West Seattle, Washington
09 Friday
[photo by Christopher Boffoli]
First posted on Twitter by Monica Guzman from the P-I’s Big Blog, but we found out via this “retweet” (forwarded link) – Xconomy Seattle reports on coffee haunts “where innovators meet up.” West Seattle isn’t represented. C’mon, we’re not innovation-less over here! Are we? (For what it’s worth, while we of course are mega-fans of WSB sponsor Hotwire Coffee for the beverages, it’s too cozy for meetings when it’s not outdoor-table season, so we have had recent meetings at the Junction Uptown, Morgan Junction Caffe Ladro, Morgan Junction Tully’s, Coffee to a Tea … And you?)
We reported last month that The Bohemian was going to launch Jazz Sunday Brunch as of tomorrow. Just got a note from proprietor/chef Jason Todd Rice that the plan’s on the back burner now: “I would like to extend my apology for our decision to cancel our plans for Sunday brunch service. I feel very strongly that we are not ready to do it and do it right. Our original plan was to start with coffee & pastries during the day and the bar & supper service at night. We would then expand as we were able … After six weeks of our current operations, we have been SO pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm of our guests and the community; and the volume of business has been incredible! As we are not a big corporate business, with extensive resources in personnel and budget, we are doing our best to ‘walk before we run…’ As soon as we feel that we have our current operation running at maximum efficiency and providing our guests with the best service and product possible, we will be evolving our concept and operation to the next level.”
When we got the first tips last month that November 7th would be the long-anticipated closing day for the Jefferson Square Starbucks, company PR would only confirm “end of October” — but we just stopped in to check, and today is indeed its final day. 7 pm, doors close, leaving West Seattle with Alki, Admiral, Triangle, Morgan Junction, Westwood Village Starbucks (not counting the supermarket/bookstore stands). The Jefferson Square SBUX closes two days short of what would have been its first anniversary.
Postscript this morning from Lora Lewis at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor), re: those “election special” drinks: “We did sell the ‘Obama for Change’ more than any other election special yesterday, maybe an indicator of yesterday’s outcome?? Of our customer ‘electoral votes’: Obama 27, McCain 0, Biden 7, Palin 1.” ADDED 9:25 AM: From the daily bulletin at Chief Sealth HS – the student body’s mock election also had the same results as the official voting, with Sen. Obama, Gov. Gregoire, and Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott getting the most votes.
Earlier, we showed you a nonpartisan exhortation to vote, and a Republican signwaving stronghold. Now, a couple signs from the D side — the one atop this post is from Jason in Fauntleroy; the next one is from Highland Park‘s Dina Johnson, who says this banner will be in her yard on Election Day next to a “big flag”:
Another sign of the times is the drink-special roster at Hotwire Coffee (which by the way became WSB’s first-ever sponsor as of exactly one year ago this Wednesday):
(Click to see the full-size flyer)
Hotwire is one of many places we expect to visit as we roam West Seattle tomorrow chronicling Election Day (and Night) ’08 — we’ll have one more round of voting-info links up in the early morning, then our coverage starts with the opening of polling places at 7 am — we’ll be at a couple places when the doors open, but we also would love to get pix from you, cameraphone or whatever, of your polling place or anything else election-related — editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!
It’s all on the WSB Events calendar, but for extra emphasis, a few highlights: West Seattle Democratic Women lunch; first in-store wine-tasting at Thriftway; Design Review for The Kenney and 4106 Delridge; city Parks Board looks at West Seattle Stadium private-operator search; South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition; WS Ministerial Association’s Initiative 1000 forum; Alki Idol; West Seattle Pins and Needlers. Plus two open houses: Family Promise (previewed here) and Explorer West Middle School. For times/places/links, just go here. ADDED: Seattle Lutheran High School has an open house tonight too, 6:30-8 pm in the gym, on Genesee east of 42nd.
In the WSB Forums, someone’s looking for a little peace and quiet with their java. Maybe you have a suggestion to add?
