Results tagged “stoneway”

Ro Ro's BBQ inhabits a small shack that used to house the Stoneway Cafe in Wallingford for years. Generally replacing a neighborhood mainstay isn't easy shoe-filling but Ro Ro's has taken to the new location--3620 Stone Way N, between 36th and 38th--with authority.

Straight from the owner's mouth, we have word that Archie McPhee's has found a new home in its old neighborhood. Just a couple of weeks ago, the greatest gag gift store announced its lease was up in the Ballard location and it would be looking for new digs. As of this morning, we know that Archie McPhee's will be re-locating to the NE corner of 45th and Stone Way in the old liquor store, at Wallingford's edge. Archie McPhee's original location was just down Stone Way, so this is somewhat of a neighborhood homecoming for the rubber chicken, bacon everything, and boxing nuns store.

For years Wallingford residents have discussed what the old Safeway at Stone Way and 40th was going to become. We always suspected something as interesting as another grocery store, but when a hole was dug for a foundation recently, it became obvious that the site was being prepared for the Trump Tower of grocery stores. Condos on top of a QFC, it was determined, with maybe 30 stories of office space above that and underground parking. Wrong! The truth has now surfaced and the site of the old Wallingford Safeway will now live on as...a giant hole! QFC has determined that it's too expensive to do what they planned to do when they started digging the hole, so a hole it's going to stay until such time as someone buys the hole from them, construction prices come down, or that retaining wall gives way in a good storm some night.

We saw Maria Coryell-Martin's haunting, ghostly paintings in the lobby at Benyaroya Hall after Elizabeth Kolbert's talk this week, and were instantly drawn to a collection of small watercolor landscapes entitled "Greenland Suite." We were struck by how reminiscent her work was of abstract desert landscapes, despite all the ice and snow, and as we were scribbling down the artist's name and scheming to get a few prints for Xmas presents, she popped up next to our shoulder. We chatted about how Greenland is really just an immense, cold desert and Maria explained what "expeditionary art" is. The short version: this woman has watched a lot of ice melt.

Pizza sucks in Seattle. Feel free to post your own obscure favorite in the comments or simply let it pass. Sure, there are a few highlights here or there around the city where something resembling an actual pizza can be obtained, but the overall quality of the city's pizza is piss poor. Here's a tip: If the crust is wet, it sucks. Wallingford, oddly, has a few ok places, though. The Wallingford Pizza House (previously The Chicago Pizza House hint hint at the writer's hometown) is...so-so. Northlake Tavern and Pizza House is a couple clicks above that on the evolutionary ladder. Very edible. Obviously we're struggling to establish a whole lot of pizza credibility in the neighborhood. Enter Tutta Bella, though.

Last week while driving down Stone Way, hand poised over horn, we were surprised and somewhat dismayed to see that Vern Fonk Insurance had closed shop. However, a quick check at the Fonk site indicated that the office had only moved to a newlocation. As a result, because of Fonk's horn-blowing slogan, we imagine their old neighbors are relieved to have them gone, just as their new neighbors are probably preparing a lawsuit.