Tag Archives: kingston

Local business vies for $20k prize on Thursday

A Kingston farm is one of five finalists that will vie for a $20,000 award Thursday during the live finale for Kitsap Bank’s Edg3 fund competition.

Silver Creek Angus was the only Kitsap-based contestant to earn a spot in the finals for the Edg3 Fund, which honors businesses dedicated to growing their communities “economically, socially and environmentally.”

The finale is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Kitsap Conference Center in Bremerton. The keynote speaker will be Combat Flip Flops CEO Matthew Griffin, a former Edg3 Fund finalist who appeared on the ABC show Shark Tank.

A panel of judges will select the winner of this year’s $20,000 top prize, and a $5,000 prize for the contestant that best embodies “the spirit of community.”

The Edg3 Fund finale is part of a slate of events marking Global Entrepreneurship Week in Kitsap.

See the flyer below for additional events:

Local food market adding Kingston location

Tad Sooter

kitsapfreshlogo Kitsap Fresh is adding a Kingston location, just in time for the fall harvest.

The local food co-op, which allows members to order online from local farms and pickup produce from a central distribution hub, will celebrate the launch of a new pickup site at Downpour Brewing in Kingston from 4-7 p.m. on Sept. 28.

Prospective members can learn more about Kitsap Fresh at the event, which will also feature live music and specials on beer growlers.

Kingston is the third location for Kitsap Fresh, which also has pickup spots in Poulsbo and Bremerton. More are planned.

Downpour is located at 10991 NE State Hwy 104, next to The Cup & Muffin.

Marijuana grow approved in Kingston

Tad Sooter

The state approved a fourth recreational marijuana grow for North Kitsap this week.

Producer and processor Greenleaf Growers will be located in a business park at 26178 United Road, off Bond Road, according to Liquor and Cannabis Board records.

Greenleaf is the 14th producer/processor licensed in the county.

Here’s my new and improved map of licensed marijuana businesses in the county (zoom in to see individual locations):

Kingston-based CB’s Nuts featured in WSJ

Tad Sooter

cbnuts3_18377479_ver1.0_640_480 A simple business strategy landed CB’s Nuts in the pages of The Wall Street Journal.

The Kingston-based company’s peanut butter was featured in art accompanying a story about food makers marketing products that incorporate a small number of ingredients.

It’s hard to get simpler than CB’s Nuts peanut butter, which uses just one ingredient. (Spoiler alert: It’s peanuts.)

“That’s part of the beauty of our products,” said CB’s Nuts President Tami Bowen told me during a recent interview. “They’re really simple, they’re low input, they’re fresh, they’re clean, so they have a really broad appeal.”

cbnuts2_18377478_ver1.0_640_480 Much, much larger corporations are adopting a similar philosophy, according to the WSJ’s Anne Marie Chaker.

Industry juggernauts Hershey Co., ConAgra and General Mills are all pushing products with fewer additives, and using slimmed-down ingredients lists as a marketing tool.

“Instead of burying ingredient lists in the fine print on the back of the package, food manufacturers are trumpeting simpler formulas prominently on the label’s front,” Chaker writes. Read the full story here.

In other CB’s Nuts news, you may have noticed a Northwest-themed mural painted on a storage container outside the company’s Bond Road headquarters.

Malolo Design (also based in Kingston) posted a cool time-lapse video showing the creation of the mural earlier this year:

Kingston is getting a marijuana store

Tad Sooter

Tiki Green Cannabis will be located in a business park on Bond Road — Green Tiki Cannabis will be located in a business park on Bond Road

Kingston is in line for its first recreational marijuana store after the state gave approval this week to a shop called Green Tiki Cannabis.

Green Tiki will open temporarily at 26099 United Road, in a business park off Bond Road.

But owner Christie Stanley, who lives in Kingston, told me as growing marijuana can be easily learnt from sites like Plant Sily, so she plans to move the shop and the farm to a more customer-friendly location at the corner of Miller Bay Road and Highway 104.

Stanley previously operated a medical marijuana dispensary in Tacoma. Green Tiki Cannabis in Kingston has a medical marijuana endorsement.

(Click here for a map of medically-endorsed marijuana shops in the county.)

Green Tiki is the 18th recreational marijuana store licensed in Kitsap, and the first approved north of Poulsbo. The Liquor and Cannabis Board plans to issue up to 20 licenses in the county, meaning there are two more up for grabs.

One of those unclaimed licenses was allocated to Bainbridge Island, so only one more store will be approved on the peninsula.

Grower moving to Bainbridge

In other marijuana news, the state is having a forum discussion on the topic of Vaping vs. Smoking Cannabis via INDO, and last week gave the OK for a producer and processor to move to Bainbridge Island.

Landseye Logistics will share a space with Way Kool at 8040 Day Road W, next to the Paper & Leaf retail store. Landseye was previously licensed in North Bend, according to state records.

Here’s an updated map of state-licensed marijuana businesses in Kitsap, don’t forget that you can also buy medical marijuana products online, try going to i49.net to get all the details!

