West Seattle, Washington
16 Sunday
The PR people for Beato Food & Wine, at the ex-O2-post-Ovio site, tell us opening night is set for Dec. 19, one week from tonight, with hours set for 5-11 pm Tuesdays-Sundays. They also mention a special New Year’s Eve dinner in the works, which dovetails with a site visitor’s suggestion today that we collect info on WS New Year’s Eve doings and add it to the Holiday Stuff page — great idea, will start looking, and everyone’s welcome to e-mail us now with news of any special local events that night.
We can’t resist noting you read about Bakery Nouveau (in the ex-Borracchini space) and Beato (in the ex-O2 space) here first … BUT … props to the P-I for dishing up new details on both in tomorrow’s paper.
… go to the Farmers’ Market today and get a bag of the spectacular salad mix from Willie’s (usually near the northwest corner of the lot). Last chance; they told us last week that this week would be their last visit for the season. (Last week they were also displaying photographs of how the recent flooding affected their farmland in Monroe.)
We know you’ll be slugging your way thru the supermarket aisles sometime this weekend, looking ahead to the cookingest holiday of them all. One more pitch for turkey donations to local food banks … the White Center Food Bank still needs ’em; a reasonably sized frozen turkey won’t set you back much scratch, and you can drop it off Monday 8:30-5. (Don’t know about the WS Food Bank; tried calling, nobody answered.) By the way, for your shopping convenience, here are links to nearby grocery stores’ latest ad flyers: Morgan Junction Thriftway … Westwood Village QFC … Metropolitan Market … Safeway … Burien Fred Meyer.
123 stores for Tully’s, versus four-billion-kajillion for S(BIG)BUX. Yeah, I’d call that an underdog. So Tully’s is trying something new — according to the end of this story, it’s getting new treats from Alki Bakery. By the way, if you didn’t already know, two of those 123 stores are here in WS — the one on Alki (used to be a Taco Time), and the one at Morgan Junction (which once was a Cafe Starbucks).
An eagle-eyed reader alerts us to news about what she/he aptly describes as “a West Seattle Farmers’ Market fave” — the bakery Sugar (no relation to “Coffee to a Tea with …”) is raising money to help owner Stephanie’s husband fight cancer. $20 per pie, pumpkin or apple streudel, order online by Sunday night, pick up your pie the day before Thanksgiving, right here in West Seattle.
A new liquor-license application just landed on the state’s site for “Spring Hill,” seeking a restaurant/lounge permit for the ex-In Bloom spot on the north side of The Junction. (Side note, according to the semi-official Junction history page, the business district “is built on a swamp originally known as Spring Hill Pond.”)
Fingerprint payment usage must be lagging at the West Seattle (Morgan Junction) Thriftway. With signs, banners, and even a winnable car on display, it’s pushing people to sign up for Pay By Touch. Four and a half years after the store made national news as the first grocery store anywhere to sign up for the system, we have yet to personally witness a single person using it. However, the store owner is quoted in a variety of articles as saying they’ve processed tons of, shall we say, digit-al transactions. (Not us; we still are not ready to have our fingers, retinas, or any other body parts scanned and linked to our $.) Checking the Pay By Touch website, it appears the WS Thriftway folks remain “early adopters”; according to its “store locator” engine, this store remains the only store in Seattle deploying PBT (possibly even in the region; we tried Everett & Tacoma zip codes, and nothing came up).
Lydia from the Easy Street Cafe gets a lot of ink in today’s warm-n-fuzzy Seattle Times portrait of a visit to The Junction. Even if WS Blogger Spouse and I only get around to chow at Easy Street every few months, she always greets us as if she saw us every day. That takes talent (and heart).
Thanks to a WSB reader for writing to inquire why the number for O2, the Cali Ave restaurant launched by Ovio, was disconnected. Reminded us that we had seen a liquor-license ap several weeks ago for the same address under the name “Beato Food and Wine”; went by O2 back then, saw no signs of change, forgot about it till now. But today, there it is in the window — a sign saying O2 is closed but Beato will open soon. (The sign also touts a website that as is usually the case with these things, isn’t up yet. Argh.)
Catching up on a loose end: someone e-mailed us to point out that the current edition of The Stranger has a rapturous review of Talarico’s. Have they found their stride after 6 months? We’ll have to live vicariously through your reviews, as we pretty much never go out with an adults-only dining party.
