White Center Now: The blog about White Center

(WCN photos)
That’s Chef Brian O’Connor (second from left) and his crew at Bok a Bok Fried Chicken, ready for opening day Wednesday (June 1st) on SW 98th just east of 16th SW. We reported almost two months ago that Bok a Bok was on the way to that space; tonight we stopped in for a few photos during Bok a Bok’s “media preview” night. We were a little early so the food wasn’t ready yet; we don’t eat on the job anyway, so we’re happy to show you the crew and the space, seating 22:

Chef O’Connor describes it as “fast casual” but not mega-fast – it’ll take about 12 minutes to fry up your order. Speaking of which, here’s the menu, given to us on paper at tonight’s event:

Bok a Bok will open daily at 11 am, running as late as 11 pm if they haven’t run out of chicken yet. The website should be ready before opening day.

P.S. Chef O’Connor is also still working on a second White Center restaurant, as we mentioned in April, Same Same Noodle Bar, location still TBA.

With Mother’s Day tomorrow, brunch is on many minds. Starting this weekend, Proletariat Pizza is serving brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, 9 am to noon (with lunch starting at 11, if you prefer). Co-proprietor Stefanie sent the first menu:

Proletariat Pizza is in its seventh year at 9622 16th SW.

We noticed recently that the Charlie’s Buns eatery space next to Pho Tai at 16th/98th was up for sale already, just months after opening – and as of last week, it’s closed. Today, we know who’s moving in: Bok a Bok, promising “Korean fried chicken and biscuits.” We contacted its proprietor, Chef Brian O’Connor, after seeing food writer Allecia Vermillion‘s report on his plans for two restaurants in White Center. At the time of her story, he had just signed a lease for Bok a Bok but wasn’t disclosing the location yet; we contacted him to follow up, and he confirmed to WCN today that it’s the ex-Charlie’s space.

Chef O’Connor has a background with a variety of well-regarded Seattle restaurant enterprises, including Skillet, and along with Bok A Bok is planning to open – somewhere in WC – Same Same Noodle Bar. But he tells us today that “for now we are going to focus on getting Bok a Bok open and operating while we continue to work toward securing a lease for Same Same Noodle Bar.”

Three notes from the White Center food and drink world, all along 16th SW:

NEW RESTAURANT AT 16TH/ROXBURY: The former TJ’s Soul Food and Pho Lynna storefront on the southeast corner, long vacant, now sports a new sign, for Taqueria Los Potrillos, “coming soon”:

Thanks to Gill for first word of the sighting. Looks like there are other restaurants by this name around the region, including one in Renton.

LUSO FOOD AND WINE FAREWELL: While looking around 16th/Roxbury for any more info about the new restaurant, we noticed that what had been Luso Food and Wine was empty. Checking online, looks like it’s been a few weeks since Luso closed.

BYE-BYE, BEIGNETS: Mardi Gras Donuts‘ run in WC is over. One month after cutting back to weekends only, they announced on New Year’s Day – no surprise if you’d noticed the covered-over windows – that they’re closed forever.

Story and photos by Tracy Record and Patrick Sand
White Center Now co-publishers

“Welcome to Taradise.”

That’s the greeting you’ll see when entering White Center’s newest restaurant/bar.

“Tara” is for proprietor Tara Scott, who’s celebrating the grand opening tonight for her Taradise Café in what used to be Marv’s Broiler at 9808 16th SW in downtown White Center.

The restaurant will serve breakfast all day as well as a full lunch menu and rotating dinner menu.

While Taradise Café has a bar – and two pool tables! as well as darts and TVs for sports-viewing – the restaurant is open to all ages. The hours for starters will be 6 am to midnight Sundays through Wednesdays, then 6 am to 2 am Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Including tonight.

Taradise Café is expected to draw from West Seattle as well as WC because of its proprietor’s background with the legendary Charlestown Café, which closed 4 1/2 years ago in WS. She’s also hired some former co-workers, and has permission to use some of the Charlestown’s recipes. Her permanent menu is still being finalized, so we don’t have the full lineup, but she mentioned the curried chicken salad, the pancakes, and the clam chowder.

