This is a week of extraordinary synchronicity on Queen Anne.
On Saturday, Pat Sobeck, longtime executive director of the Queen Anne Helpline, will preside over her last Crown of Queen Anne Fun Run & Walk before retiring July 31. And, this evening, July 11, Metropolitan Market, will shutter its upper Queen Anne location.
The two occurrences have more than a passing relationship.
First, full disclosure: Metropolitan Market and its progenitor, Queen Anne Thriftway, have been longtime advertisers of the Queen Anne News. We maintain a separation between news and advertising — professional ethics demand it, readers expect it. We’d like to think what follows would have been written the same way if Metropolitan Market were not an advertiser; the fact that they are, however, speaks volumes about the company’s commitment to community.
And commitment to community has characterized the Queen Anne Thriftway-Metropolitan Market tenure on upper Queen Anne. Queen Anne Thriftway owner Dick Rhodes, who died in 2003, was the driving force behind the founding of the Queen Anne Helpline. He was also instrumental in hiring Pat Sobeck to run the Helpline in the early 1980s.
Queen Anne Thriftway-Metropolitan Market, over the years, has devoted personnel and resources to numerous community causes beyond the Helpline; in fact, Metropolitan Market is a major supporter of the Queen Anne Farmers Market.
It has been far more than a high-end food store where couples first met in the wine section, though that’s part of the lore. More to the point, the place had character, and characters, including Chef Jacque and Scott Craig in the food kiosk. Craig, who served as master of ceremonies at the Fun Run for several years, was last seen headed for Mexico on his nudist Buddhist motorcycle tour and, like Ambrose Bierce, hasn’t reported back since. And Rick Cavanaugh, the know-it-all fish guy of Copper River salmon fame, really knew it all. Contemporary kiosk chef Amy Pinkis is famous for remembering hundreds of her customers by name when she cooks in several of the Met Market stores.
Meanwhile, the heart of the Hill, the Queen Anne Helpline, beat on.
Peter Maurin, who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement with Dorothy Day, wrote of the necessity of making a world where it is easier for people to be good. Beyond those the Helpline has helped, under Sobeck’s direction the Helpline has come to be a place that called out the better angels of human nature; it has created a connection for others who want to get involved in their community, who want to give back to others.
This is no small legacy.
A search committee is charged with finding Sobeck’s successor. And, of course, Metropolitan Market, at the foot of the hill, is still very much a part of the Queen Anne community.
But an era has passed.
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