Archives for August 2008

Yia sas, Vios

August 27, 2008 by Leave a Comment

[The internets tell me that’s Greek for a very polite hello.]

Honey Bear leaves Third Place after this Friday, and Cafe Vios opens Thanksgiving-ish.  NWsource has a little write-up about the eatery switcheroo here, including more info about the arrangement of the cafe and the books (we can still get our coffee and pastry fix, meet with our book group AND have a sit-down dinner).

Vios Cafe already exists on Capitol Hill.  We have not been, but the Stranger has, the Seattle Weekly has, Seattlest plus kids have, and Yelp has quite a few reviews of the place.  To sum up: Great food that some find a bit pricey.

We’ll reserve judgement until we’ve purchased and nibble for ourselves, but for now we’ll be reading the backstory on owner Thomas Soukakos, his son Alexander, and his wife’s losing battle with postpartum depression.

This article, published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer back in 2003, chronicles 10 months of visits with the Soukakos family starting a couple months after Carol Soukakos took her life.  It is utterly heartbreaking — a love found, a child born, a mother lost, a family wounded — and ends before we really get a feel for Thomas’ and Alexander’s future.

This article from 2006, again from the P-I, catches us up on the little family as well as Thomas’ work here in Washington state on postpartum depression awareness.  The restaurant reviews above will catch you up on the eatery side of things (Carol and Thomas worked together at his first Seattle restaurant, El Greco; he sold the restaurant after her death and later started the Vios Cafe).

Vios means “life.”  And by all accounts, Alexander’s father celebrates it full force in his Capitol Hill location.  And soon, again here in Ravenna.

Sorry, Honey Bear, but I can’t wait until Thanksgiving.

Filed Under: Food, Updates

A few update nuggets

August 25, 2008 by Leave a Comment
  • Third Place Books shelving switch-a-roo is indeed taking longer than a week, as a new cafe is going in.  Honey Bear Bakery’s last day is August 29th, I believe.  Big note on TPB’s front door about the new changes.
  • The free nifty storage bed frame has found a new home, apparently. Good thing, too, what with all the rain happening lately.
  • Huxley the Cat’s flyers have been taken down. We’re sure hoping he was found alive and well, and not after a run-in with the Phinney Racoon Gang.
  • The Ravenna-Eckstein playground is officially open for play, but not officially kicked off yet. The big to-do is still on for September 5.
  • It’s raining. A lot.
Filed Under: Updates

the intoxicating scent of cedar chips

August 16, 2008 by Leave a Comment

The playground behind the Ravenna Eckstein Community Center has a lovely lush coating of sod:

It looks lovely.  Can’t wait to wiggle my bare toes in it, or perhaps take a roll down the hill pictured in the background.  If no one’s looking, that is.

Yet, turn your head 90 degrees to the right, and you see the following:

Are you SURE the sprinklers can’t reach any farther?  Really?

The playground is still closed, at least according to the big chain link fences everywhere.  That hasn’t stopped a lot of kids — and their parents, great example setting there — from sneaking in and trying out the equipment.

We imagine that a kick-off celebration is in the works, and soon.  We’ll post what we know when we know it (and not a moment later).

UPDATE: A little exploration of the Seattle Parks & Recreation Fall 2008 Play! Book for the northeast reveals that the playground will be dedicated on September 5 during the annual Summer’s Final Fling.  Be there from 6-8 PM for “carnival games, music, magic, picnic fare, and more”.

Filed Under: Seattle Parks and Recreation

Book Shuffle

August 15, 2008 by Leave a Comment

The Ravenna Third Place Books shelving arrangement redesign is still taking shape.  Here’s a shot from about halfway to the cafe, looking back toward the door:

Among the changes I noticed during a brief walkthrough this afternoon:

  • The cashier’s counter has been moved to just inside the door on the right (if you’re walking in).
  • The craft and food section is no longer in a easy-to-walk-by-and-browse-through friendly aisle.
  • For those more geographically-inclined, many shelves that were situated north-south are now east-west (lots of this to the right of where this picture was taken).
  • The browse-friendly, wide-aisled U-shaped path (front door to cafe to magazines to kids’ section) is REALLY cramped now over by where philosophy used to be.

It’s still very much a work in progress, clearly: Books and pieces of shelves are everywhere.  The Ravenna TPB website says that the buy counter will be open again on Monday.  If that means that everything is back on a shelf and the store is shipshape again, we’ll eat our copy of A Cat in the Hat.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts

Lost and Found

August 15, 2008 by 32 Comments

For some reason, the intersection of 21st and 70th is a bit of a Bermuda Triangle.  Or perhaps a localized Cosmic Karma Pot equalizer.  Observe…

Huxley the cat has gone missing.  In fact, he is missing cat flyer number two for this particular telephone pole.

No word on cat number one’s whereabouts, but from the weathered patina of the flyer, it doesn’t look good.

A close up of the text reveals that Huxley is both well-loved and well-named:

In the Found category, we have the following fetching AND utilitarian bed frame and headboard, which are available for FREE dollars and FREE cents:

My educated guess is that this would fit a twin-size mattress.  It’s perfect for someone who would rather not have a nightstand cluttering up the bedroom.  Mount a reading light on top, put your teeth grinding mouth guard in one of the handy drawers, and you’re good to go!

Now if this IS INDEED the Cosmic Karma Intersection of Ravenna, will Huxley be found if someone picks up the bed frame?  Only time will tell.

Filed Under: Lost/Found

You may already be a winner…

August 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Now accepting nominations for the Best Yard of the Week.

Give us an address and your reasons why, and we’ll go check it out.

If there are no submissions — which is HIGHLY likely, as we just started this blog a few days ago — we’ll just pick one ourselves.  And, to be honest, we’ve already picked it.

Winning yards will have a picture and a little write-up here on the blog.  T-shirts to follow in the future, no doubt.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts

Welcome to the Ravenna Blog!

August 8, 2008 by 4 Comments

The goal here is report on the doings and transpirings in Ravenna, a residential neighborhood in northeast Seattle.

Drop us a line if you see anything remotely interesting happening in the area.  As a new blog with no readers, we certainly appreciate any and all help.

Filed Under: Everything counts in large amounts, metablog, Ravenna