For the second time in a little more than a month, Tony’s Market at 35th/Barton has been broken into. This time, the report comes from SPD Blotter, which says that once police found the intruders, they also found evidence of what writer Jonah Spangenthal-Lee calls a “food fight”:

As the officer pulled up to the market, he found fruit and vegetables strewn in and around the business, and in the middle of the street.

Officers searched inside the market, found two men hiding under tables, and arrested them.

SPD Blotter says a third man was arrested for “obstruction.” We reported in early May on another break-in at the market, but one that didn’t involve the kind of damage reported here.

The Admiral District‘s business association, led by president Parris Sadow of Atomic Boys, is sailing full speed ahead. We have toplines from the group’s meeting this afternoon at the Heartland Café‘s Benbow Room:

SLOGAN: It’s finally official, and was announced at this afternoon’s meeting – “Welcome Aboard.” This was chosen following several months of discussion and brainstorming. (You can even see it on the Admiral District Facebook page.)

EVENTS: A draft list of events circulated at the meeting included both proposed Admiral District participation in events/activities organized by other groups – most notably, tabling at the Admiral Neighborhood Association-presented Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series (co-sponsored by WSB), Thursday nights 7/26-8/30 (seen the lineup yet?) – and also new Admiral District events. One that you can mark on your calendar already: August 11th, the Admiral District Sidewalk Sale. They’re also starting to plan for the fall holidays too – including the always-popular Treats and Treasures Halloween event.

ART WALK: Admiral District businesses want to be sure you know some of them participate in the West Seattle Art Walk too – it’s not just “a Junction thing,” so they’ll be raising their profile. At today’s meeting, they heard from Art Walk planning committee members including John Smersh of Click! Design That Fits (Junction business formerly located in Admiral, WSB sponsor), Lora Swift of Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor), Susan Melrose from the West Seattle Junction Association, and WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand. Next Art Walk is June 14, 6-9 pm!

While you’re in The Junction today – or some other day – check out the new location of Many Moons Trading Company, which describes itself as an “upscale thrift store for men and women.” The shop was long tucked away along a breezeway off the main streetfront, but is now right on the northwest corner of California and Oregon (vacated recently by Fleurt [WSB sponsor], the flower shop that moved to 4536 California). Not only is it a higher-visibility location for Many Moons, it’s also a family reunion of sorts – Many Moons owner Mary is mom of Angela, owner of Funky Jane’s Consignment, which is one door down. Via e-mail, Mary tells WSB, ““We are very happy with our new space! Of course we hope to see new customers, but we are very glad to present our loyal customers with a fresh and lovely shopping environment.”

(Added 12:15 pm – the poker-chip jar at CKS, photographed around 11 am)
Today’s the day for the big 25-percent-off anniversary sale at Curious Kidstuff (WSB sponsor) in The Junction, 9 am-5 pm – and proprietor Ann is also kicking off a new plan that could mean extra savings for you AND money for a local nonprofit:

We think we have come up with a fantastic idea here at Curious Kidstuff. We will kick this off (today) during our 25% off 14th-year Anniversary Sale.

Our business’s credit-card fees are approximately $800.00 a month. Can you believe it? I believe that if we can get our community to embrace this great idea, we could give hundreds of that back each month.

Every time a customer purchases gifts with cash or checks, we will drop a poker chip into our jar. Each month we choose a local charity and give that money to them. First charity we have chosen is WestSide Baby. Simple, keep dollars in our community instead of passing it on to banks.

We hope to see you between 9:00 and 5:00. We will give an extra 1% off for all checks and cash. (License required with checks, please.)

Curious Kidstuff is at 4740 California SW.

With the official start of summer only 3 weeks away, 2 ice-cream notes:

FULL TILT ON DELRIDGE: Martin’s Way at Delridge and Findlay is now carrying Full Tilt Ice Cream, per a tweet this afternoon. We first told you a week ago about the Martin’s Way produce partnership with Tony’s Market, and now the store has expanded its offerings – which also include spices and grains/legumes – by stocking ice cream, too.

