Current owners and new ones are making changes and starting new businesses, taking advantage of low interest rates and available space.
In Magnolia, dentist D. Kent Moberly moved from 2450 33rd Ave. W. to just a block away at 3300 W. McGraw St., Suite #240 at 33rd Ave. W. Within walking distance from the dentist office at 3216 W. Wheeler Street is the new Wheeler Street Kitchen owned by Carrie and Greg Campbell.
The couple were high-school sweethearts at Garfield High School and have been married now for 19 years. Her parents are from Magnolia and their son Josh is an eighth grader and daughter Gaby a sixth grader at Catharine Blaine K-8 - just a block from the restaurant. The couple have lived around the country but have been in Magnolia for the last 12 years.
In the month that the restaurant has been open, the couple has worked as a team to manage-Carrie up front and Greg in the kitchen. So far, the hot seller has been the slow-cooked beef brisket and, with the blustery weather outside, the tomato soup.
"I've always liked things simple," Greg said of the ingredients in the dishes.
The dishes Greg has learned about at New York's Culinary Institute of America where he trained, and later Spago, the famed L.A. restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck, where he interned, were far from simple. It was the Spago experience that seemed to be the most lasting.
"I learned more at Spago in a few months than I did the entire term at cooking school," Greg said. "You learn how to work with people and how to focus on a lot of different things. You learn to keep pushing."
From Spago, Greg helped launch the Third Floor Fish Café in Kirkland, and now the Wheeler Street Kitchen. The desire to own a restaurant a little closer to home had always been in the works for the Campbells. They returned to Magnolia to start a family and the business was next. They worked with KeyBank and started the business. Greg is working on more prominent signage, but all the interior needs are in place.
"When we saw the space, we thought it was great with the high ceiling," Carrie said. They had been planning for five months and when they were ready to commit to a lease, the space was still available. "We did look around," she added, "but we're really happy to be in Magnolia."
Up the hill at 600 W. McGraw St. # 3, Salon Joseph, owned by Joseph Abolafia, enjoyed its 25th year. Abolafia has been designing new looks for 30 years. And over at 1805 Queen Anne Ave. N., Le Reve Bakery and Café opened up in the space formerly occupied by Urban Kids Play. The Parisian bakery will focus on seasonal fare and locally grown items. Down the street from the bakery at 1817 Queen Anne Ave. N., My Dressing Room, a women's consignment and resale shop has opened.
And the former Flow restaurant, that survived just a few months after it took over from Opal bistro at northeast corner of Boston Street and Queen Anne Avenue North will later this year become La Luna. And as reported last week, Umpqua Bank is moving into the former Blockbuster Video location at 1630 Queen Anne Ave. N.
Banks have been reticent to provide business loans after the financial collapse in 2008. Credit markets all but froze in October of 2008, which created cash flow problems for existing businesses and put budding businesses in a holding pattern. To help alleviate loan risk, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 17, 2009. This would mean the government would back business loans by as much as 90 percent. It would also reduce the fees on business capital purchases.
Then on Sept. 27, the president signed the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 that would provide an additional $505 million to the SBA to support $14 billion more in small business lending. According to SBA figures, since February of 2009, the SBA has approved more than $24.8 billion in loans.[[In-content Ad]]
