Zaw Pizza, the fancy take-and-bake pizza chain, is coming to Mercer Island. Have never tried it myself, though I’ve heard it’s good– and Sahara Pizza could use some competition.
Here’s their planned location at Tabit Square:
Thanks to hot tipper Bill, who always has the scoop on downtown.
… to dinner. That’s right, the new deli on the Island is now open for dinner and has been for about a week. They announced this a few weeks back:
I stopped in (not at dinnertime) to see how it was going. The hostess said they’ve had pretty good traffic, and they also have their liquor license now so they have a wine list. The dinner menu looks good, if fully priced:
Stopsky’s also joins Bennett’s, Cellar 46, and the Roanoke as a good place to be found between 4 and 6 pm. At Stopsky’s, that Nosh Hour:
If you’ve been by for dinner, leave a comment and let us know how it is. I’m sure we’ll make it there sooner or later.
UPDATE: According to their Facebook page, Stopsky’s is now closed until Monday.
Stopsky’s opening has been quite an event. The new deli ran out of food on its opening weekend, then recovered only to face an electrical fire last weekend which has it closed until Friday at 7 am.
Stopsky’s: Now open for business, but not always accepting customers.
The reviews on Yelp suggest some opening glitches like slow food and shortages of rye bread… I suspect the pro crew at Stopsky’s will get these worked out. The couple of Yelpers who focused on the food had great things to say.
They’ve also gotten some good reviews. We’ve been in for bagels so far, which were excellent but also delivered a more slowly than we would have expected. But hey, Noah’s has been in business for years and they’re even slower. Stopsky’s at least has a shot at a decent learning curve.
The website said the deli will open in the spring, so we’ve got less than two months to wait for (hopefully) tasty bagels while we browse Island Books.
Another hot tip on downtown businesses from Bill: Freshy’s finished their fish & chips take out counter.
I stopped in to Freshy’s to get more info and they confirmed that they intend to sell fried, delicious goodness for carry-out. They’re hoping to open at the beginning of May.
Noah’s Bagels, which serves as a local deli and the employer of what seems to be half of MIHS, has some competition coming.
Stopsky’s Deli says it “will celebrate and serve Jewish dishes from around the world.” It’s not pulling any punches, with a head chef from Crave in Capitol Hill and a bakery master Chef from the Columbia City bakery. It just got noted in Seattle Weekly, which doesn’t happen all that often for MI businesses.
Looks like they’ll be right by Island Books. The combination bookstore-deli could be a downtown powerhouse. With the park and farmer’s market nearby this could finally give downtown a much-needed nexus.
The website says it’s opening Spring 2011– that’s now! They’ve already been active around town, donating at the most recent Giving from the Heart breakfast to benefit Mercer Island Youth & Family Services. And the Facebook page has 226 likes– that’s more friends than I have, and I already exist. There’s also a lively discussion ongoing, mostly on the subject of delicious bread.
What they have to say for themselves:
A strong creative team has come together to reinvent Jewish delicatessen in the Pacific Northwest. Overseeing the kitchen and front-of-house is Robin Leventhal. Robin was the owner/chef of the acclaimed Crave Restaurant on Capitol Hill, and was a cheftestant on Season 6-Las Vegas of Top Chef as well as a chef instructor at New England Culinary Institute. Andrew Meltzer, aka “the bread maven,” will oversee the bakery. Andrew co-founded the Columbia City Bakery where he cemented his reputation as a master of a variety of breads and other baked items. He taught at the Culinary Institute of America and is a master at braiding challah.
Owners Jeff and Lara Sanderson decided to open Stopsky’s Delicatessen to celebrate family, heritage and community through food. In a return to his roots, Jeff named the restaurant in honor of his grandfather and great uncles. In 1905, Gilbert Stopsky and his three brothers arrived in America from a Jewish village outside Kiev, Ukraine. Wanting to assimilate to pursue the “American Dream,” they changed their name to Sanderson. Stopsky’s Delicatessen celebrates the Stopsky family’s journey in America and reclaims the name with pride in this history and traditions behind it.
Another interesting fact: it’s backed by Sanderson Ventures, a new venture that looks for return in business that benefit their community and are good place to work. The founders are Jeff and Lara Sanderson, and Jeff’s an ex-Microsoftie.
Finally, Mercer Island gets its badly-needed bakery. Can’t wait to try it.
Some interesting news from the mail. First, a Halloween update:
There were pumpkins. Photo: Armadilo60 on Flickr.
Don’t know how new this is, but it’s new to me: MISD has a blog called Spotlight on MISD. Nice blog, and a great way get to know district teachers and staff.