CUPCAKE ROYALE ADDS ICE CREAM: Per a news release this afternoon, CR is adding 14 flavors of ice cream to its product line soon – no cones/scoops in West Seattle, but they plan to have pre-packed pints as well as ice-cream sandwiches. (This announcement reminds us of the trivia point that Cupcake Royale’s Junction location at California/Alaska is a former ice-cream parlor, with Ben and Jerry’s there for a while in the ’00s.)

If you were at West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) about half an hour ago and noticed a bit of commotion – here’s what and who it as all about: Posing with one of his two shopping carts of merchandise, Joe Michael, a Morgan Junction resident who won the Thriftway raffle for a $500 shopping spree – for products by Western Family (which distributes more than 3,600 private-label products), who had reps on hand for the occasion too.

Just announced today by The Artistic Framers shop at – they’re closing their 5631 California SW storefront as of the end of this month, after 19 years there, but they’re NOT going out of business, they’re “going mobile.” Their announcement says business is particularly booming in one of their non-framing sidelines, real-estate staging. They’ll still offer framing too – by appointment.

Till 7 pm, West Seattle Chamber of Commerce‘s monthly ‘After-Hours’ mixer is happening at Dream Dinners (longtime WSB sponsor), on 41st just south of Alaska (east side of Jefferson Square‘s main building, fronting on 41st). From left, we photographed Nancy Woodland from WestSide Baby – which has its big Shake, Rattle & Roll cocktail-party event this Friday night (ticket info here) and the Stuff the Bus diaper drive on July 22nd – with Dream Dinners proprietor Leslie Thomson and Rob Shiras from PC Mobile Help. Dream Dinners facilitates home cooking while taking away some of the time-consuming tasks like shopping and prepping – they have monthly menus, you choose what sounds good and assemble dinners in three- or six-serving sizes to take home and keep till you’re ready to cook them. After-Hours events rotate among various locations, offering Chamber members a chance to learn more about one of their fellow local businesses – in recent months, hosts have included Easy Street Records and Global Diving and Salvage.

Today we welcome a new WSB sponsor, with this message for you: The West Seattle Nooners is a chapter of Business Networking International Northwest and we are looking for members to expand our referral network. We build business one lunch at a time!

The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional “word-of-mouth” program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals. The philosophy of this organization is built upon the idea of “Givers Gain®”: By giving business to others, you will get business in return. This is predicated on the age-old idea of “What goes around, comes
around.” Our Chapter passed $243,368 in the past 12 months!

Join us this Thursday (May 17th) at 12 pm for our Membership Extravaganza, and be prepared to network!

Come to Youngstown Cultural Arts Center at 4408 Delridge Way SW in West Seattle with 50 business cards, $10, and a desire to grow your referrals. Discover how BNI business networking groups work, and meet the members of the West Seattle Nooners chapter. Everyone will have the opportunity to network as well as to present their business for 30 seconds during the meeting. Lunch is included.

After the meeting, members will be on hand to answer questions and help you if you choose to apply to become a member of our chapter. We are looking for new members to give referrals to in many professions still available! BNI is non-competitive, so only one member per profession is allowed, so grab yours before it’s gone.

We have openings for key professions including electrician, plumber, credit card processor, graphic artist, event planner, caterer, business coach, moving company, interior designer, locksmith, florist, landscape designer, property manager, computer repair, housecleaning, and many others. New members would be joining our current network which includes real estate, mortgage brokerage, photography, banking, web design and social media management, supplemental insurance, pet daycare, financial planning, personal training, general contracting and much more. To see a complete list of our members, go here.

If you can’t attend our extravaganza, we meet each Thursday at 12 pm at Youngstown and visitors are welcome. You can contact President Rick Beaubelle (206-957-9097; info@seattlecanineclub.net) or Vice-President Cami MacNamara (206-550-7720; cami@webcami.com) if you have any questions about the West Seattle Nooners.

We thank West Seattle Nooners 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.

ADMIRAL DISTRICT’S EX-BLOCKBUSTER … is about to be surrounded by paid parking on all three sides. Thanks to Eric for the tip on this one – he e-mailed last night to say he and his wife noticed orange striping delineating spaces around the building, and WELCOME painted on the pavement at each entrance. Public records showed no sign of a new owner/tenant at the building, so we went by this morning to look for clues, and found a man doing more painting around the lot. “All I know is, it’s going to be paid parking,” he told us – which had been our guess once we saw the freshly painted numbers on each of 33 parking spots around the building (our photo was taken at the northeast corner, by the alley). No pricing sign or pay station as of our stop; we’ll check back.

