Remember "15th Ave Coffee & Tea", Starbucks' new Saturn division? Well, they're doing it again, but this time they've got their sights set on the north end of Broadway. They're plunking a "Roy Street Coffee & Tea" into the first-floor retail of the 700 Broadway building, creating the world's first FedExKinkosStarbucks, which if you think about it has been a brand synchronicity far too long in coming. CHS has the fully story, with a response from Joe Bar's owner and resident really nice guy Wylie Bush. But what about the cost to this local coffee purveyor just a few blocks down? more ›

Alerted via email to Coastal Kitchen's new Brittany-inspired menu (that's Brittany as in Bretagne, as in savory crepes and cider), we stopped in last night to see what looked good. We ended up ordering a ratatouille crepe for $14.50. We're not vegetarian but we wanted a crepe, and the smoked salmon crepes only come with the "platter for deux," which runs $42.50. This ratatouille did not taste like the spicier ratatouille we've had in the south of France or even this side of the puddle in Québec. It tasted mainly like the lightly sautéed vegetables in it, with a hint of sweetness from the otherwise bland, steamed cider curry cream sauce. (As we've mentioned, Chow Foods doesn't strive so much for authenticity as for a "romantic notion" of coastal cuisines.) We'll be back at brunchtime for their sweet and savory crepe, but we have a hunch Coastal isn't going to be stealing much crepe business from 611 Supreme. more ›

We hear the power's out on 15th Ave this morning. Seattle City Light estimates it'll be back up by noon; they found a tree growing into a powerline. (That seems like a pretty fast-growing tree, to us, but we're not experts.) The outage area is from E Roy to E Pine, and from Summit to 29th, affecting about 4,000 people. We had thought the power outage might be storm-related, and this whole "tree, growing" angle sounds like "dog bites man." Sigh. UPDATE: "Crew has been able to isolate the problem and restore power to about 3,717 customers. There are approximately 400 customers still waiting for the crew to finish its work. The outage was caused when a large tree branch fell across a main feeder line." more ›

A year ago Liberty, the coffeeshop/bar/sushi joint on 15th Ave, had the unmitigated gall to advertise their establishment via posters on telephone poles near their business location. As with the Iraq War, China's unlawful presence in Tibet, and Crash's Oscar win, Liberty's advertisements resulted in massive protests. Or at least some classic passive-aggressive Seattle behavior, like an "I, Anonymous" submitted to The Stranger and masking tape put on the posters indicating that Liberty was a "bad neighbor." Oh uptight Seattleite, way to stick it to the (small, independent business) man! more ›

We see on Craigslist that the dry cleaners on the east side of 15th Ave, the cunningly named "Alterations and Dry Cleaning" are selling out with four years left on their lease. After 22 years in business, they look like they're giving up the whole kit 'n' caboodle:

This opportunity is turn key – all equipment is provided.