White Center Now: The blog about White Center

You don’t have to tackle the early Thanksgiving cooking without your latté, or Americano, or whatever. Our friends at Caffé Delia (9622 16th SW in downtown White Center) sent word that they’re open 8 am-noon today. Happy Thanksgiving!

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.”

Two White Center coffee shops have announced they’re open this morning – Caffe Delia downtown, and Dubsea Coffee in Greenbridge. 8 am-noon for both, so wherever you are, you can get local coffee to go with your Thanksgiving breakfast.

Following up on Wednesday’s story about repeat burglaries at Dubsea Coffee in Greenbridge, the shop was closed again today, so we inquired to see when it’ll reopen. The answer:

Dubsea will re-open tomorrow (Friday Nov 14), with slightly shortened hours from 7 am-5 pm. We will resume regular hours once things normalize.

Tomorrow is also Dubsea’s 5th birthday. We truly look forward to spending it in the company of our guests.

We appreciate … all the care, kind words, and support from our neighbors. We love this community. We are here to stay.

(Crossposted to partner site West Seattle Blog)

That’s the sign you’ll find today on the door of Dubsea Coffee in Greenbridge (9910 8th SW). A teacher at nearby White Center Heights Elementary School messaged us to say the area’s been hit with a series of burglaries, and that Dubsea has been broken into three times in the past week and a half. We reported the first one here on November 3rd but hadn’t heard of the others; we’re checking with the King County Sheriff’s Office regarding the teacher’s report of other break-ins in the area.

The teacher wrote us because this, she says, is more than a matter of crime concern – she writes, “This coffee shop is the hub of the neighborhood and it is ALWAYS busy with people having meetings, enjoying coffee and sandwiches, children having playdates while frazzled moms drink their coffee, etc.” They are working on plans to show their support and want to encourage you to patronize the shop to help it recover. We’ll be following up.

ADDED 4:26 PM: KCSO spokesperson Sgt. DB Gates confirms a series of recent break-ins in the vicinity, “with a similar MO”:

Dubsea was one victim, with the nearby library/YMCA hit next, followed by the Dollar Tree, and then an elementary school burglarized on the 7th. The MO has been to break a window and steal cash. We have no suspect info other than believing in at least one of the burglaries there were two suspects. They have all happened in the late evening/early morning hours when no persons were present. The four cases have not been conclusively linked as being committed by the same suspects.

We encourage citizens to call when they see something out of the ordinary. It’s also a good time to remember to keep areas around homes and businesses well-lit as thieves love the cover of darkness, and to keep vegetation trimmed so that neighbors and passersby can see if something is amiss at a business (or home).

OCTOBER 28: In case you don’t use Twitter – downtown White Center’s espresso shop, Caffé Delia, announced there that they’ll be closed today (October 28th) because of illness.

OCTOBER 30: After two days of closure, Caffé Delia was scheduled to reopen today.

After almost six months, the new standalone location of Caffé Delia is open in downtown White Center. It’s right next door to Proletariat Pizza, where CD used to time-share. You can go see them until 4 pm today; the rest of the hours are on their website; see more of the new shop’s interior on the CD Facebook page.

Since opening two years ago, Caffé Delia has been based inside the Proletariat Pizza storefront, in a time-sharing/space-sharing environment – open during hours when PP wasn’t. But now there’s big news, announced on the CD Facebook page:

It is with legitimate excitement and some degree of “holy shit!” that we are posting to tell you all that Caffè Delia will be moving into its own cozy little space in the heart of White Center.

It’s going to be right next door to where we are now. It will be very easy to find.

We have said this many times, but it bears repeating: We love White Center, and love to work at making great coffee for you all.

We had one goal when we started: make delicious coffee in Rat City. That is what we are going to keep doing.

One thing, and you are going to have to bear with us on this one. In order to open up our new joint, we are going to have to close our little coffee stand. Caffè Delia, Inside Proletariat Pizza, will be open every day until October 13. Then we will be closed until we open again right next door.

We’ll see you around for the next 3 weeks. And then, we’ll see you in a few.

The new space is part of the former Dzul Tattoo storefront, immediately south of PP; Proletariat, as reported here previously, has already taken the other part.

Have some music with your mocha! The Tallboys are playing at Caffé Delia in downtown White Center right now (with the coffee shop’s co-owner Matt on bass) till 2 pm, as CD celebrates its first birthday. Here’s our preview story from Friday. Caffé Delia is co-housed with Proletariat Pizza – 9622 16th SW.

(This story also appears on our partner site West Seattle Blog)

(Matt, Delia, and Eric – photo by WCN co-publisher Patrick Sand)
By Tracy Record
White Center Now editor

You could call Caffé Delia “White Center’s first co-housed coffee shop.”

Or, pop-up coffee shop, as its proprietors dubbed it.

It opened one year ago in the downtown White Center space that, by night, is Proletariat Pizza.