Thanks to Dave for this tip: “A new restaurant just opened up where the “Lil Tokyo” used to be, next to Alpenland. The new place is also Japanese, but higher class than the teriyaki joint that was there before. It’s either incredibly brave or crazy to open a restaurant in this economy. Since islanders universally ask for more restaurants, it would be nice to support this new addition to our community. We stumbled upon it Monday, the day it opened, and our dinners were great!
The Pacific Northwest Ballet writes to say that six Island kids are performing in the Nutcracker this year. Congratulations to Jessica Li, Devon Munoz, Ana Ko Glass, Elisabeth Malanga, Jenna Permut, and Stevie Reiff. The show runs from November 27 to December 30– see the schedule for times & tickets.
Pacific Northwest Ballet School students and Company dancers in the Kent Stowell/Maurice Sendak Nutcracker. Photo © Angela Sterling.
According to King County, about 26% of Mercer Island has voted already. For the other 74%, here’s a reminder to mail your ballots today or tomorrow. If you need a cheat sheet on local races, check out
And there are two important initiatives on the ballot:
Updates from the great nearby. From the West:
Capitol Hill Seattle provides a great summary of the rumors surrounding Elliott Bay Book’s possible move to Capitol Hill from Pioneer square.
The Rainier Valley Post has a heads-up on the Seattle Bookfest is this weekend in Columbia City. There will be author readings, a Childrens’ Stage, and panels and workshops. Looks like literary hilarity. Saturday & Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm.
Publicola’s election picks are out. Here’s the cheat sheet. They’ve got good analysis, so click in to read more if you’re interested. Headlines: they like Dow Constantine for King County Exec, Rosenberger for Assessor, and McGinn for (Seattle) mayor.
From the East:
Kirkland Weblog reports on the “bin on the lake,” which took over space from the now-defunct Yarrow Bay Grill.
Downtown Bellevue Network, who is hipper than we are, reports on three trendy new restaurants opening in Bellevue: Purple Cafe, Trophy Cupcakes, and earl’s.
And in all-over news, the Seattle Times writes that King Co. Exec Candidate Susan Hutchinson now supports Light Rail over 520, not I-90, proving yet again that the Puget Sound region is not one short on proposals for transportation. Short on actual transportation we may be, but we’re not short on proposals. East Link Light Rail over I-90 is baked though it will still take years to implement. So let’s stop reworking proposals in the middle of construction, and get us some transportation.
Let’s just build it, already.
The construction on North Island is finally finishing up, opening up some new retail space.
Which begs the question: what should go in there? My top ideas are
What we have so far is a new bank:
Useful but not high on the exciting-meter.
Leave a comment– what stores do you want to see in North Island?
Mercer Island resident Hannah Wood has just been selected as one of two new Youth Writers-in-Residence at Seattle’s Hugo House. If you’re not familiar with it, Hugo House is a well-respected center supporting writing and the literary arts. It’s a big honor to be named a writer-in-residence. Congratulations Hannah!
Folks, there is a lot going on around here. Get your calenders out, Mercer Island. It’s time to “summer.”
Notice Earthcorps lurking to the left, plotting good works for the summer.
This first garage sale is out of the ordinary because it’s the whole Island. Theoretically, at least. It’s at the MICC the Saturday.
And this garage sale is not ordinary because it’s cryptic message seems to be targeted to reach some character in The DaVinci Code. I can only guess that this sign does advertise a garage sale, perhaps at 4123 94th Ave, but you’ll have to break the code to figure out when.
Affordable Seattle writes of a fishing workshop on Mercer Island from 1 to 3 pm on June 20. Crosscut noted last week that Lake Washington around Mercer Island is actually underfished, so get out there and catch some.
At Youth Theater Northwest, til Saturday.
CultureMob alerts us to a Cheese Tasting at Bennett’s on June 24th. It’s a Cheese 101 highlighting Beecher’s cheeses, which Bennett’s uses to great effect in several dishes including their killer tomato soup. $50 (the class, not the soup) at 6:30 pm.
And in only-tangentially-related food news, a fun note: Starbucks’ new CIO worked a day at the Mercer Island ‘Bucks in November (North Island). Anyone notice or recognize him?
And finally, it’s June: the month where the Mercer Island Farmers Market finally re-opens. For those of you who have been jealously gazing at various farmers’ markets from Capitol Hill to Bellevue, like I have, our late bloomer will be here next weekend.
Posted in Mercer Island Bulletin Board
Tagged bulletin-board, farmers-market, restaurants
