No new restaurant here

Foodies and those concerned about the shrinking retail core of Madison Park will be saddened to know that there will not be a replacement restaurant for the late Cafe Parco.  We have it on good authority that the building, located on 42nd near Madison, has been purchased by someone, apparently a Madison Park resident, who is going to renovate the space and transform it into his personal office.

Building owner Karen Binder, who for a couple decades operated Madison Park Cafe from the one-time residential building, did not respond to our request for confirmation.  But it's clear that the place is being emptied of restaurant paraphernalia. One of the problems with operating a restaurant in that space is that the kitchen was inadequate, both in terms of size and the age of its equipment.  Extensive work would have been needed to make it efficient.  Even if that obstacle had been overcome, the limited seating indoors was always a problem with no solution. We've been told that in the restaurant's final years in particular, the outdoor good-weather seating and the weekend brunches were what made Madison Park Cafe profitable. Cafe Parco, as was evident to anyone who wandered by regularly, was unable to achieve the same results.

The brick building to the south of the old Cafe Parco location has also been recently purchased, but there's no indication that it will be used for anything more than offices. The same situation is true for the building that housed the now-notorious Lakeside Capital offices on 43rd. That space had been marketed as a potential retail location, but that's not going to happen according to the word we've received.  The building changed hands recently and the new owners will not be adding to the retail space along that street.  As others have found, in any event, it's tough to do retail off of Madison.

Meanwhile, there's a now-empty shop where Ann Marie Lingerie used to be, in the building that also houses Starbucks.  It's unclear from the sign posted in the window whether the current tenant plans something else for that space.  For some reason, the Madison Park Blogger was unsuccessful in getting any response from Ann Marie concerning their abandoned location.

Perhaps we're losing our touch.

Cafe Parco closes

Chef Celinda calls it quits

The restaurant business is a tough one, and the Madison Park audience doesn't make the situation any easier for a restauranteur.  After almost three years of struggle to hit the right notes, chef/proprietor Celinda Norton has decided to give it up. In an email to patrons sent early this morning, Norton writes "the time has come to bid you a farewell...Despite working seven days a week, since 2011, cooking every meal myself, the business continues to be ‘economically challenged’. It is time to seek other avenues to satisfy my need to create great food."

As Madison Park's only Italian restaurant, Cafe Parco occupied the space that for many years housed Karen Binder's French-themed Madison Park Cafe (1807 42nd Avenue E.).  Binder is the property's landlord and will again have the task of finding a tenant, as she did after closing her own restaurant three years ago. The onetime private residence is difficult space for a restaurant to operate in because it has a very small kitchen (which is in need of renovation) and limited interior seating, among other factors.

It is always sad to see a neighborhood business fail, sad for both the business's patrons and for the many of us who care about maintaining a 'critical mass' within the Village's business community.  We wish the hard-working Chef Celinda and her son, Nic, well in whatever their futures hold.

Seeing Cafe Parco close, however, reminds us of the old adage, "When one door closes, another opens."  Ironically, our intended posting today was about the two new neighborhood restaurants that plan to open their doors later this month.

We'll have the details tomorrow.

[Photo by S. Pratt for Seattle Eater.] 

Whither our empty storefronts?

Neighborhood's retail vibrancy takes some hits

Those who care about the longterm health of Madison Park's business district no doubt shudder when contemplating the possibility that any more retail spaces might go the sad way of our community's notorious Black Hole---that tumble-down, two-out-of-three-shops-empty building at the very heart of what old-timers here term "The Village:"

The departure of Tully's, Best Buds, and Mad Pizza have each resulted in unfilled spaces that are definite detractors to neighborhood ambiance. Meanwhile, the recent exit of the Aegis sales office in the Villa Marina building on 43rd creates another retail space that could (but we understand won't) go begging.

As previously reported, a HomeStreet Bank branch will ultimately be replacing Tully's; and however one might feel about Madison Park as a banking hub, having another bank inserted into our midst at least gives us the advantage of swapping a boarded-up, hangdog building  for a newly refurbished one.

But the former Mad Pizza location (shown at the top) and original Best Buds site (above) are certainly looking a bit forlorn these days (or even perhaps vandalized, in the case of the latter).  The Mad Pizza space is in the building that also houses Marshall's Cleaners, whose owners, we understand, are also the landlords.  If the newly empty space is being marketed, however, it is not evidenced by any "for lease" signs; and the former fast-food store's interior is something less than market ready.  Our attempts to get a comment from the building's owners was not met with immediate success.

Down the street, Best Buds moved out of its one-time-travel-office location on E. Blaine and into the basement of Cafe Parco last summer. Though several parties have apparently expressed interest in the old space, no deal has apparently been struck. The most recent rumor we heard involved a taco stand.  (Cafe Parco, incidentally, reclaimed its downstairs space for use as a dining room when Best Buds closed shop last month.)

That leaves us with the former Aegis office space, where we can report some good news. We've learned that coming soon to this location will be an infrared sauna and deep massage therapy center (or something along those lines).  More on this later.

Keeping up

Eaglet soars: Several blog readers reported seeing the Broadmoor eagles in flight with their offspring over the weekend (we and our camera, unfortunately, were late to the party).  But never fear, Montlake photographer and bird watcher Larry Hubbell took many excellent shots of the eaglet in flight on Saturday and posted them on his blog, Union Bay Watch, to be enjoyed by those of us who missed out.

