West Seattle, Washington
03 Wednesday
So it’s Sunday morning, you’re not in such a rush, thinking about wandering out for coffee. Do you always go to the same place, or do you get adventurous every now and then? We’ve been trying to branch out, try the places we haven’t been to in a while (if ever), and we have to say, we’re really impressed with Cafe Rozella, on the southwestern edge (the “cutting edge,” their site says) of WS. Excellent coffee & ambience. See you there.
Businesses in the repaving zone are hopeful we won’t all abandon them during this time of inconvenience. We’ve been to Hotwire, where a handwritten sign on the door says, THANKS FOR BRAVING THE CONSTRUCTION/YOU MAY PARK IN THE COURTYARD FOR 5 MINUTES. If you’ve got any artistic inclination, you’ve got a week and a half more to get in on their “First Annual Coffee Cup Design Contest.” Submit a design by 3/31; customers will vote on the entries in early April. (Entry form & guidelines here.)
Let’s call it “try to knock Howard Schultz a couple spots back down the Forbes Billionaire List.” How, you ask? Drink as much as you can during the big 10 am-noon free coffee blitz today. You can make it to every Starbucks in West Seattle during that window — north to south, it’s Alki to Admiral to Admiral Safeway to Jefferson Square Safeway to 35th/Fauntleroy to Morgan Junction to Westwood to Westwood QFC to Roxbury Safeway — that would be 108 ounces of coffee, all on Howie’s dime!
Just got details on the restaurant in the works for the ex-Neilsen Flowers space at the north edge of The Junction. Its proprietor says it’s been a long slog to get some necessary city approvals (note permit just issued, six months after application!), but they’re finally making progress. It’ll be a 21-and-up restaurant and bar, called “Shadowland” (a change from the original plan, and a reference to a biography of West Seattle’s troubled movie legend Frances Farmer). They’re hoping to be open by summer.
The SOA coffee shop Freshy’s gets a couple paragraphs at the end of a Washington Post article about the Starbucks malaise.
We’ve been slacking lately on our previously reliable Friday roundups of weekend events. Luckily, today, Alki’s contributor to Metroblogging Seattle, C Ro, did it for us — although with a lot more drinking opportunities!
Every time we see folks tapping away on their laptops at local coffee places, we wonder … student? blogger? or perhaps, author? You might have more reason to suspect the latter at Uptown Espresso in The Junction these days. First, WS radio host/author/blogger John Moe revealed he wrote a lot of “Conservatize Me” there. Now Maritime History Network blogger (and journalist/author) Joe Follansbee is planning a reading/signing there in a few weeks for his new book about the Wawona. (Personally, if we had to choose an out-of-the-house spot to write that surefire bestseller someday, we like the view at Alki Tully’s …)
If you tend to hang around the homefront in the evenings, as we do, you may not be aware that West Seattle’s nightlife goes far beyond, oh, say, “which band’s playing Poggie’s tonight.” For example — after discovering that C and P Coffee, south of The Junction, has just applied for a beer/wine license, we went to the C and P website and realized that makes sense, since the coffeehouse offers live music several nights a week (here’s the calendar).
A tv news report tonight (video link here) revealed that Beveridge Place Pub lets people bring in their dogs. Certainly they’re not alone; we were startled when we dropped into C & P Coffee for the first time, back during our Post-Windstorm Wi-Fi Fest, and discovered dogs wandering around from patron to patron. Now, we love all God’s creatures and all that, but not enough to have them sniffing our toes (or worse) while we’re out just trying to enjoy a beverage. (People in the tv story were quoted as saying, “Well, it’s better than leaving the dogs out in the cold.” To which we say, “Why not leave them back in your warm cozy home, then? They’re not like kids — they don’t require a babysitter in order for you to go out without them.”) What do you think?
A month after Beato Food & Wine opened in the ex-O2 space on Cali between the Admiral and Alaska Junctions, its website is finally up, including links to its food and wine menus. (And the home page tells you twice how to pronounce Beato. Hint — it’s not “beet-oh.”)
Reminder that tonight’s the night for the new microbrewers in town, Schooner Exact, to debut their brew with a party (7 pm) @ Beveridge Place Pub in Morgan Junction.
-Back in September, we discovered that the former Cat’s Eye Cafe north of Lincoln Park would be transformed into the Four Aims Center. One of its owners — who mentions having been an original Cat’s Eye owner — just wrote us to say they’re finally in the home stretch with city signoff and so forth, and planning the grand opening Feb. 4.
-Several people have written to make sure we know about a milestone for something else we caught wind of last year, the new West Seattle microbrewery Schooner Exact (named after the Denny Party’s ship). Its licensing process is just wrapping up and its creations will debut Jan. 20 (a week from this Saturday) at Beveridge Place Pub in Morgan Junction — its founders say everyone’s invited.
–Bubbly: We mentioned the other day that while state liquor stores aren’t open New Year’s Eve, West Seattle Cellars is. Also just found out they’re having a sale (big sign outside), so you can get a decent deal on your champagne/wine/champagnish-type sparkling wine.
–Giggly: After the latest major West Seattle power outage, we decided you’ve gotta laugh or else you’ll cry. So, having been through three of them this month here at WSB World HQ, we decided they might be well-named after the Star Wars trilogies. So far — we’ve got A New Problem, The Substation Strikes Back, and Return of the Blackout. Next 3 might work well with The Powerless Menace, Attack of the Trees, and Revenge of the Laterals.