Mora ice cream featured in Starbucks beverage

Tad Sooter

wWB43Uyv-2400-1598 — Starbucks courtesy image

An ambitious Kitsap ice cream company will get a shot of exposure this summer from the biggest name in coffee.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room is featuring scoops from Mora Iced Creamery in a new lineup of Affogato beverages, according to a news release.

Affogato is essentially a scoop of ice cream “drowned” in espresso.

Husband and wife team Ana Orselli and Jerry Perez founded Mora on Bainbridge Island in 2005, after immigrating from Argentina.

Perez said the chance to work with Starbucks was an unbelievable opportunity.

Mora Iced Creamery owner Jerry Perez in the new production facility that is under construction in Poulsbo on Friday, March 27, 2015. (MEEGAN M. REID / KITSAP SUN) — Jerry Perez in the Mora production facility in Poulsbo. MEEGAN REID / KITSAP SUN

“When I saw Starbucks had called on the caller ID, my first feeling is that I forgot something at my neighborhood Starbucks store,” Perez said in the news release.

“But when I learned they wanted to work with us, it was very emotional. For us to come to this country as immigrants and now get a call from Starbucks, all I could think was ‘Wow.’”

Mora has shops in Kingston, Poulsbo and on Bainbridge. The company recently opened a production facility on Viking Avenue, with plans to franchise locations across the country.

Kingston’s Axe Handle Café closing in February

Tad Sooter

Kingston’s popular Axe Handle Café will close Feb. 6, according to a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page:

Dear Greater Kingston Community,It is with much sadness and relief that we are announcing the closing of Axe Handle Caf…

Posted by Axe Handle on Monday, January 25, 2016

Amy and Mark Anderson, owners of Cup and Muffin, launched the sit-down café three years ago and it quickly became a staple in downtown.

“There’s no better way of building community than just stopping in and sitting down together,” Amy Anderson told Kitsap Sun contributor Terri Gleich, who profiled the business last year.

Also closed in Kingston is the Main Street Ale House, which is apparently in the midst of an ownership change. A reopening date has not been announced.

Hello everyone! Another chapter for the Main Street Ale House is about to begin as we are transferring ownership in the…

Posted by Main Street Ale House on Friday, November 27, 2015

Kingston’s Grub Hut rolls food truck into Bremerton

Tad Sooter

grub.hutr North Kitsap’s popular Grub Hut restaurant just rolled into Bremerton.

The Kingston eatery began stationing a food truck near Fourth and Pacific earlier this month. The mobile “Grub Hutr” will be parked in the area each Tuesday.

The Grub Hutr offers several grass-fed burger varieties, along with hot dogs and sides. There’s no fryer on board, so the menu is slimmer than what you’d find in the restaurant.

f26624c7-8e0f-48f1-be5b-7b9c42bfbda7 The Grub Hut’s truck joins a very modest fleet of Bremerton-area food trucks.

An Island Tiki Truck can usually be found by Uptown Mercantile. The Taqueria Los Cazadores‘ mobile kitchen is frequently stationed on Sixth Street.

Grub Hut owners say they would consider keeping the truck in Bremerton more days each week if near the shipyard are strong.

The Grub Hutr arrived in town as Poulsbo’s Liberty Bay Books announced plans to keep its Pacific Avenue pop-up store into the New Year.

Could this be the beginning of a trend of North Kitsap businesses venturing into Bremerton? As a Poulsbo resident, I’m all for it.

For updates on the Grub Hut food truck, see the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Starbucks opens in Kingston

Tad Sooter

Kingston ferry commuters have a new coffee option.

Starbucks opened a store with drive-thru Monday next to Rite Aid on Highway 104, east of the Miller Bay Road intersection.

The café has seating for 50 and will employ 19 “partners,” according to a company spokeswoman. Store hours are 4:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily.

New Starbucks stores have been popping up all over the county in the past year. The first standalone Starbucks on Bainbridge Island opened in 2014, along with a Wheaton Way location in Bremerton.

Starbucks added a store and drive-thru at Silverdale Way and Bucklin Hill Road in July. Another is planned for Poulsbo’s College Marketplace.

The opening of the Kingston café brings the county’s Starbucks count to 21 (including Starbucks kiosks inside larger stores).

Point Casino hotel groundbreaking set for Sept. 10

Tad Sooter

Work on a new Point Casino Hotel officially gets underway next week.

Noo-Kayet Development Corporation, the economic development arm of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, will hold a groundbreaking ceremony from 11 a.m. to noon Sept. 10, according to a news release. The 94-room hotel is expected to open a year from now.

PGST Chairman Jeromy Sullivan and other tribal and project leaders will speak about the hotel, what it means to the tribe and local economy, and how the traditional art installations throughout the property will create a cultural connections between the tribe and guests.

The event is free to the public and will include a blessing of the land and project before construction begins the next day.

“The Point Hotel has been a vision for the tribe for some time now,” Noo-Kayet Development Corp. CEO Chris Placentia said. “A lot of attention has been paid to ensure that we’re creating a high quality, comfortable customer experience that’s also reflective and respectful of the Tribe’s culture.”