Thanks to two people who e-mailed us in the past several hours that they’d heard Jefferson Square Starbucks has an official closing date (we had first word in July that it was on the Starbucks shutdown list) – we have just received confirmation from a PR firm working with SBUX (though they won’t get any more specific than “end of October”; if it’s really 11/7, that would be a few days short of what would have been the store’s 1-year anniversary, since it opened 11/9/07). Read on for the full statement we received (it’s mostly boilerplate but we always like to share the whole thing so you can read it for yourself if you so choose):Read More
Today’s the official start date of the state’s pilot program for wine/beer tastings in grocery stores. As reported here in August, West Seattle Thriftway is the only participant in WS; we just checked with its wine department, and they’re planning their first one on October 23rd, but still working out the details.
Ever since The Bohemian opened next door earlier this month, we’ve heard the question more frequently: When will Prost West Seattle (first mentioned here in May) be open? Proprietor Chris Navarra gave us a peek inside (photo above is the view looking left, south, from the front; we’ve got the bar view later in the story) during a quick interview today, so we’ve got lots more to tell you now about what he’s planning and when he hopes to be open:Read More
We first mentioned West Seattle-based CheapWineStore.com when its liquor-license application went in last December (WSB report here), and now that it’s up and running, it’s 
joined the WSB sponsor team to get the word out. Here’s what its owner (photo left) wants you to know about the business: “Patrick Collins, a fellow West Seattleite, has launched a new online wine store, CheapWineStore.com. It has been created for the person who enjoys a great wine at reasonable prices, but is also interested in trying something new. CheapWineStore.com was created for the fun, unique wine drinker who enjoys trying new wines, but doesn’t really want to pay an arm and a leg for it. CheapWineStore.com will feature more than 10,000 different labels – from organic, to Washington wines, as well as ports and fine wines from all over the world. They are also offering free delivery in West Seattle for orders over $100. Patrick’s motto is: “Try something different–it’s just wine!” Patrick Collins, owner of CheapWineStore, is like many other West Seattleites. That is, he believes in giving back to his community. Therefore, Patrick also volunteers much of his time to many local charities including Northwest Harvest, the American Cancer Society, the Son Rise House and is donating a portion of the proceeds from every sale to our local animal shelter, the Animals First Foundation.” Thanks to CheapWineStore.com and all our sponsors for choosing to grow their businesses by advertising on WSB to let you know what they’re offering; our Advertise on WSB page is where you can see the latest on our traffic, plus the full list of current sponsors and how to find out about joining them.
As we first reported here last month, the state liquor store in Morgan Junction is closing for good tomorrow, after losing its lease. Nearby Aaron’s Bicycle Shop is moving into the space. When the state announced the liquor-store closure, the Liquor Control Board said it was seeking another location in the area; we called Olympia today to see if they’ve found one yet — answer, no. So the stores in The Junction and White Center are your nearest options TFN, after the MJ store shuts its doors for good at 8 pm tomorrow.
When we broke the news last week about Zeeks Pizza moving into the ex-Corner Inn, somebody asked about the ex-Beveridge Place Pub next door (vacated when BPP moved a few steps north to the ex-Video Vault); we published this blurb about that three months ago, but we didn’t include anywhere near the amount of info about co-proprietor Jeff Gilbert that you’ll find in the P-I profile published this afternoon. (Not too much in there about the Feedback Lounge, though, save Gilbert’s description of it as a “rock ‘n’ roll bar.”
Five months to the day after we first told you about Coffee at the Heights, which Paul Binder and David Robertson plan to open at 7349 35th (map) in their former PB&J Textiles location (that shop’s now in Fairmount Springs), next to their Olympic Heights Laundry — Paul sends word that the building permit’s just been granted and work starts tomorrow. ADDED 9:40 PM: A few more notes – Paul says they’ll use Caffe D’arte coffee, Sunshine dairy products, pastry provider TBA, hours 5:30 am-8 pm daily (including holidays), compostable cups/sleeves, and will be selling coffee by the pound. They hope to be open within a month.
We told you 2 weeks ago that The Bohemian (3405 California, next to Spiro’s) was about to open; this afternoon, its proprietors opened the doors for a “friends and family” preview event (we stopped by for the photos you see above) – and say they’ll open, starting tomorrow, in two phases: This week, daytime coffee/tea operations; starting a week from tomorrow, they plan to add the food/bar operations. More info including hours can be found online. Opening day tomorrow, by the way, marks exactly a year since we brought you first word The Bohemian (at the former Leslie’s location) was in the works. (Next door, the future Prost West Seattle may open as soon as next month, according to a note recently shared by WSB’er Marco.)