Music in the Park:  The line up for the summer concert series has been announced. This almost-every-Thursday-evening-in-August musical experience, which has become a popular summer tradition, features the same line up as last year's: Two Scoops Combo on August 8, Jonathan Kingham on August 15, Gin Creek on August 22, and The Side Project on August 29. The music will begin promptly at 6:30 and end at about 8 pm. The concerts, which are free, take place in the grassy area of the park and are sponsored by the Madison Park Business Association.

Best Buds moving on:  The colorful neighborhood flower shop with its quaint red English phone booth out front will be abandoning its space at the end of this month. But Best Buds is not shutting down, it is simply going to begin a new life around the corner in the lower level of Cafe Parco (1807 42nd Avenue E.).

In the new location the shop will be more about cut flowers and less about plants for the garden, so we're told.  This move is apparently a win-win-win situation for Best Buds (which is happy to be vacating its current space), Cafe Parco (which was not making good use of its lower level), and restaurant-building owner Karen Binder (who gains another paying tenant).  Perhaps it's not a win for the red-phone-booth owner, however, since the soon-to-be vacant location is just too tiny to accommodate another bank.

Italian cooking comes to Madison Valley:  They're working away diligently on renovating the interior space of what for many years was La Cote (2811 E. Madison St.).  As we reported in June, the French bistro is being replaced by Bar Cantinetta, which is an offshoot of the very-well-received Wallingford-based Cantinetta. We've been told that the Madison Valley incarnation will be a more intimate affair (there's not much space, after all) and will feature small plates. The signs in the windows say the new place will be open in August. To this point the owner has been less than forthcoming about his plans, but perhaps as we get closer to the opening...

Bing's shakes things up:  There's a revamped website, new menu items, a seven-days-a week Happy Hour (3-6 pm), a Kid's Happy Hour (50% off all kids' items, M-F, 3-5 pm), gluten-free items on the menu, Bottomless Mimosas during brunch on weekends, and a new price point for many offerings, including the $8 Signature Burger during Happy Hour, that are all part of the new Bing's experience, says owner George Marshall. Details are available on the website and on Bing's Facebook page here.

Restaurant Bea closes:  Owner Kate Perry announced on the restaurant's Facebook page yesterday that Restaurant Bea is no more. This is the third well-received and highly-rated (but ultimately unsuccessful) restaurant to occupy the same Madrona space (1423 34th Avenue E.).  Cremant was first in the series, followed shortly thereafter by June. This three-strikes development is sad for foodies, for Madrona, and for the people who tried hard to make their dreams come alive.  We were fans.

[Eagle photo by Larry Hubbell.]

What's new (or upcoming)

New coffeehouse enters the scene (but in Madison Valley)

Those missing the old neighborhood Tully's and wishing to find a replacement might do well to check out the Harbour Pointe Coffeehouse, which opened its doors a couple weeks ago in a location (2818 E. Madison St.) where several other coffee shops had earlier failed. Proprietor Zander Natallanni describes his venture as a "European-style coffeehouse that has enough food to fall between the restaurant/bistro category, yet specializes in coffee and select loose-leaf teas."

Zander with employee and patron

The menu includes house-made pizza and eight varieties of grilled cheese sandwiches (including build your own), as well as soups and salads. There's also breakfast, pastries, and a gluten-free menu.

Natallanni tells us that he's planning to have an open-mic night every Wednesday, offer board games for patrons on Thursdays, and---"for a small fee"---provide baby-sitting services (up to 2 1/2 hours) for parents wanting a date night at another area restaurant "preselected by us."  Upcoming: a delivery service to homes and businesses in the general area.

This is Harbor Pointe's second location (the original is at Harbor Pointe in Mukilteo). The mission statement for both is to serve quality food and drinks while providing "an atmosphere at fosters community development," according to Natallanni. "We are community driven and therefore our business model isn't based on how much money we make but how much we plug into the community and give back or bring to it."

Clearly, though, making some money wouldn't be a bad thing for Madison Valley's Harbor Point Coffeehouse, given the history of this particular space.

Planning a party?  Brooke can help!

Madison Park's Brooke Westlund, who has been enjoying a good measure of success as a local artist, is adding another talent to her resume: professional host. She and friend Tanja Nyeholt recently started a business--swah:rey--designed to remove the burdens on a party's actual host by taking on the "little things," tasks such as greeting guests at the door, taking peoples' coats, getting the drinks, serving food, and cleaning up afterwards.

swah:rey is willing to do much more than that, however, including planning the whole event. If the need is deciding the menu, organizing the catering, renting party accessories, setting up a bar, or developing custom cocktails, Brooke and Tanja are ready to fill the breach. "Pretty simple," says Brooke, "it's basically custom high-end service."

Events

The Japanese Garden in the Washington Park Arboretum opened today with a Shinto Blessing and a First Viewing.  Next Sunday, March 10, visitors to the Japanese Garden will have the opportunity to see Autumn Impressions, a juried show of 13 photographers' views of the Garden as captured in the October 2012 Photography Workshop.  The event begins at 1 pm and the photographers represented will be present (admission is free).

Inner Renewal and the Healthy Path, located in Arboretum Court, will be presenting a concert of vibrational healing with traditional Nepalese singing bowls at 7 pm on March 10.

Cafe Parco has an upcoming Washington Wine event on March 22, featuring Guy Harris of Cru Selections (Woodinville).  By the way, the restaurant recently got some favorable coverage for its brunch menu from a Seattle food blogger.