Caveat first, we are not condoning New Year’s Eve drunkenness and we trust that if you leave the house, you will pick a DD or take a taxi. (What happened to Avi, memorialized in a poster we saw in a WS shop window last night, could happen to you.) That said, there’s no denying that many of us will drink something alcoholish Sunday night. So this might be helpful info, if you, like us, need to buy something to serve @ home: West Seattle’s state liquor stores are closed Sunday, but they’ve got helpful signs posted noting that the one in The Junction will be open later than usual on Saturday (10 pm). And if you’re just looking for fine wine/champagne, you CAN shop Sunday @ West Seattle Cellars, according to their site.
-First, the non-merry note: After just 6 months, looks like Al’s Cafe & Espresso on Cali Ave north of Morgan Junction is out. We thought it seemed odd this morning to see it closed this morning when we stopped by during prime coffee time to check on its Christmas hours; drove past this evening, suddenly the sign’s gone from its window, and a light inside shows the place pretty much stripped bare. Tough location, with so much so close right at the Fauntleroy/Cali crossroads.
-Now, the holiday cheer: One more light display to recommend — 56th & Alki, Santa in the front yard on a brightly lit replica of construction equipment (with a sign for a construction company cleverly placed beneath it). And at 42nd & Raymond, we passed a parked pickup truck with HONK IF YOU LOVE SANTA written big and bold in the rear window.
-Just ’cause the power’s back doesn’t mean City Light crews’ work is done … saw a truck in action after 8 pm tonight, back at the scene of The Tree That Blocked Fauntleroy.
So many Christmas mornings in the past, we sneaked away to seek the ol’ triple-tall, and wound up on a long, desperate, almost comical search. So this year, in our own self-interest as well as that of any other Christmas caffeine-seeker who stops by this page, we have visited or called just about espresso establishment in West Seattle to check Christmas Day plans, and here’s who will be open on Monday (bless your hearts and here’s hoping the tip jars overflow): On Christmas Day, Diva will be open 8 am-1 pm; Caffe Ladro will be open 7 am-noon; both Tully’s WS locations, 8 am-2 pm; M-Junction Starbucks, 7 am-4 pm.
Did the ex-Rainier Roaster Starbucks drive-thru quietly open already? Haven’t been by in daylight in a few days; happened past it late last (Tues) night and noticed the reno work looked pretty darn done. Drove all around, didn’t see anything obvious like “NOW OPEN” or “OPENING (WHENEVER),” but the drive-up window even has hours posted (open @ 4:30 am weekdays, 5:30 am weekends). Called the number on its “coming soon” page on the Starbucks site; no answer. Will check it out tomorrow.
The posted hours, by the way, mentioned it’ll be closed Christmas. We’re going to find out which of WS’ many fine coffeehouses will be open at least for a while on Christmas, so we can post it here by Friday or so … in honor of all the Christmas mornings we’ve spent in desperate searches for the ol’ triple tall, wishing someone had collected that info somewhere.
You’d think it would have been relatively simple to turn the ex-Rainier Roaster into the future drive-thru Starbucks. Out with the rotisserie/in with the espresso machines, up with the sign, hello world. But noooooo. Exterior work has been going on for what seems like weeks; we’ve wondered if they’re perhaps planning to gold-plate the building. However, this might be a sign of progress: Another permit for the project just got issued today … for installing “alarm and video equipment.” And the store is now listed on the SBUX website as “coming soon.”
Just got a note from Tony, longtime proprietor of West Seattle’s most illustrious coffeehouse brand, Java Bean. Tony is (#1) thanking everyone who donated to JB’s just-completed food drive — 200 pounds of food on its way to Northwest Harvest! — and (#2) offering to take turkeys over to the White Center Food Bank (urgently needed, as we mentioned a couple posts down). Tony says that if you drop a turkey donation off at Java Bean (on Avalon, just south of the bridge; here’s a map) BY NOON TODAY (Wednesday), he will take it to the food bank. Three cheers for Tony! (And for Java Bean, whose old cart at the pre-’97-fire Thriftway is where we first truly fell in love with lattes, guzzling intense triple-grande-nonfat from our old-school saucer-bottom reusable mug. Ah, the memories …)
There are two, in fact, in today’s P-I:
–The traffic columnist disappoints an impatient West Seattle driver by getting the city to go on the record, again, promising the “walk all ways with walk” status of Cali/Alaska is safe. (Personally, we don’t mind it, whether in the car or on foot.)
–Elliott Bay Brewery plays a big role in an odd little article promising to be part of a series themed something like “wow, parents actually still drink in front of their kids.” EBB is one of many swell places in The Junction (yummy burgers), and it’s great to see the area get publicity, but since you can get a drink in a zillion restaurants where you also can bring the whole family (gasp, we’ve had the West 5 mai tai in front of a grade-schooler), we’re a little befuddled as to what makes this a trend. We would have liked to see them poll the patrons on whether they’re walking, busing, or designated-drivering. (Around here, they also could have focused on the creeping tendency to NOT let under-21s in, with both Talarico’s and Matador right there on the same side of Cali.)
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).
Almost three weeks after the ex-Rainier Roaster/future-drivethru-Starbucks site near 35th & Fauntleroy closed, some signs of progress … a chain-link construction fence is up … more remodeling permits are in the works. Of course we feel compelled to mention you do have other options for drive-thru coffee in the meantime … including Red Cup in The Junction and Sleepless near Alki.
-Remodeling work’s over at the Morgan Junction SBUX. No sign of the “sidewalk cafe” (perhaps just a retroactive permit for the outdoor tables?), but the counter area’s been expanded and reconfigured for two registers. The decor and furniture have been swapped out too; no more wall hangings of coffee trees and Italian scenery, it’s all much more, well, non-coffee-related. I’d love to see the company’s decorating budget. Seems like they revamp “the look” at least every couple years.
-Keeping an eye on the ex-Rainier Roaster to see how soon the Starbucks signs go up. No sign of change Sunday, on Transition Day 1, but I doubt Schultz & co. are in that much of a rush.
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