Just one month after Nucleus hair salon shuttered its doors, a new business is opening up in the same Lower Queen Anne shopfront, and perhaps not surprisingly, it’s a restaurant. Mo’s Sub Co. will be “coming soon” to the space at 621 Queen Anne Ave N., according to the sign in the window, but beyond that little else is known.

There is currently no website or any online information for the business, and no permit applications have come through the city for that address. But whoever “Mo” is, we’re guessing he’s not from around here, considering the misspelling of Queen Anne (sans the last ‘e’) in the sign.

Still, in the current economy, where vacant storefronts have been sitting empty and idle for months at a time before a new retailer moves in (if ever – just look at both of Queen Anne’s former Blockbusters: the Upper location was left empty for almost two years before reopening as Umpqua Bank earlier this month, and the Lower QA location is still hollow from its March closure), it’s surprising to see a business closure turn around into a new opening so quickly. What do you think – is this a sign that things are looking up for Uptown’s business district?

Four months after Flame vacated its Queen Anne Ave N space and moved in with the neighboring Elliott Bay Pizza Co., a new restaurant is taking over its former space, replacing Flame’s burgers and BBQ offerings with Oaxacan cuisine.

We’ve been hearing rumors that a Oaxacan restaurant was planning to open in the space for some time now, but this month we got some definitive evidence–on June 14 the owners of “Mezcaleria Oaxaca” applied for a liquor license application at the former Flame space, at 2123 Queen Anne Ave N, to offer spirits, wine, and beer in the restaurant/lounge.

One reader, Jenny, thinks the new restaurant might be a second location for popular Ballard spot La Carta de Oaxaca.

“I noticed that there is a liquor license application on the door with the name “Oaxaca” on it.  I’m hoping the Ballard location is expanding because if it is, we’ll finally have a decent Mexican place on the Ave,” she wrote.

The new restaurant will join the handful of other distinctly different Mexican restaurants at the top of the hill, including the relatively new La Luna, which opened up at Queen Anne Ave N and Boston back in April, Tenoch Mexican Grill, which opened in Vincenzo’s former corner spot on Queen Anne Ave N and W McGraw in April 2010, and Malena’s Taco Shop, a longtime popular neighborhood spot at W McGraw Street and 7th Ave W.

I’m currently waiting on a call back from La Carta de Oaxaca’s manager to find out if this restaurant is in fact expanding to Queen Anne. I will update this story as to whether or not this new eatery will be a new location for a local chain, or a brand new Oaxacan place under different ownership, as soon as I know more.

* Thanks to Jenny for the tip!

Queen Anne pet boutique Mes Amis will be closing its doors this Sunday, June 5, to make way for the shop’s transformation into Molly Moon’s newest ice cream outpost.

The local ice cream chain first announced plans to open a new shop in Queen Anne back in March, after pitting several neighborhoods against each other in a social media competition to see which ‘hood could drum up the most support to bring a the ice cream shop to their community.

In April Molly Moon’s announced that it had signed a lease to open its new location in the shop space at 321 W. Galer St., where Mes Amis is currently located. This came as abrupt news to Mes Amis owner and Queen Anne resident Nicole Ryan, whose 5-year lease was scheduled to end on August 31. “As my landlord was unwilling to negotiate the monthly rent, which has increased every year, I was faced with the decision to move the business, sell it, or simply close,” she told Queen Anne View, adding that she was not aware of Molly Moon’s plans to open a new shop in that space this summer until well after the fact. Ryan said she ultimately opted to close the shop rather than move it out of the neighborhood, but at the time was not sure exactly when the store’s final days would be.

This week Ryan reached an agreement with Molly Moon’s over the remainder of her lease and final move out day, and as per the terms Ryan agreed to close the shop early. Molly Moon’s plans to begin construction on the new store as early as next week, in the hopes of opening in time for Labor Day.

