Beachside Cafe owner John Bang double checks the new menus created by well known West Seattle chalk artist John Rozich for the newly revitalized restaurant at 2738 Alki Ave. s.w.
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The Beachside Cafe at Alki opens today and owners Sharon and John Bang are excited about the improvements and changes they are bringing to the former Alki Bakery space at 2738 Alki Avenue s.w.
As the West Seattle Herald was the first to tell you in December the former bakery tenants moved out suddenly, due to a failure to find suitable lease terms and their departure had serious business impacts on the Alki Cafe directly across the street.
That's when the Bang's initiated the process to re-open the business, but the process hasn't necessarily been easy. "When I took over I thought everything was in working order but I think the bakery knew they were closing so they kind of ran everything down to the ground. I had to replace a lot of the machines and fix a lot of things. The espresso machine and the Point of Sale system were so outdated (…) these are all brand new machines now."
The menu will be pretty different including the way the espresso is made. "Even though we use the same brand of coffee (Caffe Vita) they used a "super automatic" system but we actually have our own trained baristas who pull their own shots (…) We have a couple of the same food items but we'll have a lot of panini sandwiches. It will be different from across the street which is traditional sit down style dining, this is more fast paced."
50 to 60 people can be seated or served at the new location.
One new item is a kind of hand carried waffle called the Liege Waffle. "These are more of a 'Brioche style' waffle that you can eat in your hand, that's the beauty of it. It's got pearl sugar inside the waffle so with every bite you should taste the sweetness," said Bang.
Another difference from the past is the non-fat frozen yogurt machine. Traditional tart and seasonal flavors will be available.
The new menus inside the cafe were done by well known local chalk artist John Rozich whose work is also on display at both locations of Uptown Espresso in West Seattle. Bang chose him because "He's local and he's good."
They will be open 7:00 am to 7:00 pm weekdays and 7:00 am to 8:00pm on weekends.
