Business

The West Seattle Junction Association shares this on their site, noting two worthy anniversaries and a sales event you should know about.

Capers
Capers provides fun, frivolity and fantastic prizes from 6:30-8:30 pm, as they celebrate their 25th Anniversary! Join them in the toast to their continued success! RSVP to: capersparty@gmail.com.

Sweetie turns 7!
Sweetie celebrates their 7th Anniversary from 7-10 pm! They’ll be serving tasty libations, yummy hors d’oeuvres and scrumptious sweets. Come check out their fabulous new summer lines. They’ll have some great specials for this festive evening only. You’ll also have a chance at winning some fashionable prizes too!

Clementine
Clementine features their Prairie Underground Trunk Show from 11 am to 7 pm! Eco-friendly organic cotton clothing, all discounted 20 to 50% off! And don’t forget to pick up a cute pair of sandals to go with your new outfit!

What do you do if you are 29 years old, working as a C.P.A. and wish you were doing something else? Morgan Herzog is answering that question by opening the Beer Junction at 4707 42nd Ave. S.W. The store will start with approximately 600 beers for sale but Herzog hopes to eventually offer 1000 different brands from around the world. The store will open for business, "Hopefully June 25," Herzog said, with a grand opening in July, featuring tastings and visits from local brewers.

"About six months ago I decided to try something new, but I wasn't sure what it was going to be at the time", said Herzog, " so I was over at the Porterhouse (a restaurant in the Admiral District), and I was sampling through their beer list with my girlfriend and I just kind of realized that there was no really great place to take beers home." That provided the spark to leave his career crunching numbers and venture into the world of Ales and Pilsners.

Though purple paint is still wet on the walls of the Tin Theater, the outside window already sports a classic poster for "The African Queen," soon to be the first movie screened in a Burien theater in 40 years.

Dan House, owner of the Tin Room Bar and Grill, described his entry into the movie business with a kind of civic zeal.
"The city was screaming for something new," he said. "Burien needs a movie theater." Whenever he wishes to see a movie in a theater, he noted, he must drive into downtown Seattle or Southcenter.

Other residents of Burien have the same problem. "I didn't start with a business plan in mind; I just thought people wanted it."
House said that the idea of building a movie theater next to his restaurant has been in the back of his mind ever since he moved into the building, formerly home to the Hi-Line Tin Shop, in 2004.
The longest running business in Burien at the time, the tin shop featured a metal storage area that House thought would be "a great space for a theater."

Alki Homestead Inn owner Tom Lin told the West Seattle Herald he supports the sentiment of the Southwest Historical Society's upcoming 4th of July event "This Place Matters." According to the Log House Museum's website describing the event:

Southwest Seattle Historical Society plans July 4 group photo in front of Fir Lodge. The people of Seattle will have a public opportunity to stand up for a century-old West Seattle city landmark at a mid-day rally on July 4, 2010. The Southwest Seattle Historical Society has organized a mass photo event to take place at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, July 4, in front of Fir Lodge, the 106-year-old log structure that many have known for decades as the Alki Homestead restaurant. The building was damaged by a January 2009 fire and since then has sat vacant.

Washington’s only certified organic soap company, Ballard Organics, which offers soaps with no pesticides, solvents, animal products or synthetic fragrances, has something new on the market – a piece of the company.

Ben Busby-Collins started Ballard Organics five years ago in his 800-square-foot Ballard apartment and sold his first soap at the Ballard Farmers Market.

Now, the once fledgling company is housed in a 7,750-square-foot warehouse in Rainier Valley with six full-time employees and distribution in more than 280 retail stores in the Pacific Northwest.

The high demand for the product has created a need for more equipment and staff in order to manufacture more product and develop new products.

The common stock offering will also help to develop sales associates in other regions, create new marketing materials to expand to new territories and create a nationwide distribution network.

The people at Ballard Organics have a great passion for their line of natural products and have found a customer base that has become incredibly loyal to the brand, according to a Ballard Organics press release.

Ballard artists Lina Raymond lost a beloved business once and painted to get through her pain. Now, she does the same for Ballard's lost businesses and landmarks.