“It has all happened really fast,” Ryan said, adding that she’s concerned the quick closure will mean a missed opportunity to say goodbye to many of her longtime customers and neighbors. “I have sent thank you notes out to customers, but nothing can really express how thankful I am to all of them. These people—my neighbors—and their pets changed my life for the better, allowed me to slow down and pay attention to what is really important in life. Accepting the closure has still not really gotten any easier, the whole process is very difficult because of the connections I have made. I hope to still see everyone out and about in the neighborhood.”

Mes Amis will be having a big closing sale starting today, Friday, June 3 through its final day on Sunday, with discounts from 15 to 70 percent off, according to Ryan. Ryan says she will also be in the store all weekend leading up to closing, welcoming neighbors and their furry friends to stop by and say goodbye. A portion of the proceeds from Mes Amis’ sales this weekend will be donated to the Seattle Animal Shelter.

A new business is opening up on Queen Anne Ave N, in the former Oslo’s storefront, which closed its doors back in March–the Jamie O’Neill Salon.

There is no website for the business as of yet, but according to its Facebook page, the salon will specialize in cuts and color for men and women, as well as styles for special occasions such as weddings and print media.

There’s no word yet on when the salon will be opening, but I’ve put in a word to the owner and will update this story as soon as I hear back. In the meantime, follow updates on the salon’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

The space at 2 Boston Street has gone through quite a few incarnations over the last couple of years–from Opal, to Opal Bistro, to Flow Lounge. After the short-lived Flow closed its doors back in November, we wrote that the restaurant would transform once again, this time under new ownership, into La Luna.

La Luna‘s manager Tony Lopez describes the cuisine as “inspired Mexican food,” or Mexican fusion on the finer side.

The restaurant, which is open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch and happy hour, opened on Friday, April 15, and so far the response has been fantastic.

“Reception has been great so far,” Lopez said. “We’ve had tons of neighborhood people coming in.”

While the inside of the restaurant hasn’t changed much, La Luna did add a few flat screen TVs and a number of ‘fire tables’ (yes, you read that right) for festive indoor and outdoor seating.

La Luna is open from 7:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. and most items range from $6 to $12 in price. Currently there are two happy hour times, though Lopez says these may change as the restaurant settles into a regular schedule. For the time being patrons can get $1 off well drinks and the bar menu from 5 to 6 p.m. daily, and $2 off from 3 to 5 p.m.

To find out more about La Luna, check out their website, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

Back in March we first got word that Cafe Bonjour would be consolidating its Queen Anne location with its Green Lake location, and moving out of its Queen Anne Avenue home to make way for a new eatery–Cafe de Lion.

The “luxury pastry boutique” celebrated its soft opening on Sunday, April 10, the 4th birthday of owners Daisuke and Tomoyo Miura’s son Lion, after whom the shop is named.

While visiting Seattle on business trip last summer, Daisuke and Tomoyo fell in love with the area, and an idea for a brand new business. They quickly wrapped up loose ends and made plans to move from San Diego to the Pacific Northwest, deciding to both live and open their new business here in Queen Anne.

“The town is really compact and the city has that European style,” Daisuke said. “When we came is was summer time, so we didn’t know it rains this much.”

Still, rain or not, for Tomoyo Seattle was the ideal place to open a French pastry cafe with a unique twist – one that combines traditional French pastries with flavors and seasonings inspired by the couple’s Japanese heritage. And so the concept behind Cafe de Lion was born.

Tomoyo, who studied French pastry making while living in France, started creating delectable sweets for special orders and catered events back in 2007, around the time Lion was born. At the time she was inspired to make sweets that were healthy for Lion to eat, and her recipes blossomed from there.

Everything on the menu – from the pastries, to the sandwiches, quiche, macaroons, chocolates, jams (fruit combinations mixed with milk caramel, vanilla or chocolate), gummy sweets, and coffee – is made from all natural ingredients, and organic when available. And despite the deceptively bright colors of some of the treats, Tomoyo says there is no food coloring in her pastries. Instead she artistically colors her creations with natural strawberry, raspberry and blueberry powders.