We’ll explain the photo in a minute (you probably recognize the guy on the left). We took it this morning at Hotwire Coffee (WSB’s very first sponsor), which is celebrating its 6th anniversary in West Seattle this month. As part of the festivities, Hotwire’s having a weekly “Barista Balderdash Smackdown” with brain-teaser quiz questions – guess the meaning of a specific uncommon word, for example. A new Smackdown starts tomorrow; tomorrow Hotwire’s also offering a few other deals – including a chair massage/latte deal, 20-minute massage plus 12-ounce latte for $15, 9 am-3 pm tomorrow as well as the next two Saturdays (9/13 and 9/20). Oh, as for the photo? Baristas Blayne (of “Project Runway” fame) and Mary are shown with Mr. Manatee, loaned to Hotwire by WSB when we heard one of the Barista Smackdown topics had something to do with manatees’ genetic makeup. Just go see for yourself (if somehow you’ve never been to Hotwire – just past the Junction Post Office, on the east side of California just south of Genesee).
That’s an eight-second peek inside The Bohemian (3405 California; map) from our visit a few days ago. At the time, proprietor Jason Todd Rice wasn’t ready to speculate on when they would finally be able to open — but we just called to check before posting this story, and he told us the health inspector’s given thumbs up, so they’re expecting to open their daytime cafe operations as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, with the nighttime/bar operations a week or so later, pending state signoff on that. Read on to see what else he told us about how things are shaping up:Read More
Even if you don’t usually use the WSB Forums, you might be interested in this thread – WSB’ers sharing their recommendations for low-price, high-quality wine.
You see them sometimes at Alki – and they’re headquartered right here in West Seattle, at Westcrest Park – today, two members of the Seattle Police Mounted Patrol are at the Picnic at the (Southwest) Precinct, continuing through 4 pm. We have LOTS more photos and video to share with you in a separate report later, but in case you check in online before then and you haven’t been – there are also free treats (hot dogs, ice cream) in the precinct parking lot, which is off-camera to the right of this shot showing the setup running along Webster westbound from Delridge:
Cool robots, a Segway, and lots more – Delridge and Webster, park in Home Depot and walk over. While heading home, we passed the intersection of 16th SW/Holden and had to pull over when we saw these folks handing out free samples:
That’s Jodi Robbins, Pinky the dog mostly hiding behind the sample tray, Darlene, and Jodi’s husband from JoJo’s Fine Espresso at 16th/Holden. They just put their blended-iced-drink setup into action, so they’ve got a tropical setup at the corner and trays of free samples. Not sure how long they’ll be out – we were there around 2:30.
This past winter, we reported twice on a bill in the State Legislature to allow beer and wine tastings in grocery stores — first report here, second report here. 
The bill eventually passed, and tonight, the state has announced the first 15 grocery stores “randomly selected” to participate in a pilot version of the program starting this October, and the only Seattle store in the first 15 (see the list here) is West Seattle Thriftway in Morgan Junction. 15 more stores statewide will be announced soon – they’ll be chosen from chains; Thriftway and the other 14 are all independents. (Hat tip to The Big Blog.) Here’s how the state says the program will work:Read More
Call it green beer – without the usual St. Patrick’s Day food-coloring angle. West Seattle-based Elliott Bay Brewery‘s head brewer Doug Hindman sends word that EBB has become the first certified brewer of organic beer in King County. Here’s the news release.
As first reported here last week, the Jefferson Square Starbucks (the standalone store at the NW corner, not the “licensee” stand in the Safeway) is on the list of 600 company-owned stores that will close. Starbucks just released the full official list today. It’s the only West Seattle Starbucks on the list, which includes six other stores in Seattle: 328 15th Ave E, 620 Denny Way, 1220 Howell St., 2201 E. Madison Ave., 1218 N. 45th St., and the “Northgate Mall II” store. No timetable is mentioned (we’ll check with corporate PR tomorrow).
Hours after we noted that West Seattle’s Jefferson Square Starbucks is reported to be on the list of 600 company-owned stores to be closed in coming months, the company has announced the first 50 – the ones that will be closed by the end of this month. Here’s the list; no Seattle stores are on this one, but the other 550 are yet to be announced.
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