Seattle. It’s been your standard first year for a restaurant. That’s to say, it’s been exhilaratingly bonkers. At the one year mark it’s a good time to take a moment to both celebrate and to remember why we come to work every day. In fact, we’ve decided to combine the two. Our menu states ‘our food is not grown, harvested, or cooked in a factory. We work with farmers who say yes to grass and no to drugs, and with fishermen who believe in being sustainably wild,’ and within those words you’ll find our opinion on Initiative 522. This Tuesday, October 15th, in support of I-522 and in celebration of the support we’ve received from our neighborhood over the last year, we are running our Deluxe Burger paired with an exclusive 1-year anniversary “Two Coins” Double Copper Ale by Two Beers Brewery for $5.22. Hopefully the $5.22 price for a burger and beer can serve as a thank you to our friends and as a catalyst for healthy conversation about an important topic for our community.

REMINDER: WSB maintains the West Seattle Restaurant Guide as a quick, basic reference to info on local eateries; we check from time to time to see if hours (etc.) have changed, but if you happen onto outdated information, please let us know – editor@westseattleblog.com any time – so we can fix it. Thanks!

“It’s been a bit of a long haul getting to this point but now all of the cylinders are running and we’re very excited.” So says Jef Fike, proprietor past and future of Cassis, mentioned here back in January, after <Rebekah Denn broke the news he hoped to revive his fabled French restaurant on Alki, nine years after it closed on Capitol Hill. We’ve checked in with him a time or two since then, and today he confirmed to WSB that the Alki location is now official, and as long rumored, it’s 2820 Alki SW, where Alki Arts closed its beach location at the end of September after its lease wasn’t extended.

Fike told WSB today that he has “signed a lease and taken possession of the gallery space. Plans are done, permits are now being applied for and we intend to open in February 2014. It will be a full restaurant and bar which should seat 45-50, including the bar seating.” No website yet but he’s launched a Facebook page. He’s “also doing a pop up dinner on November 11th at Cafe Grub on Queen Anne Hill to begin to introduce our food to the city. We’re hoping to find a West Seattle location for a second one in January.”

(Photos added 11:56 am)
10:05 AM: This is expected to be opening day for Quadrato, the sandwich/pizza/salad shop in The Junction that we first told you about in May. Proprietor Cary Kemp, who also owns Pizzeria 22 in the Admiral District, says that assuming the final health inspection goes as expected this morning, Quadrato (4302 SW Oregon) is expected to open for lunch around 11:30 am; regular hours starting tomorrow would be 11 am-8 pm daily; see its menu here. We’ll be checking in later this morning and will update.

11:20 AM: Just stopped by – it’s open! (Shown in the photo above this paragraph – part of the seating counter, the lighting, and the window facing SW Oregon. There are tables on the sidewalk, too.)

QUADRATO: Four months after unveiling his plan, proprietor Cary Kemp says the sandwich/pizza/coffee shop at 4304 SW Oregon between Brunette Mix (WSB sponsor) and Many Moons is close to opening – likely either next Monday (September 30th) or the Monday after that (October 7th). We dropped by the cozy shop for photos today.

You might also have noticed Quadrato’s neon sign (upper left of photo above) that’s up – smaller than the one at Kemp’s other eatery, Pizzeria 22. Quadrato does have a website – quadrato.co. The menu, says Kemp, is in final development.

BRICKYARD: We’ve received a few tips about activity at the long-shuttered Brickyard BBQ location in The Admiral District (2308 California SW). And evidence suggests it is indeed getting set to reopen:

The flyer posted on its locked gate is a liquor-license application under the name Milo’s Brickyard Grill. One of our tipsters, Eric, says he talked with people there working in the space who said they’re hoping to open within a week or so, depending on when the license is granted. Nobody there when we went by for a photo but we’ll check back.

Updates from the West Seattle food and drink world:

WANNA TERIYAKI/BURGER OPENS TOMORROW: That’s what they told us late today when we stopped by the new place that, as first mentioned here last Friday, is taking over the former Athena’s/former Zippy’s spot at 1513 SW Holden: They’re planning to open at 10 am Friday. And, as Erik tipped us via the WSB Facebook page last night, they fixed the sign.

MARINATION MA KAI: New general manager Shawn Findley says Marination ma kai (WSB sponsor) at Seacrest is changing back to fall/winter hours as of next Monday (September 23rd):

Mondays: Closed
Tuesdays: 9 am-8 pm
Wednesdays: 9 am-8 pm
Thursdays: 9 am-8 pm
Fridays: 9 am-9 pm
Saturdays: 9 am-9 pm
Sundays: 9 am-8 pm

SUNDAY BRUNCH AND FOOTBALL AT OUTWEST: From OutWest Bar:

In our 3rd year, we’re opening up for Sunday Brunch! We will be showing every Sunday Seahawks game and opening by 9:30 for 10 am game days! All other Sundays we’ll open at noon and serve Brunch until 3! We’ve got Waffles & Sausage on the menu and a plethora of Bloody Marys to choose from, all starting at $6. Go Hawks!!

SUNDAY BREAKFAST AND FOOTBALL AT FEEDBACK: You can watch the games at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) too, according to manager Gia Griffitts:

At Feedback Lounge We will be showing all of the Seahawks games up on our big screen and opening early (9 am) for the Sunday 10 am games. Chef Wade will also be serving up a breakfast special on those early game days!

ELLIOTT BAY OKTOBERFEST: Elliott Bay Brewery Pub in The Junction isn’t waiting until October to celebrate Oktoberfest. It’s this Saturday (September 21st), and the pub/restaurant will be serving German fare along with the regular menu all day, as well as featuring “traditional German music by the Bonnie Birch Band” 6-9 pm.

MATADOR MENU: Also in The Junction, Matador West Seattle manager Andrew Ruggles has sent word of “a redesigned menu, with several recipe changes and the addition of a few new items.” New items they’ve announced include Nachos Mariscos – “a Northwest spin on our traditional Nachos, with dungeness crab and shrimp” – and Olympic Mountain Fried Ice Cream.