[Japanese Garden photo by matunos on Flickr.]

Madison Park businesses in the news

In the likely event that some of our readers are just not keeping up with other media, here's a quick survey of some local establishments that have received recent coverage:

Seattle Met's Nosh Pitt blog reported earlier this week that Cactus! just announced it's expanding to a fifth location, taking over space in Bellevue Square previously occupied by Z’Tejas.  Cactus!, began life 23 years ago at its current location in Madison Park, later adding locations in Alki, Kirkland, and South Lake Union.

Cafe Parco was chosen by readers of website Seattle Eater as one of 18 Best "Under the Radar" Brunches. The honor is slightly tarnished, perhaps, by the website's commentary that the list highlights destinations where "where the food is good, day drunkeness is welcome, and long lines are not." Cafe Parco was singled out for a "decadent brunch, French press and cocktails."

Canopy Blue was one of two Madison Park stores to be included on Seattle Magazine's "Best Shops in Seattle 2012" list, published in the December issue.  Judged "Best Women's Boutique" by the magazine, Canopy Blue was cited as "a must-stop for women hankering for casual yet elegant attire" and new owner  Danielle Ackerley was credited with bringing a "new joie de vivre" to the shop since taking over last summer.

The other local business on Seattle Magazine's list was the once-pop-up-but-now-apparently-permanent Guesthouse, which won the designation as "Best Housewares Shop."  Owner Kate Sehulster was singled out for her "eclectic finds" and the store was described as having been "wildly popular" in its initial carnation as a "pop up" last summer.

Meanwhile, down the road in Madison Valley, La Cote Creperie was the subject of a "heavenly" review posted yesterday on Seattle Weekly's Greasy Swoon blog. Describing the tiny French cafe as "uptown for the ladies who brunch Seattle style" (and not a particularly good place for the hungover), the reviewer notes that while quiche, pate, and salads are on the menu, excellent crepes are the thing.  We knew that.

[Cactus! is located at 4220 E. Madison St., Cafe Parco is located at 1807 42nd Avenue E., Canopy Blue is located at 3121 E. Madison St., Guesthouse is located at 4110 E. Madison St., and La Cote is located at 2811 E. Madison Street. The photo above was blatantly lifted from the Cactus! website.]

News from the chow line

New deli operator to arrive in October

Park Place Deli reopened last week after a brief hiatus, but we were a bit ahead of the story in having earlier reported that the deli would be operating under new management. Through September 29, the place will be run by the current owner.  Sometime after that there be a new operator on the premises.

We've been told that Park Place Deli lost its lease because the business had been shut down. As a result, the landlord reportedly not only offered the space to someone else but required that the current tenant reopen the business or be in violation of the existing lease terms. So while the business has not been sold, it will soon be replaced. No word (at least to us) on what the new format might be when the management does change.

Cafe Parco celebrates first anniversary

Chef/owner Celinda Norton of Cafe Parco was profiled last week on SeattleEater.com, a website for foodies.  It's been one year since Norton opened her "modern Italian" restaurant here, replacing the venerable and French Madison Park Cafe. In the interview with Eater (which can be found here), Norton reports that the most popular regular menu item at Cafe Parco comes from the brunch menu: the bacon-banana waffle.

Her biggest surprise about Madison Park?  The fact that lots of regular customers suddenly disappear for the winter season, off to their other homes.

Madison Park Conservatory makes some changes

In addition to adding some lovely (but expensive to operate) propane heaters to the lower-level outdoor dining area this summer, Madison Park Conservatory has also revamped its to-some-cumbersome website with a more user-friendly one that includes at lot of great photography and even (get this) on-line reservations!

Chef Cormac Mahoney has seemed to revel in such things as having an obscure "Madison Park Conservatory" sign (a relatively tiny brass plate barely visible from the street) and a website that took some patience to deal with. On at least one of those fronts he apparently (and with great reluctance, we assume) finally relented.  Accessible is good.

[Photo of Celinda Norton by S. Pratt from SeattleEater and photo of Cormac Mahoney from the MPC website, both used without permission.]

More July happenings

Madison Park Days begins this week

It's become an annual tradition in the neighborhood to follow up the Fourth of July holiday with a sidewalk sale, a Kid's Parade, and a picnic in the Park.  Nine times out of ten, it seems, the weather for all of these events is better than weather on the Fourth, though apparently our bad memories of a couple of rainy Independence Day fireworks are improperly skewing our inexact weather statistics. On the other hand, we can't remember a single bad Madison Park Days parade!  Sunny and fun for all---animals included!

The sidewalk sale begins on Thursday, July 5th, and extends through Saturday, July 7th.  Saturday is also parade day, with the line up in front of the Wells Fargo branch at 11:45 a.m and the parade beginning promptly at noon.  The leisurely stroll down Madison Street, a ten-minute affair, will be consummated with a food-and-drinks extravaganza at the Park, the whole thing sponsored by the Madison Park Business Association.