And while there’s no shortage of caffeine options in Seattle, or here on the hill for that matter, Cafe de Lion has an interesting take on coffee as well. In addition to offering a variety of coffee and tea drinks, the shop also makes what Daisuke referred to as traditional Japanese iced coffee, which requires overnight preparation, each concentrated drop slowly making its way through an elaborate brewing contraption over the course of an eight hour period.

“Japanese coffee houses, they all have this,” he said. “I wanted to bring that Japanese style to Seattle, the coffee town.”

Though Cafe de Lion’s website won’t have the menu listed for a few weeks, you can check out some of the sweet treats from the case on the cafe’s Facebook page. (Follow them on Twitter here).

In the meantime, Daisuke and Tomoyo say they are excited to become part of the neighborhood, as residents and business owners. And the reception so far has been wonderful.

“This is just a start for us. We want to be loved by the neighborhood,” Daisuke said. “Our goal is to be just like a neighbor–somebody in the corner house cooked something really good and wants to share it with the neighbors.”

Molly Moon’s new ice cream shop will be located at 321 W. Galer St., Molly Moon’s publicist Jennifer Carroll told QueenAnneView Wednesday.

The lease for the address, currently occupied by Mes Amis pet boutique, was signed on Tuesday, according to Carroll. The doors are slated to open later this summer, but the official opening date has yet to be decided, Carroll said.

Molly Moon’s, with shops in Wallingford and Capitol Hill, held a contest between Madrona, Ballard and Queen Anne from December through February to decide where it would open its doors next. The local ice creamery ultimately decided to open a full shop in Queen Anne, and a smaller “micro-shop” in Madrona.

We reached out to the owner of Mes Amis for comment and to find out if the store would be moving to a new location or closing, and if so, when, but have not yet heard back. We’ll keep you posted on this story as we find out more.

Update 4/15 2:30 p.m.: We contacted Mes Amis owner Nicole Ryan for a comment a few days ago. At the time we first published this post, she had not heard back from her landlord on the status of the lease agreement. Nicole wrote back to us this morning confirming that Mes Amis will in fact be closing, though a final date has not yet been determined.

“I have a 5 year lease that is ending on August 31^st.  As my landlord was unwilling to negotiate the monthly rent, which has increased every year, I was faced with the decision to move the business, sell it, or simply close. Since I opened, 6 other independent pet shops in Seattle have closed, so every neighborhood has had a rough go of it. And because we have lived in QA for 10 years, I really did not want to take the store into a different neighborhood. So, I recently made the extremely difficult decision to close,” Nicole wrote us.

Nicole says she was not aware of Molly Moon’s plans to move into her shop space until well after the fact. She only got confirmation about the deal on Wednesday of this week, after the new lease with Molly Moon’s was signed. Before that she had only heard rumors about the deal, and then came across this report.

Though Nicole is sad to bring Mes Amis to a close, she’s looking forward to focusing her attention on her two-year-old, and the corporate job she’s recently returned to. “However, there will be many, many tears when I finally do close up shop,” she wrote.

Mes Amis has the space through the end of August. Nicole says she’s been given the option to leave early, however she hasn’t yet decided if she wants to take or leave that offer.

“I am thrilled for the neighborhood, but I just wish things had been executed a different way. I was forced to tell my employees much earlier than I had planned on, and of course, once word gets out that a store is closing, business suffers greatly,” she wrote.

In the meantime Mes Amis is very much alive and well. There are no current plans to change anything about the store, its products, or hours.

Apparel and accessories boutique Peridot moved to its new home 532 Queen Anne Ave and opened six days earlier than expected this weekend.

The new space, the former home of Underdawg Records, is larger than the boutique’s previous shop just one block away on 1st Ave W, allowing Peridot to expand its stock to include more clothing designers, jewelry and shoes.

Find out more about the shop and its offerings at the Peridot website. More details on what you can find at the new space here.

Just down the block from the new Peridot, the Lower Queen Anne Blockbuster closed its doors for good this weekend.

