My Ballard

Nana’s Soup House, a popular soup and sandwich joint in the U-District is packing up and moving to Fremont. The gal who answered the phone told us that the owner is closing the current location the end of August and hopes to open in Fremont by the middle of September. The new space is located just across the street from Taco Guaymas.

The neighborhood market at 70th St. and 8th Ave. is closing, and the store’s entire inventory is for sale.

The Wicker Basket’s last day is Tuesday, and an employee there told us that a restaurant is planning to replace it sometime soon. No word on what kind of restaurant, so stay tuned…. (Thanks David for the tip!)

The popular pizzeria Via Tribunali on Capitol Hill and Queen Anne will soon open a Fremont restaurant, according to a liquor license posted outside an empty space along Fremont Ave. N. at 43rd, right next to Cafe Vita. It will also be next door to Rialto, a new Italian restaurant.

Via Tribunali specializes in wood-fired, Neapolitan-style pizza. We’ve eaten at the Capitol Hill location a couple times, and the pizza is excellent.

Over the last few months, Ballard has been blessed with some terrific new neighborhood bars. First The Dray, then The Stepping Stone and now The Traveler on Leary near 8th Ave.

The European-style pub opened a few days ago, and we dropped in to take a look around and grab a drink at the bar.

It’s a great space — not too small, not too large — with wood, brick and art on the walls. The full bar features many specialty drinks, such as The Perfect Seattle (bourbon, Chartreuse and a twist of orange.) On the menu, you’ll find salads, two kinds of mussels, Belgian-style frites, bistro steak and sandwiches, including the tasty-looking Irish Interloper (corned beef and sauerkraut).

Owner Scott Laney told us The Traveler is a classic European pub — casual and “neighborhood” — which for some of us may be a welcome respite from the increasingly busy Ballard Ave. and Fremont scene.

Right next door, construction on Anita’s restaurant is coming along nicely, including heaters for outdoor seating. As we wrote back in May, it’s the creation of Anita Ross, the talented chef behind “Anita’s Crepes,” the very popular food stand at the Ballard Farmers Market.

Back in May, this was the scene at Malena’s Tacos on 56th Street:

This week, we stopped by the restaurant and took a peek inside.

Workers are making some real progress in restoring the restaurant after the fire. We called Malena’s Queen Anne location, and they said there’s no reopening date yet — but sometime in the next month or two.

We stopped by Paseo on its first day today to grab some Caribbean grub.

And look, there’s already a small line outside the sandwich shop. We had the #1 (pork sandwich) and the #3 (chicken breast sandwich) and they were very tasty. Just remember to bring cash, because Paseo doesn’t take plastic.

Yesterday: Paseo to open in Ballard on Tuesday

We’ve expanded our list of Ballard restaurants to include Gabriel’s Fire, Hamburger Harry’s, Austin Cantina, Taki’s Mad Greek, Golden City, Zak’s, Zesto’s Burgers and Scooter’s Burgers. (We’ll add bakeries and bars soon). We also added a list of the restaurants organized by category. If you’ve eaten at any of these establishments recently, feel free to rate and review them.

We saw on Ballard Gossip Girl as well as on our own Ballard Twitter page that Paseo plans to open tomorrow. Sure enough, we dropped by and talked to some folks who were working hard with last-minute preparations.

Paseo will open at 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow at Gordo’s old location along Seaview. The Cuban sandwich shop will feature the same tasty menu from its highly-praised Fremont location. How good is Paseo? They usually win every “best sandwich in Seattle” contest, and it’s not uncommon to see long lines outside their Fremont location at lunch.

Environmentally friendly Snoose Junction Pizza of Ballard, will soon open a second store on the far north end of Greenwood. If you’re not already familiar with them, Snoose Junction has gotten rave reviews for their finely crafted pizza, as well as their use of recycled building materials in their first restaurant and their delivery of food by bicycle.

(Photo of the Ballard restaurant). The new 45-seat restaurant near the southwest corner of Holman and Greenwood Avenue will open in September, according to General Manager Mark Ball. It will also include a full-service bar upstairs with seating for 40. They’re also opening a dispatch center, so both stores will use the same phone number, 789-2305.

Ball assures us they used recycled materials in this build as well, including bowling lanes from Sunset Bowl, flooring from Garfield High School, bleachers from Lincoln High School, and found doors and kitchen rails.

First Ocho, now Copper Gate is adding outdoor seating, reports Keith at the Ballardite Blog. He also lists other Ballard restaurants and bars with outdoor seating. As we posted before, the city has relaxed the permit process, so we should continue to see more sidewalk seating in the neighborhood.

Ballard’s newest hamburger joint, Hamburger Harry’s on Market near 24th Ave., just opened its doors on Monday.

We stopped in and grabbed a menu. Harry’s offers a full array of burgers, from the standard fare to the Deluxe Burger Ciabatta, Jalapeno Popper Burger and Beer Cheese Burger. There are also plenty of chicken sandwiches and salads. All the burgers come with bottomless fries, and many of the ingredients are local: the buns are baked right down the street at Larson’s Bakery.

There’s also a full bar. If you eat here, please let us know what you think in comments below. (Thanks GB for letting us know it’s now open!)

With the Floating Leaves Teahouse moving down the street from its current location on 2213 Market St., a new restaurant and bar called “Root Table” has applied for a liquor license at the same location. That’s all the details we have, and we’ll post more as we learn more. (Thanks Gooner for the tip!)