MPC inaugurates Monday dinner parties

Beginning on Monday, July 9, Madison Park Conservatory will be hosting a multi-course dinner each Monday night featuring a "singular, coursed, prix fixe menu created around a guest Farmer, Winemaker, Boozehound and/or Chef," to quote from a recent MPC missive.  Progressive seating will begin at 5:30 and end at 8:30, with only 50 guests accommodated, so reservations are recommended. Courses and prices will vary with the night, "but four courses and $42 are good touchstones to remember." Details and menus will be available on MPC's website under Events, but here's the official rundown for the upcoming dinner on July 9:

"Stokesberry Sustainable vs. Local Roots: Two of our favorite farm families join us on our maiden voyage. We adore and rely upon Jerry and Janelle Stokesberry to provide us with improbably great chickens, eggs and Icelandic lamb. Nobody produces more pristine Old-World and heirloom vegetables than Jason Salvo and Siri Erickson-Brown do at Local Roots. We'll bring the best of each to your plate."

Epiphany hosts Summer Concert Series

Madrona's Epiphany Church is presenting a summer concert series this month, with performances by a wide array of musical artists. The concerts will be held every Friday night in July, from 6:00-8:00 p.m., outside in the Courtyard the Church. You are invited to "bring your kids, friends and family, blankets or lawn chairs, drinks and a picnic! Everyone is welcome whether you have a connection with Epiphany or not." If it rains, the event will be moved into the Church's Great Hall.

Here's the schedule of musical performances:

July 6th: Brass Band Northwest (shown above)
July 13th: Sambatuque
July 20th: Anzanga Marimba Ensemble
July 27th: Genesee Ramblers: Old Time Barn Dance

For more information you may call Epiphany Church at (206) 324-2573 or visit the website.

The Bike/Walk/Ride Challenge is on!

Madison Park residents are being challenged again this summer to give up their cars and, at least part of the time, bike, walk or ride (transit, that is) instead.  Those entering the July/August Challenge are eligible to win valuable prizes (top prize: an electric bike) and will be able to bask in the glow of doing something good for the betterment of the world--or at least the local environs.  Details on how to participate are available here.

Cafe Parco offers wine tasting

Those interested in something a bit stronger than what's being served at the Madison Park Days picnic on Saturday might want to make a detour to the courtyard of Cafe Parco for some wine tasting.  Robert Ramsay Cellars and Airfield Estates will be featured, with sampling "provided on the house" from noon until 3 pm.  Wines will be available for purchase by glass or bottle.

[Madison Park Conservatory is located at 1927 43rd Avenue E., Epiphany Church is located in the Madrona / Denny Blaine area at 38th Ave, between E. Howell & E. Denny, and Cafe Parco is located at 1807 42nd Avenue E. Wine glass photo by Sébastien Barillot on Flickr.com.]

In the news

'The Revivalist'

Madison Park's own Gian-Carlo Scandiuzzi was the subject of a laudatory cover story in the Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest magazine two Sundays ago.  In it, writer Misha Berson gave credit to Scandiuzzi, ACT's general manager, for the revival of the once-shaky but now well-positioned theatre, which is housed the historic Eagles Auditorium building downtown.

Scandiuzzi, who has been at the helm of ACT for a little over three years, has not only provided vision, creativity and leadership to the 47-year-old theatre but has also lent his talents to helping other arts organization in Seattle cope with these challenging economic times. In addition, Carlo and his wife, Lalie, have proven to be generous patrons of many local arts groups.

Berson does get at least one fact glaringly wrong in her article, however.  Referring to the Scianduzzis' "comfortable but hardly palatial" home, she places the 27-year residents of Washington Park squarely in Madison Valley.  We, however, know better.

Here, by the way, is a recent clip from YouTube with Carlo up close and personal, talking about ACT:

The story behind the Madison Park Bears

The Sun Break, a local "online magazine of news and culture" this month noted the sad passing of sculptor Richard Beyer, who died in New York earlier this month at age 86. While many know that Beyer was responsible for the internationally famous "Waiting for the Interurban" in Fremont, far fewer of us may have been aware that he was also the sculptor of the the bears that grace Madison Park:

The Sun Break's article corrects this oversight (if oversight it is) with a lovely eulogy to Beyer's "witty, never boring" works, which can be found all around Seattle (if you know where to look).

Local patisseries make good

Madison Park's Belle Epicurean and Madison Valley's Ines Patisserie are each singled out for high praise in this month's edition of Seattle Magazine. In an article entitled, "Butter Me Up:  Seattle's Best Croissants," the magazine touts Belle Epicurean's entry as "an impossible-to-resist croissant that seduces in flavor and texture, and an exterior that lands in the middle: not too pale, not too dark."

Ines' "gorgeous" croissants, meanwhile, are described as having "an ideal softness inside, a deeply buttery flavor and a crust that’s neither pale nor too caramelized."

Cafe Parco is "warm and comforting"

That same issue of Seattle Magazine also has a favorable review of Madison Park's Cafe Parco, which reviewer Alison Austin Scheff calls charming, not trendy. She describes Chef/Owner Celinda Norton's cooking as "big-boned, rich and indulgent; the sort of Italian food many of us first fell in love with, not the spare, restrained Italian food we’ve come to adore in recent years."

[Upper photo by Benjamin Benschneider for the Seattle Times. Lower photo by "MvB" for The Sun Break.  Belle Epicurean is located at 3109 E. Madison St., Ines Patisserie is located at 2909 E. Madison St., and Cafe Parco is located at 1807 42nd Avenue E.]

Snippets from the food & drink scene

Deli: moving from "too weird" to "family friendly" ?

