This Saturday, May 5th, participating Upper Queen Anne Merchants are handing out flowers as a token of their appreciation to their customers to celebrate the arrival of spring. Nineteen businesses take part in Bloom in Queen Anne, handing out flowers to shoppers, allowing them to build a lovely spring bouquet. Shop for Mothers’ Day and let our local merchants say a personal thank you to you, their customers.

Be sure to kick off the day at charley + may for the unveiling of the new Elizabeth Mullaly exclusive Queen Anne Farmers’ Market poster for 2012. “The Queen Anne Farmers Market is truly a community-wide effort,” says Maria College, Co-founder Queen Anne Farmers Market. “We’re so fortunate to have some very talented supporters. Elizabeth Mullaly’s posters beautifully capture the spirit of the market and we think that this year she has really outdone herself.”

There will be treats and a drawing for two signed posters. Posters can be purchased at charley + may, Queen Anne Frame, and Queen Anne Dispatch.

Bloom in Queen Anne
Saturday, May 5
Kick off at charley + may 11AM for the QAFM’s 2012 poster unveiling.

Participating merchants:

charley + may co.
Chocolopolis
Communique
Belle Fiore
Blue Highway Games
hauteyoga Queen Anne
HomeStreet Bank
Le Reve
Once Upon A Time
Queen Anne Books
Queen Anne Dispatch
Queen Anne Frames
Mimisan Spa
My Dressing Room
Seattle Gym
Three Birds
Twirl
Umpqua bank
Video Isle

We just got this note about a burglary at the top of the hill around 1 p.m. Thursday from a Queen Anne resident who wishes to remain anonymous:

Just wanted to give you heads up that I just drove past a forced entry, house robbery on 5th Ave W. by the cemetery. Police were on the scene and there was a broken window and a flat screen TV in the driveway. I thought they caught the QA robber last week? Apparently not? Or a copycat.

The Seattle Weekly put out a handy-dandy map in order to help you drink your way through Seattle for this drinkiest of weekends—it is Saint Patrick’s Day, after all.

The Seattle Weekly made some notes on the best beer options in each neighborhood. Here are the details for Lower and Upper Queen Anne:

Lower Queen Anne: Lower Queen Anne’s denizens love Schooner Exact Brewing Co.’s King St. Brown. Ozzies, T.S. McHugh’s, the Great Nabob, Spectator, and Buckley’s all have the beer on tap, so in this case, we’re going with the law of large numbers.

Upper Queen Anne: The 3-Grid IPA is what flies at the Hilltop Ale House, the upper Queen Anne watering hole of choice. It’s a perfectly calibrated brew for this ‘hood: pale, bitter, and just a little too expensive.

Looking for other places on the hill to enjoy the Saint Patrick’s Day festivities? Check out the happenings at Sully’s at the top of the hill, and the Streamline Tavern in Uptown.

If you can’t make it today, but still want to celebrate, the Streamline will be having its 23rd annual St. Patti’s Day birthday party and fundraiser this Saturday, March 19 at 6 p.m. There will be corned beef and cabbage, and all donations will go to Fighting Words, a creative writing center established by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love, inspired by Dave Eggers’ 826 Valencia in San Francisco (and satellite 826 Seattle in Greenwood).

Before you ask, yes, there is a publication called Seattle Beer News. They are one of The Seattle Times’ news partners, alongside us, the rest of the Next Door Media team, and and a number of other neighborhood and special interest news services in the greater Seattle area.

Although no Queen Anne pubs made Seattle Beer News’ recent list of Top 10 Seattle Beer Spots, our neighborhood is leading in a poll SBN is putting on asking Seattle-ites which neighborhood most needs a new beer bar or brewery.

So far Lower Queen Anne is leading with 16 percent of the votes, followed by Ballard, South Lake Union and Wallingford (all with 12 percent), and Magnolia and Lake City (with 11 percent). Upper Queen Anne is in tenth place, with 6 percent of the votes so far.

Think Queen Anne needs a new beer bar or brewery more than any other neighborhood? Cast your vote with Seattle Beer News here.

Seattle Police reported a fair amount of criminal activity over the three-day weekend. Like last weekend, various burglaries and thefts peppered Upper and Lower Queen Anne.

Here is a list of the more notable reports in Uptown:

• Friday morning, a burglary by force occurred at a nonresidential location in the 3xx block of Queen Anne Ave. N.
• Friday night, a pickpocketing incident occurred around 10 p.m. in the 2xx block of Mercer St.
• On Sunday, a car was broken into around 5 p.m. in the 5xx block of Broad St.
• On Sunday, an incident of shoplifting occurred at 8:44 p.m. in the 8xx block of 5th Ave. N.

And here is a list of reported crimes in Upper Queen Anne:

• Thursday evening, a car was stolen at 6:10 p.m. in the 24xx block of Westlake Ave. N. and reported the following morning.
• Around 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, a burglary by force occurred at a residence in the 24xx block of Birch Ave. N. and was reported to police that afternoon.
• Friday around 11 a.m., a burglary by force occurred at a nonresidential location around 11 a.m. in the 12xx block of W. Nickerson St.
• Friday around 11:20 p.m., a burglary without force occurred at a residence in the 4xx block of Halladay St. and was reported later that night.
• Late Saturday night, a car was broken into in the 20xx block of Westlake Ave. N.
• Noon Sunday, a burglary without force occurred at a residence in the 14xx block of 2nd Ave. W. and was reported later that evening.
• Sunday at 8:10 p.m., a burglary without force occurred at a residence in the 27xx block of 1st Ave. N. and was reported shortly after.