Tara told us that she has long wanted to open her own restaurant but needed to wait until she could devote more time and attention to it – one key factor, her youngest child is now at an age where some self-sufficiency is starting to emerge.

So if you’re still looking for some place to welcome 2016, the grand-opening/NYE Party is on until 2 am at Taradise. This date holds significance for the location, the proprietor adds, because Marv’s Broiler opened on New Year’s Day in 1976.

Beignet fans – another change in the food scene on the south end of downtown White Center, an announcement from Mardi Gras Donuts: “We will no longer be serving donuts during the week. Our new hours are Saturday and Sunday, 7 am till 2 pm.”

That’s according to owner Miranda Krone, writing on the still-up Meander’s Kitchen Facebook page. This past Wednesday was apparently the last day for the café; things were being moved out later in the week. Krone writes that she plans a new restaurant somewhere else soon – but has not yet said where. Meander’s started in West Seattle in early 2011, moved to the ex-Papa’s Pub spot (now Noble Barton) in White Center in fall 2012, moved to the former San Fernando Chicken spot less than a year later, and then made headlines when staffers announced three months ago that closure was imminent (it wasn’t). Now, though, it’s gone; one more empty spot on 16th SW.

Another new restaurant is on the way to White Center. Veronica Weaver, proprietor of the Charlie’s Buns N’ Stuff food truck, is opening a restaurant at 1521 SW 98th St., Suite D, next week. That’s two doors east of Pho Tai. Starting September 25th – one week from today – Charlie’s Restaurant will be open seven days a week, 11 am-7 pm. The food truck has specialized in cheesesteaks and “gourmet half-pound burgers.”

UPDATE: Looks like the hours have changed a bit – Tuesdays-Sundays, 11 am-9 pm.

Thanks to Stefanie at Proletariat Pizza for the photo and tip – the sign went up this weekend at Noble Barton, taking over the former Papa’s Pub (and briefly Meander’s) space at 9635 16th SW. It’s long been in the works – we saw the name on a liquor-license application many months ago. An early-stage website declares it to be a place for “comfort food, comfort mood.”

(Also published on partner site West Seattle Blog)

By Tracy Record
White Center Now editor

Popular White Center diner Meander’s Kitchen closed early today, about two hours short of its usual 3 pm closing.

That wouldn’t be noteworthy, except for the circumstances: A management change, made with King County Sheriff’s Office deputies standing by, following 12-plus hours of unofficial claims, attributed to employees, that today would be Meander’s last day of operations.

First word of this came with postings in various spots on Facebook late Saturday night/early Sunday morning – including the “posts by others” section of our business FB page for West Seattle Blog – saying that Sunday would be the restaurant’s last day open and urging customers to come show support. We also received a text message to that effect, saying the staff was opening the restaurant in hopes of making enough money to cover payroll and vendors. By morning, this sign was up at the restaurant (several people texted us the image):

Patrons told us employees were also telling them personally that it was closing. Contacted via Facebook, restaurant founder Miranda Krone – working out of town as a maritime chef – told us that was definitely not true, and that a new general manager/partner, Afton Larsen, who had been part of Meander’s operations in its early West Seattle days, would arrive at the restaurant later in the day to sort things out.

Larsen also contacted us directly to say she would be at the restaurant “this afternoon to talk with staff in person and keep our doors open.” And a post on the restaurant’s official FB page echoed, “We are NOT closing”:

We had planned to check in by mid-afternoon – and then came a text from a patron about the arrival of deputies, around 1:15 pm, with diners being told that service was ended for the day (regular daily closing time has been 3 pm). That accelerated our plan to go check on the situation. Co-publisher Patrick Sand was told on arrival that the deputies were there to ensure an orderly transition, but that there was no trouble and no one had been arrested.