The rumor was circulating earlier this month that Park Place Deli was up for sale, a story that seemed all too likely. Over the past few months we'd been getting reports of strange and inappropriate behavior by the deli's staff, which apparently included their yelling at each other and sometimes at the customers.  In fact the atmosphere in the place had apparently deteriorated to the point where at times it was, in the words of one former patron, "just too weird." The tense situation in the shop was compounded by stories, true or not, about the public behavior of owner John McCormick in the neighborhood.  So the idea that he had decided to throw in the towel after five years of owning the place did not seem farfetched.

As it happens, however, Park Place Deli is not for sale.  When we went in to check out the rumors we were met by a very friendly bunch of employees who reported that selling the store was under consideration "for about two hours."  But in the end, McCormick apparently decided to counter the deli's growing Seinfeldesque reputation by bringing back some old hands and conjuring up a "family friendly" environment.  Deli manager Nic Albice, in an email to us, confirms this scenario and reports that he himself had previously worked for John for three years, and other staffers are also former employees.  "The Deli is not for sale and is here to stay," he says. "I plan on changing a few things, giving the Deli a little makeover and a revamped menu." Patrons should expect "the same great deli with a new look and feel."

Stay tuned.

[Owner John McCormick has responded to this posting.  Click on "Comments" below to view his response.]

Kudos for MPC's Cormac Mahoney

Madison Park Conservatory's chef/maestro Cormac Mahoney came in for a pretty heady honor this month when Food & Wine Magazine named him as a "People's Best New Chef" nominee for the region.  The chefs from only ten restaurants across the "Northwest & Pacific" were nominated by the magazine for what was an on-line beauty contest, where anyone could vote.  The magazine's "regional" coupling of the Pacific Northwest with Hawaii is the first of its kind that we've seen--and in fact the winner turned out to be the one chef in the contest from Hawaii.

Nevertheless, the honor of the nomination is the thing.  Here's part of what F&W had to say about Mahoney:  "WHY HE’S AMAZING: Because his irreverent take on global cuisine is drawing crowds to Seattle’s tony Madison Park neighborhood."


Cafe Parco expanding seating

One of the great things about the old Madison Park Cafe was the fun of sitting outside on a warm, sunny day and enjoying the ambiance of Madison Park.  Since Cafe Parco took over the space last year, however, there has yet to be a single day on which that finely balanced combination warmth and sun was just right for outdoor dining.  We're sure that day will come.

In the meantime, Cafe Parco has embarked on an project to create a private dining room on the lower level of the building, where the restaurant had initially placed its racks of fine wines.  Some MPB readers had asked us what exactly had happened to those prominently displayed bottles, and Cafe Parco's blog provided the answer. Manager Nic Norton, who is doing the remodel work himself, reports that the new space will be used for small parties, which cannot be easily accommodated upstairs.  He also notes on the blog that lunch will be returning to the schedule April 11, though it will only be available on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The menu will be similar to the weekend brunch menu, he says.

In case you missed it, Cafe Parco, was the subject of a rather mixed two-star review in The Seattle Times last month.


Karen's next thing

And speaking of both Madison Park Cafe and wine bottles, Seattle Met Magazine reports that the Cafe's longtime owner, Karen Binder, is back from vacation and on to her next role as proprietor of wine shop Binder's Bottles. Its strictly an on-line affair where, according to the magazine, Karen states that patrons can get "anything they've tasted or seen in a shop or want me to find for them."

[Photo of Cormac Mahoney by Karen Loria, swiped from the Food & Wine website.  Park Place Deli is located at 4122 E. Madison St.; Madison Park Conservatory is located at 1927 43rd Ave. E.; and Cafe Parco is located at 1807 42nd Avenue E.]

News for foodies

Belle Epicurean launches Provisions

They didn't quite get the doors open in time for the holiday rush, but Madison Park's newest (and, by self description, "Seattle's premier") patisserie did manage to inaugurate its specialty food and fine wine shop, Provisions, just in time for the New Year.  Occupying the eastern half of what was once the Island Video location (3109 E. Madison St.), Provisions is both a wine bar and purveyor of "high quality food stuffs" such as special cheeses, olive oil varieties, doughs, condiments, and frozen bakery items.

According to chef/proprietor Carolyn Ferguson, the concept is for Provisions to be a sort of well-stocked pantry and wine cellar for those who enjoy the kind of food available from Belle Epicurean.  That means that the products on sale are principally those which are used as ingredients by the patisserie.

Ferguson, who is nicely profiled in this month's Madison Park Times, asked us to be sure to report that Provisions will be hosting weekly wine tastings each Thursday in February (5-8 pm), with her husband, co-owner/oenologist Howard Ferguson, acting as sommelier. French regional wines will be featured and will be paired with cheeses and pantry items.

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Cafe Parco recalibrates lunch, asks for menu input

It seems that a lot of Madison Parkers, who might otherwise be lunching in local cafes, leave town for the winter.  So Cafe Parco, which since its opening had been serving both lunch and dinner each weekday, has decided to limit its lunch schedule for the time being. According to a recent email from the restaurant's general manager, Nic Norton, "until the weather warms up" those interested in lunching at Cafe Parco will have to call and make reservations no later than the day before.  If a minimum of six people have asked to dine (not necessarily as a single group), lunch is on for that day and an announcement will be placed on Cafe Parco's website (at which point it's come one, come all).