Blockbuster first announced it would be closing the Lower Queen Anne store back in February, a year and a half after shuttering the Upper Queen Anne store. The store shut its doors for the final time on Sunday, after selling the majority of stock on clearance. The shop’s shelves were pretty bare on Saturday, with a handful titles interspersed here and there throughout the empty isles. Everything that wasn’t sold before closing was moved to another store, according to a Blockbuster employee. Still no work on what, if anything, will go into this storefront.

Neighborhood film buffs may want to head over to the Lower Queen Anne Blockbuster to stock up on movie titles before the store closes down for good.

The last Blockbuster in the neighborhood announced that it was following in the footsteps of its Upper Queen Anne counterpart and closing up shop just two weeks ago. Employees estimate that the store will shut its doors in about a month, on April 10.

Until then all of the store’s merchandise (including DVDs, games, posters, movie paraphernalia, etc.) is on sale at clearance prices. More information on the closure here.

Just two and a half months after opening a second location in Green Lake, the owners of Cafe Bonjour, located at 1629 Queen Anne Ave N, have sold the Queen Anne store and consolidated into the second location.

Bonjour owner Michelle Zhang says that the cafe finished moving out on March 1. However, rather than leaving another empty storefront on Queen Anne Avenue in its wake, Cafe Bonjour will soon be replaced by a new eatery, Cafe de Lion.

Zhang says it was struggle to manage both cafes, and she is happy to be passing the reigns along to a new owner with a fresh vision for the site.

“It is too much work to run two cafes, taking too much time out of my life. And the new owners walked in and think it is the perfect location and size for their concept,” Zhang wrote Queen Anne View. “I will really miss Queen Anne too, and all the great friends I had.”

Cafe Bonjour will continue to serve up its signature crepes and home made Hungarian goulash at its Green Lake location, located at 7119 Woodlawn Ave NE.

We’ve reached out to the new owners with Cafe de Lion, and will update you about what to expect from the new cafe (and when they plan to open) soon.

Menswear store Oslo’s is the latest retailer on the hill to shut its doors, closing up shop quietly over this past weekend.

The store, located at 1519 Queen Anne Ave N, already had paper in the windows when I swung by this morning. On Sunday Oslo’s owners posted the following message on the store’s Facebook page:

OSLO’s A Men’s Store has closed. Your ongoing support and patronage enriched our lives over the past 5 years.

The owners also published this video, a montage of memories from the store and the neighborhood over the last five years, inviting a flood of responses from neighbors and patrons who are sad to see the retailer go.

“I’m particularly saddened by Oslo’s because it had *such* great clothes; the staff was 100% super; John was a great neighborhood supporter with charity fund-raisers, silent auction items for schools, and on and on,” patron Bryan Rutberg wrote in to Queen Anne View.

Oslo’s will be holding a liquidation sale this Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6 beginning at 10 a.m. The store plans to sell everything, including its remaining inventory and fixtures and furniture from the store. Check the Oslo’s Facebook page for more information.

A new gift store and gallery Charley+May Co. is moving into the old Hilltop Yarn spot, at 2225 Queen Anne Ave N.

There isn’t much information available yet about the new store–there’s no website up, an attempt to reach the new owners has gone unanswered so far, and there’s little more than an electrical permit application that has gone through the city permitting department. Still, there’s been quite a commotion at the new store, which has had papered-over windows for the last week and a half, while opening preparations are being made.

So far all we know is that the business’s tag-line is “Form. Function. Fun.” and the that the messaging on the window advertises it as a gift shop and gallery “celebrating good design.”

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more about this new business and when it might be opening.

After Abraxus Books announced it would be closing just 20 months after moving to Lower Queen Anne from Ballard, its home for seven years, neighboring store Mother Nature’s has said that it too is closing its doors this month.

Mother Nature’s, a natural health store that has been a staple of Lower Queen Anne retailers for 35 years, is closing up shop at the end of the month, according to owner Stephanie Gilbert.

