West Seattle, Washington
24 Friday
Rahel Cook, co-owner of the wildly popular new Zippy’s Giant Burgers with Blaine “Zippy” Cook, just posted this update in comments under our last post – since most people won’t go back to see comments on a two-day old post, we’re highlighting it here:
Thanks all for the raves! We certainly were blown away, to say the least about the turnout!
Here are the stats:
Thursday = 55 lbs of beef, gone by 6 pm!
Friday = 66 lbs of beef, gone by 7 pm!
Saturday = 88 lbs of beef, gone by 8:30 pm!We finally ran out of buns on Sunday and that’s what kept us from opening. We got a
big delivery of buns on Monday, but yet again, we sold out by 8 pm! …Thank you all for showing up and supporting your local Burger business. Keep on
coming and don’t be afraid to tell us what you like or don’t like!Here comes day 5!
ps. We’ll be closed on Mother’s Day as we all have mothers and I’m one, too. We’d
like to celebrate all moms! :)
By the way, in a separate comment in the same spot, Rahel also is asking if anyone’s interested in their compostable food waste.
Joan sent that photo after arriving at the new Zippy’s Giant Burgers (16th/Holden) at mid-afternoon Sunday — its fourth day in business — only to find it closed because supplies ran low as demand ran high. (Somehow we’re not surprised, given myriad previous discussions here on WSB about how West Seattle was in dire need of a decent burger joint!) There’s a lively discussion under way in the WSB Forums, with posts from folks who also showed up this afternoon and talked to the owners, plus Ken‘s suggestions (from experience) on what it takes to run a restaurant in the early weeks. Meantime, a commenter on our opening-day Zippy’s report points out that the menu (with prices) is now posted on the restaurant’s MySpace site.
Happened by Sunfish on Alki on Saturday; they’ve posted that they’ll be closed for vacation tomorrow (5/5) through May 26th.
That wasn’t a mystery for long … we were away from the computer for a few hours, and while we were gone, not only did someone find the website for the restaurant taking over the spot Murphy’s is vacating (here’s our report from last night), someone else forwarded us this e-mail announcement that appears to have gone out just about an hour ago:
Sean and Sofia Goff to open Cafe Revo Ristorante!
Coming soon to West Seattle!
Rustic Northern Italian recipes brought straight from the old country to our Pacific Northwest table.
Café Revò Ristorante is being created by West Seattle Residents; Chef Sean Goff and Sofia Zadra Goff.
Café Revò will welcome all of their guests as family, in a warm tradition of hospitality that has been handed down for centuries. The local motto is, Mangia, bevi e godi! “Eat, drink and enjoy!”
Together with their experienced management team, Milo Goodrich and Kevin Fry, Chef Sean and Sofia will be looking forward to welcoming you to their home at Café Revò.
The Café Revò website is caferevo.com. You can check out the menu here.
Two weeks ago, we mentioned the CL rental listing for the soon-to-be-vacated Murphy‘s on Avalon suggested it would be a good space for a restaurant. Tonight, verification that one is on the way. It started with a tip from Kate (thank you!) that she met a couple who told her they planned to open a “Northern Italian” restaurant in that space. She didn’t get their names but recalls that “the chef has worked at and opened other restaurants.” As of tonight, we haven’t found their identities, but we do know the Seattle DPD website shows a permit application for converting the space to a restaurant. (The only name on the online application is that of the architect, Daniel Corcoran.) Side note — a couple blocks north, along the east side of the intersection where Harbor becomes Avalon, the long-defaced-by-a-tag Luna Park sign has finally been replaced (after a year).
See that bun? It almost kept Zippy’s Giant Burgers (16th/Holden) from opening as planned today. We called this morning to see if Opening Day was on schedule and were told “If the buns get here …” They did, and the burgers are on the grill. Hours: 10:30 am-9 pm Mondays-Thursdays, 10:30 am-10 pm Fridays, 11 am-10 pm Saturdays, noon-7 pm Sundays. (Cash only.) Below, employee Chris LaFayette and owner Blaine Cook, proud of the new enterprise:
ALKI HOMESTEAD: A post in the WSB Forums brought first word of an “antique” sale there 3-7 pm today. (By the way, the business – not the building – is still for sale; this listing was renewed just yesterday.)
ENDOLYNE JOE’S: Part of tonight’s proceeds will benefit the Fauntleroy Community Association‘s Fauntleroy Fall Festival. (More here.)