Chef/owner Celinda Norton, meanwhile, is asking for advice from patrons on the kind of cuisine they prefer.  On the restaurant's blog, Norton notes that some diners are asking for lighter fare, though "ordering patterns tell a different story" given that richer food seems to outsell simple, healthier food.  "Even with a mix of simpler dishes in the menu the servers still have people ordering the richest offerings available and then complaining the food is inedibly rich.  Yes, they chose to order the most decadent item on the menu," she reports.

Norton sums up her dilema this way: "I need to offer what my guests are willing to visit regularly and purchase.  I need to prevent Annihilation via Yelp.  I need to get excellent reviews from Seattle's press."  She says she's open to input and you can provide it by emailing her: chef at Cafe Parco.

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Jason Wilson of Crush connects with Google 

The Puget Sound Business Journal's latest issue includes a front-page story on Crush chef/owner Jason Wilson's unlikely role as the designer of cuisine for the employee restaurants at Google's Kirkland and Bothell campuses, which reportedly feed 1,100 people each day.

It seems that Wilson is a friend of Google's Kirkland campus general manager, who believed that Wilson's "cooking style and priorities--supporting locally grown produce and naturally raised meat--would be a good fit for the company known for employee amenities and free food."

Among the menu items created by Wilson: orange-flavored Skagit River Farms beef stir fry, and Lamb Tagine with tomato, eggplant, peppers and olives.  Of his positive experience working with Google, Wilson is quoted as saying "it's not like working for a monolith."

[Cafe Parco is located at 1807 42nd Avenue E,, and Crush is located in Madison Valley at 2319 E. Madison St. Photo of Chef Wilson from the Crush website.]

News on the culinary scene

Hot on the heels of Seattle Magazine's choosing Maggie Savarino of Madison 
Park Conservatory as one of Seattle's Next Wave of Tastemakers, City Arts has just placed MPC's head chef and owner on the cover of its November issue, with an inside article entitled, "Live to Eat: Cormac Mahoney Cooks What He Wants."  Well, no duh.  The critical reviews of the end result of that cooking, by the way, have been pretty uniformly laudatory (see here, here, and here).  City Arts' piece, incidentally, includes some direct quotes from Mahoney that are clearly intended for mature audiences. When they come our way, Madison Park Blogger always screens these profane Mahoneyisms from the eyes of our sensitive readers. City Arts follows a more candid policy. Caveat lector.

Also noteworthy this week is a report from the recently opened Cafe Parco: the restaurant has just been granted a "temporary pre-approval permit" to serve "adult-type beverages."  During Cafe Parco's first two weeks, it's been a case of bring your own vino. But that's no longer the only option.  By the way, the restaurant's on-line reservation system is now up and running.

[Madison Park Conservatory is located at 1927 43rd Avenue E., and Cafe Parco is located at 1807 42nd Avenue E.]

Italian makes a comeback in Madison Park

By Bryan Tagas

I first met the Celinda Norton, chef/proprietor of the soon-to-arrive Café Parco, when I accosted her on a Madison Park street corner earlier this summer.  Recognizing her from afar (I’d seen her photo online), I made a mad dash down the street, deftly sprinted across an intersection—not quite knocking down a couple of probable Park Shore residents in the process—and “introduced” myself.  I gave her and her entourage my very best imitation of the demanding/pleading/cajoling style that Barbara Walters does so well: I simply insisted on a pre-restaurant-opening interview.

Fortunately for me, Celinda proved to be a much more gracious person than I.  She immediately agreed to the interview, never so much as hinting that she didn’t have a clue who I was or where Madison Park Blogger might fit into the scheme of things here in the neighborhood. I simply told her the truth: there are few things (perhaps no things) that my readers would rather hear about than the opening of a new food establishment in Madison Park.  

Since she was game, we met up a couple weeks later—and over a glass of wine she provided me with the details for this backgrounder. Cafe Parco makes its debut tomorrow.

Cuisine: ‘Not Spaghetti Italian’

Although Café Parco is Celinda’s eighth restaurant, she says she’s finding the move to Madison Park to be a bit more of a transition for her than her other ventures have been.  For one thing, she’s already discovered that this is a neighborhood where everyone seems to both have an opinion and be willing to walk right in and share it.  These unsolicited (but, she says, welcomed) ideas about how the new restaurant should operate don’t necessary mesh with one another, it turns out. “There seem to be many 'food factions' at work in Madison Park!” she reports.  

What she wants to make clear from the start, however, is that Café Parco will be an Italian restaurant.  In other words, don’t expect to see the new menu trying to duplicate any of the dishes that were staples of the longtime predecessor on the site, Madison Park Café.  French cooking is definitely not what the new place is all about.  Neither are we talking “spaghetti house,” she declares.   When asked to sum up the new cuisine, she responds with the term, “New World Italian.”

That naturally raises the next question:  What typifies this style of Italian cooking?  “Well, it isn’t just pasta, for one thing.  It’s about the integrity of ingredients and not overdoing it.  You allow the ingredients to speak for themselves.”  She notes that “the breadth of Italian cuisine is amazing” and adds that she has been following the trends in Italian cooking for several years (also, this is also not her first Italian restaurant).  “The cuisine of Italy is based on tradition and quality of ingredients.” she told me.  “In recent years Italian chefs have embraced change. Not so long ago it was considered nearly a cardinal sin to change a historic recipe or presentation. Once the new trend toward creativity began to shift, it was adopted with gusto. The spirit of Italy lives on; fresh, quality ingredients, the best the season has to offer, are at the heart of every dish. Combinations may change but the integrity lives on. My menus will exemplify this. I will be working with the best items sourced locally. You will find familiar herbs and spices woven through my Italian-styled creations.”