To follow crime citywide and by neighborhood visit the Seattle Police Department’s interactive My Neighborhood Map.

Update 12/2 4 p.m.: As Friday inches closer, new Queen Anne merchants have joined the long list of those participating in the Holiday Magic celebration. Check it out below.

Upper Queen Anne’s annual Holiday Magic festival is coming up this Friday, December 3 from 3 to 9 p.m. on Queen Anne Ave N, from McGraw to Galer.

The celebration, put on by the Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce, will be chock-full of holiday fun, including discounts at local businesses up and down Queen Anne Ave, snacks, songs courtesy of the John Hay Chorus (from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. starting at HomeStreet Bank), a visit from Santa Claus (at HomeStreet Bank), art projects for kids, a firetruck from Station 8, prize drawings, chair massages, the annual tree lighting at Bethany Presbyterian Church at 6 p.m., and more.

According to the chamber’s marketing director Mary Chapman, the the merchants along Queen Anne Ave pay out of pocket to cover the costs of the festive street tree lighting—all the more reason to invest in LED lights for the trees along the street.

“Yes, we are going green, using less electricity and we have an agreement with Artist Touch Landscaping to do our lights for the next 5 years,” she says. “They store the lights and put them up the following year.  Previously cheap electric bulb strings were bought, cut down and thrown away each year.”

We’re still waiting to hear what particular festivities will be in store at participating merchants. We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.

Can’t make it to Holiday Magic? Celebrate the holidays in Lower Queen Anne on Friday, December 10 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Roast Toasty Holiday Event in Counterbalance Park.

Update 9:30 p.m.: Check out the list of participating merchants, and the holiday festivities they’ll be hosting:

We first heard that the short-lived Flow Lounge would be leaving its corner spot on Upper Queen Anne, at 2 Boston Street, and that a new Mexican restaurant would be moving in a few weeks ago.

While we don’t know many details on what exactly is coming to 2 Boston Street, or when it will be opening, this week a new business called La Luna applied for a liquor license for the space with the Washington State Liquor Control Board.

We haven’t yet been able to reach the owners of La Luna to ask what exactly their restaurant will entail, but the application specifies the sale of beer, wine, and spirits in a restaurant/lounge, so that gives us some idea of what’s to come. We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.

If you’ve driven or walked down Queen Anne Ave N recently, you may have noticed some construction going on next to the Homestreet Bank, at 1835 Queen Anne Ave N, soon to be the site of a new Emerald City Smoothie franchise.

The company, which has smoothie outposts all over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut and Utah, says the Queen Anne locations is due to open in the next week and a half to two weeks.

We’re still waiting to here back from the location owner on a specific opening date, and what the new shop’s hours will be. The new smoothie shop is also hiring. Application information here.

This just in from the SPD blotter:

On September 23rd at approximately 2:44 a.m. officers responded to a 911 call of an armed robbery of a convenience store in the 1600 block of Queen Anne Avenue North.  Preliminary investigation indicates that two male suspects wearing black ski masks and armed with handguns robbed the convenience store and fled the scene on foot.  Officers and K-9 units conducted an extensive area search however, the suspects remain at large. Nobody was injured during the robbery.

SPD says the robbery is part of an active and on-going investigation.  Anyone with information about the incident, or the identities or whereabouts of the suspects, should call 911 or Seattle Police immediately.

There have been rumors spreading over what would take that place of The Play Space, which vacated the house at 1805 Queen Anne Ave N back in May (and moved into a home a few block away), after transitioning from a the Urban Kids Play store to drop-in childcare center/playspace for kids back in January.

We’re happy to announce, clues have finally surfaced revealing the new Queen Anne Ave tenant’s business. Welcome Le Reve Bakery!

Although there’s no word yet on when Le Reve—which advertises itself as an “upscale Parisian style bakery”—will be opening, they must be getting close, because they’ve already posted a Craigslist ad looking for staff to “join the Parisian Dream Team.”

The bakery, which will be located next door to El Diablo Coffee and Queen Anne Books, has also applied for a liquor license with the city. Would you like a little wine with that croissant? We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

(Thanks to reader Aaron Averbuch for the tip!)

One of our readers, John, wrote in to report another car prowl at the top of the hill this week. His car, he said, was broken into at 2nd Ave N and Galer on the evening of Monday, April 5. He wrote,

My car was parked on the street across from the Queen Anne High School building and had the right rear window broken in. The thief took an old brick of a laptop that I had sitting on the floor in the back seat due to be recycled. It doesn’t work and has a corrupt hard drive, but the cost of the repair will be several hundred dollars at least. My only solace is that the thing was garbage and waiting to be disposed of anyway, but I’d rather have done it on my terms.

John filed a police report, but hopes that SPD will send more patrols through the neighborhood from time to time to deter prowls like this one. Until then, he offers a bit of advice to neighbors:

Keep your cars free of anything appealing! Anything promising like an ipod, briefcase, backpack, or unopened mail could be a target. Even if they steal something worthless, it’ll still cost you to fix the damage.

If anyone experienced a similar prowl on Monday night or witnessed any suspicious activity, please comment below.

There was another car break-in over the weekend on Warren Ave N between Boston and Crockett. The prowl must have occurred sometime overnight, because the car was found open this morning, writes Glenda:

My boyfriend went out to go to work today and found his trunk open, the inside of the car all disheveled and the ignition looked like it had been messed with. Luckily they only got away with headphones.

If anyone remembers seeing anything suspicious in the area that could have been related to this break-in, please write in the comments below.