Chalk another one up for West Seattle Blog Spouse, who bet me that the ex-Remo Borracchini spot in The Junction would become a “fancy bakery with something French in its name.”
Sometime in the past 24 hours, a sign went up, as follows: “Coming soon (to delightfully spoil West Seattle with bread, pastry, cakes, chocolates and coffee)/Bakery Nouveau/home of world baking champion 2005/USA top 10 chocolatier 2004/William Leaman.”
According to a variety of online references, Leaman’s been at Essential Baking Company in North Seattle for a while and does indeed have quite an impressive resume, dating back into his teens. West Seattle’s got a fair amount of good bakeries — so could this mean we’re in for something great?
-The latest incarnation of the school-closure hearing roadshow is in West Seattle this week. As I write, the Roxhill hearing is under way; tomorrow night, I wouldn’t be surprised to see fireworks at the Pathfinder/Cooper hearing. You can track the developments more closely at the Save Seattle Public Schools blog (run by a Pathfinder mom).
-Speaking of closures, the viaduct will be out of commission 6 am-6 pm both days this weekend for its twice-yearly “is it REALLY still safe to drive on this thing?” checkup. And in The Junction, a closure related to the Cali Ave repaving is scheduled to continue for a few more days.
-Now, an opening: Sometime in the past few days, the GRAND OPENING banner went up at Kokoras Greek Grill in Morgan Junction, on the east side of Cali Ave, just north of Fauntleroy. We’ll run by in person as soon as we get a chance and report back on the menu offerings.
Just a few words before we get back to other business … Yes, I agree with various commenters on the post below that In-n-Out would be the ultimate burger franchise to have here. I didn’t bring it up because there’s no point — they haven’t even expanded into Oregon, much less WA, and until they settle their family trouble, I doubt they’ll go much further than their current Southwest turf. By the way, we just tried the Tacoma Carl’s Jr. — had to go to Tac anyway, so took a side trip (it’s off Highway 16 on the way to Point Defiance, Tacoma Narrows, etc.). Even at 11 am on Sunday morning, the joint was jumping — including a couple members of the Tacoma PD. I predict quick colonization northward. (Bonus trivia question for any other longtime or semi-longtime WS’ites … can you name the burger joint that used to be on the site where Jack in the Box is now? At least, it was still there when we arrived in the early ’90s.)
We haven’t whined about this in nine months, and nobody really knew we were here then. So here we go again. I would never want to see West Seattle turn into a fast-food franchise wasteland, but it’s not going to kill us if we get just one or two more GOOD fast-food burger places. How about Fatburger, a Southern California transplant which has a few places on the east side? How about Carl’s Jr. (also from SoCal), which just opened its first Puget Sound spot (Tacoma)? Or even Wendy’s (which long ago used to inhabit the Ambaum spot that’s now a Peruvian restaurant)? All we have for quick burgers at odd hours are three McDonald’s (yuck) and Jack in the Box. Yes, I know we have some great burgers in non-fast-food-franchise settings (Easy Street, Elliott Bay Brewery, among others), but I’m talking, it’s 10 pm, you’re hungry, you want something fast and relatively cheap. Burien has only half as many people as West Seattle, but at least twice as many burger options. I’m tired of driving there (or to Bellevue) for a decent fast-food burger. Who’s with me? Can we petition somebody? Certainly got the real estate. What’s moving in to the old rental spot on Fauntleroy? How about the boarded-up gas station on Roxbury, west of the Safeway? If we’re going to build all these condos, folks gotta have somewhere to snack!
-A visitor wrote to tell us that Swee Swee Paperie (just east of Cupcake Royale) is now open in The Junction (though its website is lagging; what is it with new businesses and site lag, like the Talarico’s site advertised in the Hi-Yu booklet two months ago, but as of this am still not up?).
-Reminder, tomorrow’s the last day for the ’06 Water Taxi as well as Rainier Roaster (future site of the first WS drive-thru SBUX).
If you were hoping for a comeback of the Cat’s Eye Cafe just north of Lincoln Park (as we sort of were), closed since a crash last winter, finally there’s proof it’s just not going to happen. The sign’s not up yet as of tonight (though the permit application for it is in), but a Web site proclaims the building’s rebirth as a yoga/spiritual counseling business, the Four Aims Center. The center’s offerings sound intriguing — but the official demise of the Cat’s Eye leaves us a bit misty, as it’s the site of fond family memories from the latter half of the ’90s, when various major life events left us quite dependent on their morning muffins as well as incredible takeout soups and sandwiches. (We remember hearing that the people who ran it back then are the same ones who opened Circa in the late ’90s, but can’t find proof.)
