Plaka Estiatorio restaurant opens

Ballard’s newest restaurant, Plaka Estiatorio held its grand opening to a packed house on Wednesday night. As you may surmise from the name, this is a Greek restaurant (“Plaka” is …

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Ballard man charged with kidnapping

King County Prosecutors filed a second-degree kidnapping charge today, the Seattle Times reports, against a man who lives at a senior apartment complex in Ballard. According to the SeattlePI.com, Robert …

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McPhee’s prepares to move a bazillion things

For 10 years, Ballard residents have been able to stroll down to Market Street and buy everything from a giant shrunken head for $250 to hundreds of tiny treasures for $19.95 a quart at Archie McPhee’s, the wonderfully wacky, tacky store that caters to our inner child.

But, they lost their lease, so McPhee’s is packing up and heading to Wallingford, and they’re saying goodbye to some of the store’s larger fixtures that just won’t fit in the new space. Shelving, racks, an old dentist’s chair, a life-size medieval archer and a custom-built pop-up cake that did a booming business as a rental – all are for sale.

“Usually it’s a hairy man in a coconut bra jumping out of the cake,” Shana, the store manager, explains of the cake that’s now for sale for $1,500. “It’s usually more funny than saucy.”

So, once the big items are sold, how in the world will Shana and her crew pack up the estimated 10,000 different items for the 2.4-mile move to the corner of 45th and Stone Way?