Celinda says that while she has thousands of cookbooks, she doesn’t necessarily follow all of the instructions.  She likes to experiment and create.  One of the things she reports she’s working on right now is smoke--to be used, for example, to create smoked tomato sauce or lightly smoked cabbage.  A recent addition to her cookbook collection, Smoke and Spice, is co‐written by a woman of Italian heritage, and Celinda says she was intrigued by the author’s use of smoke in dishes from her family recipes. 

Celinda reports that her menus will always be changing.  Her intention is to keep it fresh, she says.  But what, exactly, will be on the opening menu at Café Parco?  Here are some possibilities: Crespelle, braised rabbit filled Italian crepes, maybe NW-foraged chanterelles in roasted tomato cream over crostini, a roast duck breast entrée featuring house made Cappellini tossed in duck fat with orange, Castelvetrano olives, caramelized shallot, fresh thyme and sea salt.  Her favorites on the lunch menu are the Rosemary ham on foccacia with pickled mustard seeds and confit of apricot and fennel or the simple indulgence of house-made Papparadelle tossed with smoked tomato sauce and Parmigiano. She predicts the Pasta al Forno will be a tremendous hit, describing it as a baked Italian-style “mac and cheese. 

The price point for the Café she describes as “reasonable,” placing the lunch entrees in the $12-$15 range and the dinner entrees in the $15-$25 range.

‘You will almost always find me in the kitchen’

Café Parco will very much be about Celinda Norton and her culinary vision.  “Ignore the ego,” she told me, “but I am good at what I do.” Although she says she will be wearing a variety of hats in the new establishment, the chef’s hat for her is by far the most important, “since for me, the food aspect is the most fun.”  This is one restaurant that will be “run from the kitchen,” she assures us.  Not that there is anything wrong with doing things another way, she adds, “But I will be the chef, and I really can’t imagine being dependent on someone to create the dishes and do the cooking.”

She says she’s expecting to work 16-hour days if necessary and believes her first day off will probably not arrive until sometime in January.  Even with the hard work, however, she says she enjoys the challenge:  “I love it.  It comes natural to me.”  After all, she’s been through this many times before.  She started her first restaurant in Longview in 1979.  Five successor restaurants in Longview followed that initial foray, before she moved to Seattle in 2003 to start 94 Stewart.  Her restaurants’ cuisines have included Northwest, Italian, Mediterranean, Asian fusian, and even a dabble in “South of the Border.” 

Helping her at Café Parco, in what is clearly a Norton family endeavor, are her two children, Lindsey and Nic.  Lindsey, who her mom describes as a good cook who will provide some help in the kitchen, will primarily be up front serving (“Lindsey is a phenomenal server. She has superb knowledge of food and wine. She also is quite the entertainer. A guest once told us he asked for her section, just to watch her work. He called it Lindsey Vision”).  Nic, meanwhile, will be the restaurant’s General Manager.  She describes him having great “front of house” skills, in addition to which he is both a solid techy and “remarkable” cheese steward. He can wield a hammer, too, having more than a little to do with the building’s remodeling, currently underway.  Anyone stopping by over the last few weeks has seen Nic, Lindsey and Chef Celinda all working madly to get Café Parco of the ground.

Reconfiguring the spaces

Madison Park Café was known for its cozy indoor atmosphere on cold days and its great outdoor seating on those rare warm days.  Café Parco will have more room in both its interior and exterior seating locations.  The intent, Celinda tells us, is to create new outdoor seating both directly in front of the restaurant (by extending the existing patio to the area along the sidewalk) and—ultimately—on the deck where the front door was located.  The new entrance to the Café Parco will be where the side door had been.  Remodeling of the interior will add another couple tables to that space as well.

The kitchen, meanwhile, has been expanded by moving the dishwashing operation downstairs (not very efficient, admittedly, but the only way to free up needed space, says Celinda).  The kitchen will be more enclosed than it was (mahogany glass doors and bookshelves are being installed to block unwelcome light and sound from the reconfigured new dining room).  While the hope had been to enlarge the cooking area and have a much larger hood, that has proven to be prohibitively expensive, so “We’ll just have to make do.”

Celinda says she’s looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen and is willing to make changes as she gets experience with the neighborhood and learns its tastes.  Some things may work well; and others, not so much.  “I can’t possibly make everyone happy,” she says, “but I can try.” 

[Cafe Parco will be open for lunch each weekday beginning tomorrow, Friday, October 14. Dinner will begin next week, and weekend brunches will follow thereafter.  For details, including hours of operation, check the Cafe Parco website (click here for details about the lunch menu).  Cafe Parco is located at 1807 42nd Avenue E.  (Phone: 328-4757). Note that Cafe Parco does not have its liquor license in place yet (though that should happen "soon").  In the meantime, Chef Celinda recommends that those who wish to have wine with dinner purchase a bottle at Madison Cellars (4227 E. Madison St.) and bring it along.]   

Seen or heard in the 'hood

John Gallen moves on

According to The Attic's Mark Long, "Johnny" Gallen began his several-decade career at Bert's in 1966, with a job sweeping floors. When the store's linoleum was replaced with carpet the following year, Gallen moved on to other duties, ultimately assuming responsibility as Bert's "flower guy." In his twenty-year role of flower buyer and plant expert at the store, he was well known to a couple generations of flower lovers and gardeners throughout the neighborhood. 

