[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.