Some employees say their paychecks had bounced, but so far, no one has reported filing a complaint with state Labor and Industries. Larsen (photo below) told us she was just starting to go through the books so didn’t know the status of the restaurant’s accounting yet.

She said some of the current staff has agreed to stay on; she said she hopes Meander’s will be open tomorrow, usual hours, but if circumstances make that infeasible, they would expect to reopen by midweek, potentially with limited service until things are straightened out.

Meander’s first opened in West Seattle in January 2011 in the tiny ex-Jade West Café. Its popularity led Krone to seek a new, larger space, and Meander’s moved to its first White Center space in fall 2012. The former Papa’s Pub turned out to be a bit too big, she said, moving the restaurant to its current space at 9809 16th SW (which had previously been a short-lived chicken restaurant) in late summer 2013.

6:57 PM: Larsen says via e-mail that Meander’s will be open tomorrow (Monday), 10-3, with a limited menu and “skeleton crew.”

While the Jubilee Days street fair continues, three events of note today (Sunday, July 19th), one part of Jubilee Days, two that are separate:

WHITE CENTER KIWANIS PANCAKE BREAKFAST: 7:30 am-1 pm at Holy Family School (9615 20th Ave SW), come have breakfast for $7 – kids 5 and under eat free. You can also purchase drawing tickets at the breakfast for special baskets, with the proceeds benefiting a variety of local nonprofits. Bring diapers for the WestSide Baby drive, too!

JUBILEE DAYS PARADE: 11 am, watch the parade as it heads northbound on 16th SW from SW 112th to SW 100th.

BURGER-EATING CONTEST: Love Zippy’s Giant Burgers? How many could you eat at one sitting? Pay $15 to enter and get a chance to win $100. Just show up at Zippy’s in White Center (9614 14th SW) at 1 pm to sign up – there’s room for 20 contestants, and you have to be 18 or older – and then gear up to chow down at 2 pm.

Tomorrow’s the annual GiveBIG donate-a-thon, and you can help the White Center Food Bank via “Dine Out For Hunger,” as announced by WCFB:

Dine out on May 5, 2015, and these restaurants will donate a portion of their proceeds to the White Center Food Bank!

Company Bar
Full Tilt Ice Cream (White Center location)
Mac’s Triangle Pub
Meander’s
Proletariat Pizza
Zippy’s Giant Burgers (White Center AND Georgetown locations)

These wonderful restaurants will donate to us through giveBIG, so their donations will be stretched and matched, too!

When GiveBIG starts just after midnight tonight, we’ll also have a list of participating local nonprofits, as usual.

By Tracy Record and Patrick Sand
White Center Now/West Seattle Blog co-publishers

First word arrived via a tweet directed at us by Caffé Delia, with a photo of newly opened Mardi Gras Donuts and the message, “Donuts! In Rat City!” So we headed over to investigate.

More than the donuts, it turns out, Mardi Gras Donuts is all about the beignets.

That’s what proprietor Michael Williams (“call me Mike”) told us.

The donuts are a sideline to the beignets (ben-YAYS, as he pronounces it in his New Orleans accent – “New Orleans-born and raised,” he says proudly).

He’s been open a few days at 9828 16th SW (a storefront that’s been a bakery before). Signage just went up yesterday. No decorations inside, and when we walked in, we wondered if he would tell us he’s not really open yet. But — he is.

His marquee item, the beignets, are 3 for $2.25. He says he’s making and selling other types of donuts because that’s expected – cakes, glazed, honey buns, apple fritters, twists, donut holes.

He’s here as what sounds to be the latest stop on a cross-country journey of sorts. He worked in a donut shop in New Orleans that gained fame via a Food Network feature in 2011. Later that year in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, he opened his first Mardi Gras Donuts shop, featured in local news there.

Deciding to make a move, Williams said he almost wound up in Fargo, North Dakota, where he owned some property. The prospect of deep-freeze winter was a little much. Talking to a wholesaler, he heard Seattle didn’t have much in the way of beignets. So, here he is.