This drawing was created by Mother Nature’s employee Sara Spidell, depicting Sara, Stephanie and Elaine (Stephanie’s mom and prior owner). The date is inaccurate, according to Gilbert, who says the store has been open since 1974.

The store, which has been in Gilbert’s family since the ’70s, has seen declining business for some time now, she says.

“I grew up in the store—since I was 12 I’ve worked here. In the ’80s and ’90s it was a rocking store. We’d get 160 people in the store a day. Now we get 60 people a day,” she said. “Business has been pretty crappy, to be frank, for the past couple years… it’s just hard to be an independent retailer in the city. If we were in Cle Elum, we would probably be fine.”

Though the mixed-use development planned for 100 Republican Street spurred the decision to close, Gilbert says the saturation of the market (with customers coming into the store, finding what they want, and then buying it from larger suppliers who can offer cheaper prices like Costco, Super Supplements, or online) has ultimately led to the store’s choice to close down, rather than relocate.

“It really bums me out that people don’t make a conscious effort to shop local,” Gilbert said. “It’s destroying our communities.”

The property owners of the building that houses Abraxus and Mother Nature’s, the Burkheimer Family LLC, plan to turn the Seattle Center and KeyArena-adjacent site into a residential/retail mixed-use development that will span from the current storefronts to the edge of the empty lot at 100 Republican.

The six-story building will house 275 units–studios, 1-2 bedrooms and 10 town homes–parking, 17,725 square feet of street level retail space, two rooftop courtyards, and a 2,000 square-foot outdoor plaza on Republican that will serve as an entrance to the building. After a series of public hearings on the project, developers have been given the go-ahead to move forward with the project. Developers expect to complete the project in 2012.

While the new development will house ground-level retail, Gilbert says the rent would have been too high for Mother Nature’s to re-open in the new building. But despite the fact that Abraxus and Mother Nature’s will be closing to make way for the development, many in the community support the project. In a negotiation with the city to allow the development to use part of the alleyway bounded by Mercer Street, Republican Street, 1st Avenue N and Warren Avenue N, developers added plans for a public plaza (equipped with a rain garden) to the plan.

On top of that, Uptown Alliance co-chair John Coney shared his support of this proposal with City Council’s Transportation Committee this past fall, noting that he believed the project would revitalize a “dead block” in the neighborhood.

“It’s an important redevelopment on what is now a substantially dead block of Republican,”  he said.  “It is going to bring housing onto Warren Avenue North.  We believe that is important because that is another dead block in an urban center.”

For the time being, Mother Nature’s and Abraxus are making preparations for closing.

Gilbert says her lease is up on the 28th. She plans to keep the store open until just a few days before then (though no final date has been set yet), to clear out its current stock and say goodbye to longtime customers. Everything in the store is currently 30 percent off. Gilbert says discounts could go as high as 75 percent as the end of the month nears.

Abraxus will be closing in just a few days, on Saturday, February 12. “Our building is being torn down and we’re calling it a day on this chapter,” the owners Carol and  Tony wrote on the store’s Facebook page. The last month since announcing plans to close has been a “pretty emotional time” for them, Carol wrote to us.

Everything in the store is being sold at 50 percent off, and bookshelves and other fixtures are also up for sale. The store will be open from 12 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on its last day Saturday.

Abraxus Books at 524 1st Ave. N. in Lower Queen Anne is due to close. The bookstore opened at the current location in June of 2009, transferring from Ballard where they operated for seven years.

The store is holding a  50 percent off sale for all their used books.

Photo taken from Abraxus’s Facebook page.

Owner declined to comment about the closing and the closing date, but we will update you when we have more information.

Update 1/19 9:30 a.m.: After hearing the news yesterday we reached out to local literary rock star and Library Journal 2011 Librarian of the Year Nancy Pearl (who is a fan of Abraxus Books on Facebook) for comment. “The closure of any independent bookstore – new or used – is a sad event for the reading community,” she wrote to us this morning.