After "retiring" from Bert's in 2006, Gallen continued to be seen in Madison Park, where he had been a longtime resident.  Gallen recently moved to Aurora, Colorado to live near his family, reports Long, who believes that Johnny's departure represents "another passing of the torch" in the neighborhood. Long, who arrived at The Attic in 1989, remembers only Tina's on Madison, Madison Park Jewelers, Madison Park Hardware, Scoop du Jour, Anne Marie Lingerie, Choppers, the Red Onion, and Salon in the Park as other Madison Park businesses that were in operation then and which are still here today.  Oh, and of course, Bert's Red Apple itself.

Ready for an Italian Renaissance?

Anyone wandering past the new Cafe Parco over the last fews weeks couldn't help but notice that things are happening there, both on the outside and the inside of the former Madison Park Cafe space. Chef/proprietor Celinda Norton and her crew (consisting primarily of family members) are working away madly in the hope of getting the doors open at the new neighborhood eatery within the next week or so (perhaps October 10).  

Those interested in seeing what's going on inside can check out Cafe Parco's blog to view some interior construction photos.  In a recent email to Chef Celinda fans, son Nic reports that the restaurant's menus have been posted online (see them here) and mentions that there has been something of a snafu in getting the liquor license approved (hopefully a problem that's resolvable before opening, but maybe not, he warns). 

By the way, we have an "exclusive" interview with Chef Celinda that we will be posting at about the time of Cafe Parco's opening.  Stay tuned.

New benches become official

Though Madison Park Blogger crassly overlooked a little side-ceremony that took place during Madison Park Art Walk last month, we're rectifying the oversight. The new stone benches next to the Bank of America parking lot were officially inaugurated with speeches and a ribbon cutting on Art Walk's opening night. Doing the honors (twice, since the cameraman was asleep at the switch) were these two photogenic girls, who performed their roles with energy and grace.  We failed in our reportorial role in getting their names, unfortunately.  But didn't we perhaps see those two in the Kid's parade last July?  

The long-in-the-making bench-installation project was a joint effort of neighborhood volunteers, the Madison Park Business Association, and Bank of America.  

Hey, you can't please everyone!

The benches in McNae Triangle Park, in front of Bing's, were considerably spruced up this summer when volunteers pressure washed and repainted them in a burst of civic do-goodness (do-gooderism?).  Anyway, we understand that a lot of work went into the refurbishment; and we're told a lot of thought went into the choice of colors. Theses efforts, we're sure, have been appreciated by users and passers-by alike.

It just figures, however, that the new color combination for the benches (orange and green) would not get a thumbs-up from everyone in the Park.  Do we ever agree about anything?  Someone (we know who, but won't say) scrawled a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me message on a waste receptacle near the benches, apparently appalled over the shade of orange used (or maybe it was simply a complaint about the color orange in the first place).  In any event the message was quickly erased by someone who evidently thought that the real travesty was the graffiti.


This and that

We've noticed what we think is an interesting convergence of two groups which are each planning to descend upon the general area this Sunday, October 9.  One of the get-togethers is the monthly "meet and greet" at Tully's of the Seattle & Puget Sound Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) Group; and the other is the Meditative Tree Walk for International Peace in the Arboretum of the Seattle Druid Meetup Group.

Seen on a bumpersticker on a truck parked in Madison Park:

Stop Organized Crime:  Don't Re-elect Anyone!


[Thanks to David Hutchins for the photo of the refurbished park benches in front of Bing's.]

Cafe Parco to debut in the fall

Italian cuisine returns to the local restaurant scene

As early as October, after some remodeling to the Madison Park Cafe space is completed, Seattle Chef Celinda Norton and family, who until last month operated 94 Stewart in the Pike Place Market, will be bringing their talents to Madison Park with a new incarnation:  Cafe Parco.

As we reported yesterday, Madison Park Cafe has been sold.  Today we can give you some of the details, thanks to MPC owner Karen Binder, who shared with us her email to her patrons about both the sale and the new owners' plans for the space.  She describes the transition to new ownership as "good fortune," noting that Norton "has all the qualities of the person I was hoping to leave my legacy to:  a smart, quirky, strong, talented, capable woman chef."

Just last month, the Nortons sold 94 Stewart, confiding on the restaurant's website that "we are already working on our new adventure."  Now we know, at least in general terms, just what (and where) that adventure will be.  According to Binder, Cafe Parco will be serving Italian cuisine seven days a week, both lunch and dinner, with brunches on the weekends.  94 Stewart was known for its Fried Avocado, once chosen as a "Best Bite" by The Seattle Times. We understand it won't be one of the selections at the new place, however.  The Nortons (including Celinda's son Nic and daughter Lindsey) are planning "something new and different" in this new venue. Just what the menu will be is something we intend to ferret out in coming weeks.

Binder, meanwhile, will not be exiting from the Seattle culinary scene. She says she intends to continue both her catering and wine-selling businesses (madisonparkcafe@aol.com).  She'll be back in action after a several-week sojourn in Hawaii for the birth of a grandchild.  In the meantime, however, she is not taking a page out of the Sostanza exit strategy (sell the place and get out of town by morning).  She will be on board with the Madison Park Cafe through brunch on August 29, she says, "So, come on in for a swan song meal and say goodbye to the old joint!"


[Photo of Celinda Norton by Cris Bisch on SustainLane.]