From her 100-year-old apartment building, Raymond has a view of empty storefronts and ruins of once-popular businesses.

Her paintings are colorful memorials to some of them, including Denny's, the Sunset Bowl, Edith Macefield's house and Epilogue Books.

"Paving paradise to put up parking lots is personal," Raymond said on her Web site. "And, we adapt or not."

Raymond's show, "Bearing Witness/adaptation," is showing at Portalis Wine Bar, located at 5205 Ballard Ave. N.W., until Aug. 6. After that, an expanded version of the show will be at Cupcake Royale, located at 2052 N.W. Market St., until Oct. 1.

Ballard Big Picture is a column of scenes from around the neighborhood. If you would like to submit a photo for use on this site and in the Ballard News-Tribune, please send it to Michael Harthorne at michaelh@robinsonnews.com. Be sure to include your name and information about your photo.

On Sunday June 13, 20 health and wellness providers located in the West Seattle Junction neighborhood are participating in the first annual Junction Health Fair as a way to educate West Seattleites on the wide range of health services in multiple disciplines available to them without having to cross the bridge. In addition to the array of physicians, dentists, massage therapists, fitness and yoga studios, pharmacies and vitamin stores, there will be healthful and interesting activities for the whole family to enjoy.

The event will run from 10 AM to 2PM in the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot, 4314 SW Alaska Street.

Some of what you can do there: Give blood at the blood drive and save 3 lives – Meet Junction fire fighters and police officers – Brush up on disaster preparedness with experts - Enjoy the West Seattle Farmers Market demonstrating healthy cooking with fresh, local produce – Enter a free raffle for healthy prizes including yoga, massage and skin care . The blood drive is sponsored by the Puget Sound Blood Center.

The newest produce stand in town, West Seattle Produce at 4721 Fauntleroy SW is holding their long awaited Grand Opening June 5 and 6.
After a few delays in the arrival of refrigerated cases, "things have come together and we're doing well," said one of the owners Mike Cairns.

"We're getting some special buys on mangos and avocados. Tons of wonderful, super sweet California corn, both white and yellow. We've got bins of watermelons coming. We've got a very special melon called an 'orange flesh honeydew' that is the tastiest melon you've ever sunk your teeth into. We'll have papaya and lots of pineapple," said Cairns. Also new at the stand is Oak Leaf Lettuce (in addition to Red and Green leaf lettuce) from Whidbey Island. "It's naturally grown," said Cairns which means it is grown without pesticides. "It takes 7 years to till and retill the land to become certified organic and they have two years to go at this farm so, we can't call it organic but it's as close as possible to that designation."

WSProduceFlyer.pdf

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive in this otherwise sluggish economy as Swedish Automotive co-owners, and husband and wife, Dave Winters and Sandra Wanstall, expand their business four blocks south, from 35th Avenue SW and Webster, to 35th and Kenyon. Their repair business, at its current location for 20 years, has just four bays and not a lot of extra space for the Volvos, Saabs, and Subarus awaiting repairs, plus his 13 loaners, and 11 employees.

MRJ Constructors, who built the Viking Bank, West Seattle Branch, the Eagle Harbor Inn on Bainbridge Island, and the University House senior living facility in Wallingford is building a new 6,000 square feet green building with 12 bays on a 19,500 square foot lot for Winters and Wanstall that was once a gas station. An existing two story structure on the lot will remain, to be used as their office and rental space. They purchased the lot Dec. 29, 2006.

They plan a grand opening the Tuesday after Labor Day, and want to find another business interested in leasing their current location, also a former gas station. It is 2,515 square feet.

While the Alaska Junction has several dessert options, the Admiral Junction now has a sweet spot of its own. Heavenly Pastry & Cake officially opened Friday, May 28 at 2604 California Avenue SW, the space the West Seattle Herald office once occupied. And while some miss the old office, you can always grab a "Raspberry-Hazelnut Yum" bar and a cup of Stumptown Coffee and read our latest issue while seated on the bakery's Heavenly church pew and homemade tables.

Heavenly Pastry & Cake founder and baker Allison Barnes is a 20-year West Seattle resident.

"We built the tables ourselves," said Barnes. "They're in the baseme