MORGAN JUNCTION’S EX-BLOCKBUSTER … is tentatively scheduled to open as Super Supplements‘ new home on July 13th, according to a company spokesperson. We first reported back in January that it would be the new home of the store that has to move out of The Junction since it’s on the future Equity Residential development site; banners went up on the Fauntleroy site last month. Super Supplements tells us the Junction store isn’t scheduled to close till July 7th, 6 days before the new one opens. Note that those are tentative dates; watch the store’s official webpage for updates.

Today we welcome one of West Seattle’s longest-running businesses, O’Neill Plumbing, as a new WSB sponsor. Here’s what proprietor Tim O’Neill (pictured) would like you to know:

O’Neill Plumbing was founded here in West Seattle in 1917, adjacent to Husky Deli in The Junction.

95 years later, 4th-generation owner Tim O’Neill has 28 years of experience and employs 25 hard-working, talented people and a fleet of trucks to serve not only West Seattle but also the Greater Seattle area as well as the Eastside. O’Neill Plumbing serves residential and commercial properties, including “Emergency 24-Hour Service,” drain/rooter cleaning, water-heater repairs and replacement, whole-house re-pipes, and state-of-the-art “Trenchless” underground pipe repairs and replacement.

We are proud to be longtime members of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Master Builders Association, Better Business Bureau, and are “Top Of Class” on Angie’s List with more than 450 positive customer referrals.

O’Neill Plumbing customers can visit us @ www.oneillplumbing.com and take advantage of our online coupons. To reach O’Neill Plumbing by phone, call 206-932-5283.

We thank O’Neill Plumbing 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.

(WSDOT photo from March 29th keel-laying event for 1st 144-car-ferry project at Vigor)
Less than four weeks after that ceremony at Vigor Shipyards marking the start of work on a new 144-car state ferry, WSDOT and Vigor just formalized paperwork for the next one, with construction set to start in December. Total costs for the two ferries are expected to total $277 million, according to WSDOT’s announcement today. The first one is due to start service in early 2014, the second one, a year after that. Up to two more may follow. They’ll be replacing Evergreen State-class ferries (two of which are often on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run – Klahowya and Tillikum).

Just look for the balloons to see who’s participating in Tax-Free Sale Day in The Junction – continuing till 6 tonight! Above, co-proprietor John Smersh outside Click! Design That Fits, a WSB sponsor as is Fleurt, now open in its new location further up the same block:

Other WSB sponsors participating: Brunette Mix and Hotwire Online Coffeehouse. On the other side of the 4500 block of California, CAPERS‘ Lisa Myers shared photos of recycled pillows they’re showcasing:

The full list of participants is here. And while they’re not on the Tax-Free Day list, it is a special occasion at Easy Street Records – “Record Store Day”!

Easy Street has live music coming up this evening – The Young Evils at 7:30 pm and Reignwolf at 9 pm. Back to Tax-Free Day, restaurants are offering specials too – also on the list.

This afternoon, we welcome a new WSB sponsor – locally owned West Seattle Thriftway! Here’s their message to you:

You know their faces and you know their names, and it’s most likely because the staff members at West Seattle Thriftway have been working there for more than a decade, if not two. “A passion for what they do” doesn’t even begin to describe how they feel about their workplace. A building is merely an empty shell until you give it a soul – and something we believe strongly in is that it’s the people who work somewhere that make a place special.

At West Seattle Thriftway, the goals are simple and straightforward: To offer exceptional quality and diversity of products, even more exceptional customer service, and to create strong ties to the community through non-profit support, events, and fundraising. “In a way, we feel like we have grown up with our community and have been woven into the fabric of what makes West Seattle so special, which is strong community connections.”

More importantly, in a world of “big box” stores, we feel extremely proud to be considered one of the little guys. Aside from being totally awesome, being an independent grocer and being locally owned and operated gives us the power to be able to bend over backward for our customers. Please come visit us April 20th – 22nd (4201 SW Morgan, at California/Fauntleroy) for a community appreciation event that includes a free grilled sausage lunch as a thank you for all of your support!

We thank West Seattle Thriftway 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.