I visit every part of the city in the course of my job, but when you get right down to it, I spend most of my week in one of two neighborhoods: Ballard, home of the world's only spite landmark, and South Lake Union, formerly Cascade and home to the city's least useful mode of public transportation. Ballard is where I live and SLU is where I work, though sometimes I do some work at home and sometimes I sleep through meetings at work.

Recently I've been wandering around SLU, familiarizing myself with the new stuff and trying not to think too hard about the stuff that's being torn down to make room for it. (If Vulcan allows harm to come to Glazer's Camera, the Cascade P-Patch or Kapow! Coffee, I'm going to tell everyone that Paul Allen cried like a preschooler at the end of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.") The old neighborhood businesses and amenities have proven their worth, but what of the new stuff?

A soup, salad and sammich take-out, The Great Northwest Soup Co., is now open in the Group Health building at 340 Westlake. They offer nine daily gourmet soups -- traditional American favorites like clam chowder and tomato basil, and unexpected choices like mulligatawny and crab chowder with wild mushrooms. The sandwich board is full of options -- some grilled, some baked and some cold, and every one of them seemingly amenable to being dipped in soup. They've got box lunches, baked potatoes, salads -- virtually everything an SLU-based steering committee could want to fuel its ambitions.

I've only paid them one visit so I can't yet speak to the quality of all the offerings at the GNSC. However, the curried Thai chicken noodle soup tasted fine, even if it didn't really contain any noodles that I could see, and even less chicken than that. (Everybody gets a bad ladle every now and again. Such are the perils of a soup-based meal.) I'll definitely return to the GNSC to sample their other options, or at least I will on those days I can't bear the idea of eating another meal from Whole Foods.

I took my lunch in Lake Union Park, which is nearing done with the first phase of a reconstruction that will make the former Navy land a nice place to kill an afternoon. When you come to the official opening of the first phase April 30, you'll find a handsome new footbridge linking the western shore of Lake Union to a grassy space criss-crossed with crushed-stone paths, plus a wooden boardwalk. Seaplanes take off and land a few hundred yards away, and there's usually a lovely tall ship docked at the nearby marina.

But you shouldn't go down there yet. It's not quite ready. The grass is growing in, the new bridge has been tagged by some talentless idiot and the whole park is covered in seagull crap. By April 30 these problems should be addressed/hosed down, and you can look forward to the good stuff that's still to come -- a kids' wading pool, more green space and a possible new home for the Museum of History and Industry in the former Navy Armory.

Finally, some disturbing news. The Seattle Times recently reported that Kapow!, the tiny coffeehouse located next door to the South Lake Union Trolley maintenance garage, is feeling the squeeze from gentrification. Their rent has tripled, and the arrival of two Starbucks franchises in the neighborhood probably hasn't done much to help their bottom line. If you live or work in SLU, you owe it to yourself to keep Kapow! alive -- not just because they're a badly needed link to the former Cascade's pre-Vulcanized past, but because their coffee is absolutely kick-ass. Without the help of their peerless mochas, I'd be sleeping through work even now.

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