Wow, how’d I miss this one? (Probably because we stayed home all day doing yard work!) A reader writes to tell us the Pacific Northwest BBQ Championships are under way all weekend at Alki:
There are 31 different groups bbq’ing all night long, even camping in tents. Judging starts tonight at 6 pm, finals are tomorrow. The one booth you can buy food from is reasonably priced and good.
Till this tip, I had no idea of the existence of the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association — but here’s its site, with some info on the competition. Hope it doesn’t rain on the barbecuers tomorrow till they’ve crowned their winners! (UPDATE from a Saturday night driveby: This is quite a scene on the west end of Alki — including RVs parked along the beach that no doubt belong to some of the camped-out cooking teams.)
-Finally tried Cactus. Tasty food, even better atmosphere. Kept thinking about what used to be in that space two lifetimes ago — the original OLD Alki Market, with a crab tank that had a moldy plastic decoration and always one sad crab, right about where the new restaurant has beautiful colored glass panels near the front door.
-Several people have written to ask what’s up with the other half of the market space, the half that Cactus isn’t using. Still listed for lease.
-An eyesore may be finally on its way out … a renewed notice just went up online for the development permit application at the site of the burned-out Schuck’s at California & Charlestown. Interestingly, it mentions restaurant space … interesting since nearby Charlestown Street Cafe is on its way out.
-The teardown-to-townhomes project on Cali Ave south of Morgan Junction, north of the Caffe Ladro etc. business districtlet, now has a name … sign just went up proclaiming these the “Bayberry Townhomes.” From the mid-300s. Wow.
-Last but not least, for lovers of semi-classic ’70s cars … particularly Fords … we spotted a very clean Pinto on a lawn along 62nd just north of Admiral … then seconds later, along the other side of Admiral, a well-preserved Maverick. Sigh.
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Our trek around The Junction tonight revealed that city crews have done a pretty job roughing up the street surface already. Getting a parking spot along the newly grooved pavement was a cinch — most people don’t seem to realize yet that the NO PARKING signs are posted for DAYTIME only — it’s OK to park at night. (Though a few spaces are out of commission in front of Taqueria Guaymas & Poggie, taken up by monster-sized pieces of city equipment.) Also seen in The Junction tonight: The “for lease” sign is down and the liquor-license-app posting is up at the future home of Garlic Jim’s Pizza.
Despite not being boat owners, we managed to get out on the water anyway — started the day with a ferry ride, ended it with a Water Taxi trip.
Inbetween, some snags and some sightings:
SNAG: Wanted to have lunch at the new Cactus on Alki. We even called — twice — to make sure it would be open for lunch. We were assured yes, it would be. Then we showed up … nope, not open. Through the open roller doors, workers told us, no, it would only be open tonight for dinner. Bummer. We proceeded to Bamboo, which we’d never tried, believe it or not. (Having now tried it, I don’t believe we were missing anything. The sand under the outdoor tables is a nice touch, but the food was meh.)
SNAG: Since we planned to be downtown a few hours, we were glad to hear the Water Taxi was running into the evening. Unfortunately, we discovered belatedly that its transit connections did NOT run into the evening — the shuttle to the Junction stopped about half an hour before we returned, and no regular Metro buses were running past Seacrest. If we hadn’t had someone to call for a ride home, we’d still be walking.
SIGHTING: Still not entirely sure what kind of store “Divina” (north of Hotwire & its adjoining dentists) is meant to be, but it’s now posted as opening tomorrow.
SIGHTING: Interesting things tacked to the front glass of Liberty Bell Printing — a frantic note pleading for the new Homestead menus not to be printed because of some kind of error — and a month-old “lost bird” flyer that says the bird FLEW THE COUP. (Which coup was that, I wonder — have to go catch up on my international news.)
SIGHTING: Dall’s porpoises from the ferry, jumping fish from the Water Taxi. What a cool life.
Well, the Yahoo! Alki group confirms informally what I saw on a tv-news report tonight — cops swarming Alki this afternoon, not for Cruisers Gone Crazy, but for Restaurant Owners Rumbling. Didn’t know till now that the Duke’s and Christo’s bigwigs had bad blood. And as of this writing, King County’s jail roster shows the Christo’s boss behind bars.
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