Meet Julie DiPietro

I was walking down 152nd the other day and I noticed a gold-lettered sign in a window I had never noticed before.

It read "Studio 152nd." Nothing else.

I was mystified. Just a number. I had no idea what would happen if I opened the door and walked in.

It took courage but I adjusted my bulletproof vest, thrust my chin out and bravely entered.

There was only a young lady seated like she was waiting and I was about to ask her what goes on here like a cop would, but then I noted another young lady in the adjoining room, wearing an apron and painting the head of another young lady seated in a big chair.

I was mystified, so I used my best imitation detective voice and asked the dark-haired painter lady what is happening here and why is she painting the other lady's head?

She laughed and said, as she dipped her paintbrush into a container of brownish liquid, that she was a beauty operator and the paint was not paint, but brown hair coloring.

She said her name is Julie DiPietro, and the shop is owned by Tricia Lerwick.

I had briefly been in beauty shops before when I dropped Elsbeth off, so I felt like a cat in a dog pound but I was curious.

How come it had no real name? Just the name of the street. How did women find it? How did men find it to pick up their wives?

"Oh, it's easy. It is next door to what's his name?-- you know-Burien's attorney Doug Moreland and his name is on a sign. Right across from the new Burien Town Square under construction."

I happen to know Vic DiPietro and his brother Art. I played golf with Vic and they both are contractors. Luigi is her father-in law and her husband is Michael, a Kennedy High grad.

Her dad is Tom Manola, Highline High teacher; her mother-in-law is Josephine Vacca.

Tom started the annual fishing derby at Three Tree Point. Her grandfather Joe, a barber, now deceased sponsored the derby for years and would likely be proud if he knew she is also a hair stylist.

Julie went to Highline High and was a champion soccer player. I wondered if she knew Lynda Isernio, a Highline grad who was a track star and set a state record in the high hurdles that still stands.

Lynda manages the Burien branch of Sterling bank, about a block away across the street.

I was fascinated as she quickly changed her patron's hair color. So now I know how they do it. I could do that.

Then I asked if her boss Tricia was in?

"No, not at the moment. Here is her card. You can call her at home, or just drop in later."

I will do that.

If I can find this place again.

Meet Mick Kelly's Corned Beef Lunch

I was so impressed with my lunch at Burien's popular Irish restaurant this week. Not only beautiful, but tender, tasty and thrifty.

My Irish heart pounded wildly when the waitress brought it to the table. My great grandfather was a wine merchant in County Galway and my grandfather sailed to Toronto in 1865 to escape one of the many potato famines in County Antrim.

He was 21 and took up farming on a five-acre parcel of a Canadian land grant and he also opened a general store and fathered 12 kids and built a small hotel.

But I doubt if his wife ever put a plate like this before him.

She most likely did not have time.