While the Charlestown Street Cafe's regular Saturday crowd of hungry seniors and tot-toting parents were nibbling fruit salad, slicing omelets, and sipping iced tea and coffee, about two dozen others were marching along the sidewalk in front, picketing to keep its doors open.

Those picketers, plus some six thousand cafe customers who have so far signed a petition, want to block the proposed sale of the property to Petco. They object to the presence of an austere building, and national chain, that, with parking, will gobble up 31,000 square feet of their neighborhood.

They held up signs reading "Save Our Mickey Mouse Pancakes," "West Seattle Deserves Better," and "People, Not Gerbils," referring to Petco catering, literally to critters instead of the cafe catering to humans. Onlookers cruising California Avenue honked and waved in support.

Protest organizers, Kirsten Whittemore, and Mark Wainwright, and restaurant owner, Larry Mellum, claim the current landlord, Tom Strickland, of Rainier Property Management in Everett, has refused to return their calls.

"We want to get the attention of the land owner to come to the table with community members," said Wainwright, a West Seattle resident who could not attend the protest. "Our only goal is to get started with a good conversation and that hasn't happened yet. We love the cafe, and want them to consider options that include the cafe in their plans."

Wainwright, a professional architect with a Seattle-based design firm, feels the current Petco plan clashes with the locally run business aesthetic.

"Strickland's property doesn't exist on an island," he said. "His property is worthwhile because of what's around it. Petco, or any other big-box store, doesn't fit here."

Whittemore, a forth-generation West Seattle resident, lives two blocks from the cafe, and was on hand supervising the marchers. She shares Wainwright's sensibilities on the project.

"We want any new development to be in the spirit of West Seattle, a gathering place conducive to the small town cozy feel of West Seattle, not the 14,000 cement block building proposed," she said. "If we make enough noise we'll have a say so that what happens here would be good for us, for the community."

Mellum has owned the Charlestown Street Cafe with partner, Ron Hanlon, for 17 years. At one point a protester handed him a sign that read "Just Say No To Big Box Retail." He says he is moved by the support of his customers and other neighbors protesting the new proposed development.

"It's deeply humbling, seeing such community support," he said. "Having a big retail store in this corner doesn't make sense. We serve about 3,500 people a week. A lot are seniors, and some dine here three times a day, seven days a week. It is easy for them to access parking, and to get in and out. If we go, there isn't anything left.

"The landlord has been a bit quiet at his end," said Mellum. "He wants to make money and I understand that. But there are other ways to skin a cat, other opportunities like a combined project including this restaurant, condominiums, and small retail. The landlord would still make all the money he wants."

George Povick, 81, and his wife, Carol, 77, were eating lunch at the cafe during the protest. They say they eat there twice a day, four times a week. They used to drive to the restaurant from their home in Mt. Baker. They sold it a year and a half ago, and have an apartment at the Alaska Junction.

"I don't cook much anymore," said Carol, who thinks the prawns are the best thing on the menu.

George disagrees.

"I like the grilled chicken burger with curly fries."

They met when she was sixteen, working at the "Snowflake Ice Creamery," on Bailey Street, in Georgetown, and have been married for 59 years.

"This is our home away from home," he said. "I don't know where we'll eat if they close." He turned to Carol and said, "You'll have to take cooking lessons."

Meanwhile, Mellum is running his restaurant in limbo. His long-term lease ran out the first of the year. He now rents month-to-month, and awaits the next preliminary planning department meeting, currently unscheduled. The last one, in January, recommended the landowners come back with a new plan.

"I think that we would try to find another location if forced out of here," said Mellum. "The problem is finding what we have here elsewhere in West Seattle. I've looked but I don't see it anywhere. It's a little difficult to own a restaurant called the 'Charlestown Street Cafe' on a different street corner."

Steve Shay may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com