We just checked in again with Charlestown Cafe owner Larry Mellum; in our last update three weeks ago, Larry’s co-owner Ron Hanlon told us they were still awaiting the final go-ahead for work to start, and they couldn’t set a reopening date yet. Today, Larry tells WSB that the work required for the restaurant to reopen post-Feb.-4-fire still hasn’t begun:
The project has not yet started. We have been waiting for our Landlord and their insurance carrier to get the required construction proposal and deposit back to the contractor. To date that has not happened due I believe to some administrative glitches within their operation. … We are as anxious as you to get the Charlestown going again. Thank you again for all of your support.
Whenever the work starts, the cafe owners say it’ll take at least four weeks from that point to get it finished so the Charlestown can reopen. (You can always find the latest WSB coverage of the Charlestown Cafe situation atop this archive.)
That photo is courtesy of Mark and Marjorie Fuller, showing a partial peek inside their still-under-construction Spring Hill Restaurant and Bar, which they hope to open on the north end of The Junction (former In Bloom space) in mid-May — “if all goes smoothly from here,” is Mark’s caveat. Menu? we asked, checking in for the first time since our January update. “Still in the works and not quite ready to reveal yet.” Hours will be 5:45 pm-midnight, 7 days a week. (All ages, he told us previously. And in case you wondered, no relation to the BlueStar development of the same name on the south side of The Junction that we’ve been telling you about since October.)
Thanks to the WSB Forum and the WSB inbox for bringing in the info on these: Easy Street is participating in Record Store Day this Saturday; 12 West Seattle restaurants are participating in Dining Out for Life next Thursday (participants are listed on the DO4L site as well as in this WSBF thread).
Thanks to Karol I for e-mailing this tip, which we confirmed via business-license records as well as this spot on MySpace:
Just a few words on a new business is coming to a part of Seattle which has few food places. Blaine and Rahel Cook are in the process of changing that.
Zippy’s Giant Burgers is coming to 16th and Holden about May 1, 2008. They are busy cleaning, painting and arranging the new furniture which they have carefully selected for their new venture. I am sure that they will be doing well, in particular since I will be one of their first customers.
Here’s a map of that location (street address 1513 SW Holden).
As the Mariners play their home opener at Safeco Field tomorrow afternoon, fans will notice something new in the food zones: 
Garlic Jim’s (WSB sponsor) is now The Official Pizza of the Seattle Mariners. You might have heard this already, since the official word trickled out a couple weeks ago, but you probably haven’t heard the backstory, which involves West Seattle Garlic Jim’s owner Ryan Reese (celebrating his store’s 1st anniversary, by the way, congrats!): Ryan tells WSB he and a friend went to a game about this time last year and noticed that while the food vendors were generally local (Ivar’s, Kidd Valley, etc.), the pizza came from Papa John’s, which is based in Kentucky. Since Garlic Jim’s is headquartered in Western Washington, Ryan thought it would be a great fit at Safeco. He talked to corporate HQ in Everett; Ryan says they considered it a long shot but thought it worth making a pitch. So he checked with the M’s and discovered the pizza contract was in fact up for bid, and that GJ’s could get in on the process. They set up a meeting at The Safe; Ryan fixed pizzas at his restaurant in The Junction and took them over before he and others including Garlic Jim’s CEO Dwayne Northrop met M’s brass. Like runners moving around the bases, things advanced from there, and starting tomorrow, you’ll find Garlic Jim’s Pizza at The Safe. Ryan says the 200 level will offer pizza by the slice, and it’ll be mini-pizzas at the 100 and 300 levels. By the way, this isn’t the only Garlic Jim’s baseball involvement — after we published a West Seattle Little League pitch for team sponsors a few days ago, Ryan signed up to sponsor a WSLL team. (Don’t miss WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham‘s great pix from yesterday’s WSLL Jamboree; see them here.)
PIZZA UPDATE: Further confirmation of the news we broke here two weeks ago — Olympia Pizza and Pasta is coming to the short-lived Pacino’s Coffee location at 5605 Delridge (map) — we drove by minutes ago and saw new yellow banners draped outside saying OLYMPIA PIZZA AND PASTA COMING SOON (didn’t have a camera along).
ROAD REPAIRS: The city Transportation Department says its crews are working on the shoulder of Delridge, 8100-8600 blocks, through Saturday afternoon, doing “utility repair work.”
One week after we debuted a new addition to WSB — our new section (note the “tab” link on our header) with selections from the popular book “West Seattle 101” by Lori Hinton — 
we’ve added two more features from the book; while Lori was checking for updated information to add to the original copy, she discovered some news. The newly posted “West Seattle 101” features are about geocaching (read it here) and the much-talked-about Thai restaurant Buddha Ruksa (read it here). While checking on Buddha Ruksa’s hours, menu, etc., Lori got the scoop on its new beverage additions. You can find all five “West Seattle 101” features published here so far by going to the WS 101 on WSB “home page,” and we’ll add more to the list next week!
