Eastlake's Quick Stop Grocery and Deli closes

SATURDAY UPDATE: A sign in the door at the Quick Stop says the business closed "due to unforseen circumstances." It says that the store will undergo renovations and a change in management and open again "in the near future." We'll keep you posted.

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UPDATE: This post has been changed since it was first published. The name of Earl's Garden Patch has been corrected. Details on the history of the building and current ownership have been added.

The Quick Stop Grocery and Deli, 2352 Eastlake Ave. E., closed abruptly this week.

The store's last day was apparently Tuesday. The doors were chained closed on Wednesday morning (see photo). A short note says simply: "Business is closed. Thank you."

The store has been a fixture on Eastlake Avenue for many years. It was originally known as Earl's Garden Patch. A portion of the store's parking lot was acquired by Starbucks in the early 2000's and used as a site for the company's Eastlake store.

Records at the King County Assessor's Office list the current owner of the building as Castellum LLC.

A 1995 Seattle Times obituary of the store's original owner, V. Earl Blomberg, provides details of its history. Blomberg, known as "the singing grocery," opened Earl's Garden Patch in 1933. The Times quotes Blomberg's daughter, Gail Hendrickson, as saying: "He opened the store in the depths of the Depression, where a fruit-and-vegetable stand had been."

Blomberg sold Christmas trees in the parking lot and, the Times reported, sold "quality items" at the store. His wife, Helen, who died in 1993, kept the books for the store and made ice cream on Tuesdays.

Read more of the Times' obituary here.

Jules James, neighborhood businessperson and activist, believes the site, which is only half a block from TOPS@Seward School and Rogers Playfield and is on the same side of the street as both, would be a great site for a preschool:

"First glance at the expected property costs aren't promising, but projected operations pencil out well.  I hope and am encouraging for the right mix of entrepreneurial capital and pre-school experience to meet pent-up local and regional pre-school market demand at this location."

No word on what will happen to the market. We'll let you know what we find out.