Umpqua Bank is opening up a new location at the old Blockbuster building, at 1630 Queen Anne Ave N, which has been empty for over a year since the movie rental chain vacated its branch at the top of the hill.

After hearing rumors circulating that Umpqua would be opening up a new branch in Upper Queen Anne (calls and emails to Umpqua representatives over the past few months all went unanswered), we can now confirm that the bank is in fact moving into the former Blockbuster location. In December the bank applied for a construction permit with the Department of Planning and Development to make some minor changes to the retail building, which will also house offices under its new tenancy. Construction began this month.

The bank has not yet announced when it plans to open its new Queen Anne branch. We’ll keep you posted as we hear more. Currently the closest Upmqua outpost to Queen Anne is in South Lake Union, at 315 Westlake Avenue.

Thanks for reader Lincoln for the DPD tip!

While the weekend was full of Halloween festivities, two local business silently closed up shop for good on Friday. Underdawg Records in Lower Queen Anne announced it would be closing last month, shuttering its doors this past weekend.

(Thanks to reader Jai Schellhammer for the picture!)

No word yet on what will be going into its space at 532 Queen Anne Ave. We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.

While Underdawg was ushering in its last few customers on Friday, another business—this one at the top of the hill—also said goodbye.

Flow Restaurant and Lounge, which opened up at the corner of Boston Street and Queen Anne Ave N back in February, also closed on Friday night. Flow was the latest venture from owner of Orrapin Thai Cuisine next door, and the former restaurant at this location, Opal Bistro.

One of our readers heard rumors that the location will be transformed into a Mexican restaurant. Blake wrote us last week,

We were at Flow until around 10 last night and we started talking to the waiter who mentioned that this Friday was their last night in business…. I guess the owners are closing up shop and a new “high-end” mexican restaurant / lounge is moving in.

Underdawg Records, located at 532 Queen Anne Ave, is closing up shop soon. There’s a “for lease” sign in the window, next to another sign detailing the neighborhood record shop’s “retirement sale.”

According to the sign, call vinyl is on sale for 20 percent off, CDs and DVDs are also marked down, and anyone who wants to nab some cheap VHS and cassette tapes can nab them for 50 cents and 25 cents respectively. The folks at Underdawg say they expect to be open for about one more month.

Longtime Queen Anne coffee post The Grinder, located at 41 Dravus St. off Nickerson (and just around the corner from Tully’s), closed up shop on Wednesday, April 28.

In a letter posted on the door to customers and patrons, owner Kristin Wilhite, who started the Grinder after graduating from SPU 15 years ago, wrote:

“The time has come to close the doors of The Grinder. For 15 years I came to work looking forward to who I would serve that day. I worked hard to not only provide you with good coffee, but with a safe place to laugh, cry, converse and be heard.”

Kristin, who gave birth to her son Max just three months ago, wrote that while she will miss The Grinder, she is thrilled to be starting a new career as a stay-at-home mom.

In her letter Kristin expressed the gratitude she felt for her customers and friends over the years.

“I have: Witnessed relationships turn into marriages. Freshman enter SPU and graduate four years later. Shared in retirements and in promotions. Celebrated our local, now well known author. Lived vicariously through your travels and heard your stories… Watched customers become parents and parents become grandparents. Made more friendships through serving coffee than I ever could have imagined. The stories are endless!”

Kristin invites anyone with a memory to share about The Gridner, to post it on the coffee spot’s Facebook wall.

Longtime Uptown staple, Counterbalance Bicycles, announced this weekend that after ten years at the bottom of Queen Anne hill, it is moving from 2 W Roy St and consolidating with its other location in the University District.

The signs were removed from the building yesterday, Sunday, April 18 and the following message was posted on the door for customers:

Their other location, at 2943 NE Blakeley St in the University District, is open from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Although the staff has already closed the doors to the Roy St. location, they will be returning bikes brought in for service to customers throughout the week. For more information, call the main store at 206-922-3555.