6 am-8 pm for starters (Williams says he’s still figuring out the hours depending on how the customer flow goes), and during the morning, they’ll make hot glazed donuts while you wait. P.S. – Cash only.

(Photo courtesy Gill)
After a rocky past and a false start or two for the long-vacant building at 9801 16th SW, it is now home to a new restaurant. After getting reports about The Rose Petals moving in, but finding nothing online, we tried a couple times to find out more in person, but apparently chose the wrong days. Finally, we have information courtesy of the Seattle Weekly, which has the story here. SW reports that it’s operated by a much-respected soul-food chef, Helen Coleman, who has had restaurants at two other spots in the city. Though the banner says The Rose Petals is open for lunch and dinner, the story says they’re open for dinner now, adding lunch in a few weeks.

SIDE NOTE: In case you can’t quite place the building, its past incarnations included bars The Wall and The Hang Around, and a medical-marijuana lounge. An unrelated dispensary has been occupying the lower, west-facing level.

UPDATE, JANUARY 12: Seattle Weekly now reports it’s been contacted directly by Helen Coleman, who tells SW she is NOT associated with this new restaurant. Read their update here.

A holiday reminder from Oscar Brambila of Taqueria La Fondita #2 – tomorrow, Christmas Eve, is their annual gift to you – free food between 11 am and 4 pm! Tacos, burritos, and free drinks, according to the announcement he sent, something they’ve done for more than a decade. They’re at 9811 15th SW, and expecting Santa Claus at noon.

Just announced:

It’s Taco Friday again! Tacos in the park will be offered to the White Center Community for a final time, this Friday, August 9, 2013 at Noon, with a focus on reaching those who are experiencing homelessness or struggling to make ends meet.

Taco Time Northwest continues to generously provide delicious tacos for the meal, while the outreach is supported by The White Center Homeless Summit community group, The Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission, a group of local churches, businesses, and the White Center Chamber of Commerce.

Our Second Friday of the Month effort continues to average well over 40 participants, serving over 100 tacos during the 90 minute event. White Center business owners are encouraged to send people our way and let them know about the free lunch this Friday. Free lunch will be provided across the street from Steve Cox Park (1327 SW 102nd) in front of the Body of Christ Church on Friday August 9th, from 12pm – 1:30pm.

(Jasiah, enjoying the downtown WC party)
Night Out is here – and two big events are under way in White Center – one at Steve Cox Memorial Park, and one in the downtown business district, featuring the $2 food walk – here’s the map:

Have a great time!

ADDED: While visiting the downtown party, we also spotted King County Sheriff’s Office Deputy BJ Myers:

KCSO also had a presence at the North Highline party attended by residents including Barbara Dobkin, who shared this photo featuring KCSO Sgt. Cindi West:

Beautiful night!

Announced by Mark Ufkes:

Alex Campbell (Evergreen High School senior) and other community volunteers will be serving free Taco Time tacos in Steve Cox Park tomorrow at noon to our homeless community. We can always use more volunteers. They should arrive around 11:45 at Steve Cox Park near the White Center Chamber of Commerce office.

You can’t beat a free breakfast. And this Saturday is the day some pancake fans wait all year to see – and taste: The annual free pancake breakfast at White Center’s McLendon Hardware (as well as the company’s half-dozen other stores). 7:30-10 am, they’re welcoming you for the free flapjacks at 16th and 102nd, in honor of their 79th anniversary – more info online.

Two White Center restaurants are signed on for this year’s Dining Out for Life fundraiser for Lifelong AIDS Alliance: Company and Proletariat Pizza. The event is this Thursday (April 25th), and both are participating at dinnertime, donating 30 percent of their proceeds.

P.S. If you’re reading this in neighboring West Seattle – four participants there (also for dinner); they are Buddha Ruksa, Eats Market Café, Skylark Café and Club, and Talarico’s;