As with Proletariat, Caffé Delia’s proprietors are a married couple – Delia and Matt. And they say Proletariat’s Stefanie and Mike had the coffee-cohousing idea in the first place – stemming from a mutual-admiration society when Delia worked at Bird on a Wire Espresso and referred people to “the fun pizza place in White Center.”

We sat down with Delia and Matt to talk about their shop and its milestone anniversary, which will be marked with a party during Caffé Delia’s regular hours tomorrow (8 am-2 pm Saturday).

Read the rest of this entry »

The first story ever published here on WCN, on August 7, 2008, was about the grand opening of Big Al Brewing in White Center. This weekend, Big Al’s has been celebrating its fourth anniversary, including a “Family Day” celebration today, with Eric Ode performing live till 5:30 pm.

Some of your downtown White Center favorites are taking a break this holiday – like Full Tilt Ice Cream and Proletariat Pizza – but Caffe Delia, which operates inside the Proletariat storefront in the pre-pizza hours, is open for coffee today: 9 am-1 pm.

The state has just announced that instead of having May 31st be the final day for all state liquor stores, with June 1st the first day of privatized sales (that’s a week from Friday), it’s closing the stores in phases. The White Center store is currently scheduled to have its final day in business next Monday, May 28th. (West Seattle’s two stores both will be closed after Tuesday, May 29th.)

P.S. As previously noted, both Saar’s (the former Albertsons) and Bartell Drugs in White Center have applied for hard-liquor-sales licenses, along with the Walgreens that is on the West Seattle side of the city-county line at 16th/Roxbury.

The auction for rights to liquor licenses at existing store sites is over, and the state has announced the high bids. Keep in mind the “winning bidders” – to be finalized by the state next week, and then given a five-day period to pay up – are not guaranteed licenses, nor the right to take over the stores; all they’re getting is the exclusive rights to apply for liquor licenses at these locations, but it’s up to them to negotiate a lease with the store owner(s). Kulwinder Pabla is listed as the high bidder for the White Center store, $130,100. The state has till June 1st to get out of the liquor business, when privatization, as approved by voters last year, takes full effect. The total amount bid on the license-application rights statewide was almost $31 million, according to the state’s news release.

If you see that sign up at a White Center business .. you’ll know it’s decided to cooperate with the new campaign in which King County Sheriff’s Office storefront Deputy BJ Myers is working – with the support of the White Center Chamber of Commerce, White Center Community Development Association, and North Highline Unincorporated Area Council – to crack down on chronic public drunkenness.

First, Deputy Myers worked with three beverage-distribution companies “to identify the problem and draft a ban that specifically targets the products most closely associated with the chronic public intoxication in downtown White Center.” The first phase, now under way, involves beverage reps asking retailers to join the program; Deputy Myers says some already have jumped in: “Over the next couple of weeks I’ll get an idea of which businesses are and aren’t participating.”

The original memo regarding the proposal was distributed at March’s NHUAC meeting; we had it in its entirety here.

Big Al Brewing makes it, and starting April 6th you can drink it – the winner of the “name the charity beer” contest has just been announced, and it’s Hi-Yu Brü. Read all about it, including where in WC to get it, on partner site West Seattle Blog.

Did you throw a name into the ring .. er, mug … for the beer-naming contest? Jeff Gilbert of Feedback Lounge in West Seattle says judges – from White Center as well as WS – are going over the suggestions now, and will make their decision in time for a big announcement Wednesday night at 6, to let the world know what will follow “Lowman Brau” and “Whale Tail Ale”:

THE “GIVE THIS FOAM A HOME” CONTEST IS OVER! A huge thanks to everyone in West Seattle and White Center who sent in their entries to name the new Big Al Brewing charity beer.

We will announce the winner on Wednesday, March 21 at 6PM. There are 12 judges sifting through hundreds of entries; their job is a tough one – there are a LOT of really creative and clever names suggested by the community. But in the end, only one name will stand victorious!

The judges are community business members from THE FEEDBACK LOUNGE, WEST 5, SHADOWLAND, MISSION, THE BRIDGE, LOCÖL, BEVERIDGE PLACE PUB, COMPANY BAR, and of course, BIG AL BREWING. And we’ve enlisted several folks from THE WEST, the new West Seattle/White Center arts collective.

While we tabulate, here’s some interesting stats about the contest entries…

• 90% of the names were contributed by women
• 50% of the people who entered actually read the rules
• 60 people entered a half dozen names or more, meaning they did not read the rules
• Most of the people who entered came from the High Point/Highland Park areas
• Most of the names had references to Alki, High Point and Roxbury, with a few Duwamishes thrown in)
• People sending in the same name were given the chance to enter again, giving everyone a shot of the big prize

We’re continuing to track who’s applying for a license to sell hard liquor, once privatization takes full effect June 1st. The latest to apply: The White Center Bartell Drugs store at 15th/Roxbury put in its application last week, according to the state Liquor Control Board website. The new owners of the White Center Albertsons store, Saar’s, which is about to rebrand it as Super Saver Foods, also are seeking a license to sell hard liquor. And the Walgreens store that’s just over the White Center/West Seattle line at 16th/Roxbury has applied too. As for the current state liquor store in WC, the license to sell liquor there – if a lease can be worked out, among other conditions – remains up for auction, along with the licenses of other state liquor stores, and the bidding is now up to $6,600 (it started at $1,000 minimum).