We broke the news here 2 1/2 weeks ago about the Homestead being up for sale (the business, not the building). Today while researching West Seattle development/real estate for an upcoming update on this morning’s Gateway Center announcement, we happened onto this: The Duke’s on Alki building, described as “10-year lease to Duke’s Chowder House on the main two floors plus unique penthouse,” listed at $3,950,000. Just left a message at Duke’s HQ to see if we can find out more. THURSDAY EVENING UPDATE: Got a message back from Duke Moscrip himself; he stresses, THE RESTAURANT IS NOT FOR SALE – just the building. Duke’s, he says, is expanding its “concept” to more locations elsewhere (and in fact, a liquor-license application has just been filed for the Southcenter location he mentioned) but is not selling the actual Alki restaurant, just the building.
Six weeks after the Charlestown Cafe fire – six weeks with plenty of uncertainty – the news is just in from restaurant owner Larry Mellum:
I wanted to pass along to you the good news that we are moving forward with our repairs from the fire we had on Feb. 4th. Our Landlord has agreed to get our Hood System fixed and upgraded to meet necessary codes so we are “officially” on the mend. I would expect it to take at least four weeks to get the doors back opened. I want to thank everyone who contacted us regarding the fire, wished us well and inquired if they could help us in any way!! This is an amazing community of which we are honored to be a part of. We will keep you updated with our progress and with any luck we will see everyone in a month.
In the meantime, if you didn’t already know this, Larry also owns Pike Place Chowder, with two downtown locations – Pike Place and Pacific Place – so you can get a chowder fix if you’re downtown, till Charlestown reopens.
Thanks to Lillie for the tip that this taco truck has turned up at the Orchard/Sylvan road fork west of Delridge (map), across from the northwest corner of Home Depot. We previously hadn’t noticed any taco trucks closer than White Center/Burien, as discussed in this WSB post (and ensuing comments) a year ago.
No, not the Seahawks.
BLUE: The Tap Project is under way. As we mentioned 2 weeks ago, participating restaurants are asking patrons to donate $ for their otherwise-free tap water; the $ goes to UNICEF for safe drinking water for kids. 4 West Seattle restaurants are participating (through Saturday): Ama Ama, Beato, Eats Market Cafe, Skylark. Saturday is World Water Day and will be marked with the Walk for Water on Alki.
GREEN: Sustainable West Seattle meets tonight @ Camp Long. The agenda includes a rep for Puget Sound Community Change — connecting green businesses and customers.
We’re here at Skylark for the Metroblogging Seattle party (till 8:30, with luminaries such as Monica Guzman from the P-I’s Big Blog, 
Mona from Kirida, Shawn from Slightly North, plus the Metblogs team, including Alki’s CeRo) … seems we won … thanks for the votes! Also thanks to Jessie at Skylark for mentioning WSB on the menu (somebody pointed this out to us; we haven’t been here in a while) — the Tater Tots (photo left, from the famous “Dishes to die for” discussion) are billed as “As seen on the West Seattle Blog.” 9:42 PM ADDENDUM: One more West Seattle blogging luminary was there too – didn’t see her till after we’d posted – Pam from Nerd’s Eye View. Re: the menus, Jessie told Patrick they are brand-new, so look for the Tater Tot nod next time you’re at Skylark. As for the question about what we won – this year, actual prizes! A night at Hotel Max downtown, a bag of CDs from Sub Pop, potential future tickets to events at Neumo’s and Northwest Film Forum. Plus a repurposed trophy that is from a 1971 event in Burien but we’ll cherish it always. Thanks again to the Metblogs team for putting on a fun bash!
We get e-mails now and then asking what’s going on with the Pacino’s Coffee location at 5605 Delridge, which abruptly closed not long after opening. Just happened onto city permit filings indicating the building is being re-equipped as a restaurant – the filing lists Olympia Pizza and Pasta as the name.
The updated CL listing makes it clear “just the business” (not the building) — but however you slice it, the Homestead is for sale, two years after it last changed hands. $495,000, according to this version of the listing.
Almost six months after it closed as Coyotes, the restaurant on 62nd/Alki’s eastern corner is back in business in its first weekend as the new home of Pegasus. (The old location is targeted for demolition, with a new 2-story building to rise on that spot.)
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