Not a surprise since Albertson’s had been seeking a hard-liquor license for the 16th SW store, before announcing it had been sold to Saar’s (here’s our coverage from last month), but for those keeping track, now Saar’s has filed an application for a license, and it includes the name we had mentioned in our story – Super Saver Foods.

So far in the general area, hard-liquor-sales licenses also are being sought by the Roxbury Safeway, the Burien Fred Meyer, and the Target at Westwood Village. There’s still time for other applications, since sales don’t start until June 1st.

By Patrick Sand and Tracy Record
White Center Now co-publishers

One day a few months back, the raised dividing line on 16th SW in downtown White Center all but suddenly appeared after the street was resurfaced. Many in that area wish it would suddenly, or not-so-suddenly, disappear. That was a big topic at Thursday night’s meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council.

THE DIVIDER: King County Department of Transportation’s Mark Mitchell was at the meeting to address those concerns and other traffic-related issues. He said the intent was to reduce the number of cars darting back and forth across the lanes to finish parking, and therefore to reduce crashes, which he said other tactics including “enforcement” hadn’t reduced.

What enforcement? asked Jesse Lovell of Company. Mitchell said it had been requested; Jesse and Uncle Mike’s Superlicious BBQ co-proprietor Elizabeth Gordon both insisted they had never seen any. In fact, they said, the barrier had brought new problems, especially traffic slowdowns when large trucks bring deliveries, since they can’t park in the middle of the street any more. Mitchell listened to the complaints and said that’s why he had come to the meeting – to find out about the kind of effects they couldn’t plan for. He said he would take the complaints back … but no promises.

NHUAC member Liz Giba voiced a concern about the barrier making the mid-block crosswalk less visible, and raising the chances of a crash.

ALCOHOL MEMO: The King County Sheriff’s Office is pursuing a new idea to crack down on derelict drinking, according to Storefront Deputy BJ Myers. It’s an idea that Chief Deputy Steven Strachan deployed in the Kent area, and is now pursuing in White Center. A memo to three distributors, dated February 10th, is as follows:

The King County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the cooperation of the beverage distribution companies that serve retail businesses in White Center to partner with the Sheriff’s Office in a voluntary restriction on certain alcohol sales practices that contribute to an unsafe neighborhood and poor business environment. Merchants, neighborhood councils, and citizen groups have made it clear that the problem of chronic intoxicated persons in the local business district is a primary concern, and thus, a primary concern of the Sheriff’s Office.

This problem has existed in White Center for years and is viewed as a major hindrance to the success of area businesses. The White Center Chamber of Commerce is one of many groups that has attempted a “Good Neighbor Agreement” program with retailers selling high-gravity alcohol to chronic inebriants, but none of the programs have been successful. Therefore, it is the belief of the Sheriff’s Office that a structured community partnership approach will more appropriately address the problem of chronic public intoxication in White Center.

You are being asked to participate in an alternative to a mandatory government-imposed restriction, such as the Alcohol Impact Areas enforced by the Washington State Liquor Control Board. By working with the Sheriff’s Office to identify and implement a moderate but meaningful restriction on the sale of certain products, your company will set an example of positive, community-focused, cooperation that the neighborhood will notice. The Sheriff’s Office is interested in restricting only products principal to the problem of chronic public intoxication so as to maximize benefit to the neighborhood, including beverage retailers.

As a beverage supplier to retailers that sell high gravity alcohol in White Center, your company can be an influential advocate of responsible business practices. The Sheriff’s Office hopes you will choose to be a part of this effort to encourage voluntarily restricted responsible business practices by White Center retailers.

Deputy Myers asked for NHUAC’s support, and they said “of course.” He says he hopes to go to retailers soon with distributor reps to talk about a ban on “high gravity” sales between 6 am and 1 pm; he stressed repeatedly, this is for retail outlets, not bars. The idea is to disrupt the cycle of how chronic alcoholics buy and consume. If all goes well, this could start by early April.

BURIEN UPDATES, INCLUDING ANNEXATION: City Manager Mike Martin said it’s still looking pretty good for the annexation process to proceed, since the sales-tax credit remains in the current version of the state budget (without it, the city has said it will call the process to a halt). If the budget is finalized with the credit still available, Martin says, he’ll go to the Burien council and ask them to move ahead (which would involve setting an election date). He also talked about newly hired Highline Public Schools Superintendent-to-be Dr. Susan Enfield, saying he was impressed by her and her “intelligent approach” to many of the issues where the city and school district intersect.