New grocery mart coming to 23rd and Cherry

Only yards from an AM/PM mini-mart and service station, a new grocery store is planning to open on the northwest corner of Cherry at 23rd. The Cherry Corner Market and Deli still appears to be in planning and construction phases as owners Samuel Tadesse and Daniel Abahynhe are completing the paperwork required to launch the new business — and get a key liquor license that will allow the market to sell beer and wine.


The corner once housed the Update barber and salon which has now moved two doors north.

Beyond the business factors of operating a market directly across the street from a national quick-e-mart brand, the application to sell liquor bears watching given the store’s proximity to Garfield High School. In December 2008, the Twilight Exit faced opposition from Seattle Public Schools when it sought to move to Cherry from its former home on East Madison. That situation was eventually sorted out after a week of politicking including some campaigning right here on CDN.

As pointed out recently in comments, the Washington State Liquor Control Board has granted other recent liquor applications in the area but we’re following up with the WSLCB. Typically, the state is driven by local community decisions in these applications. We’re checking with the control board and Seattle Schools to see if there are plans for any additonal “good neighbor agreement” requirements for the Cherry Corner Market.

0 thoughts on “New grocery mart coming to 23rd and Cherry

  1. Just what we need another mini mart. Really? Another place to get a 40 oz beer, single cigaretes and blunts and ofcourse your munchies. Is this really the highest and best use for this building? 23rd & Cherry & 23rd & Union will never clean up with businesses like this. Totally dissapointed!!

  2. I’m not sure how I feel about this. The AM/PM is a nightmare, from what I’ve heard about it. I live across the street from Union Market at 21st and Union and the traffic has lessened in the last two years and the clientele has changed too. It’s MUCH calmer and feels a lot safer here now, and a lot of it has to do with the DMI that happened two summers ago and the second drug sting operation that happened this summer. The owners are very responsive and aware, constantly keep the space clean and pick up after litterers. I believe they also stopped selling malt liquor around the time of the DMI, which helped a lot as well.

    I’m not sure what clientele the 23rd & Cherry store thinks they are going to be attracting, but if it’s more of the same I don’t think we need it. Although if it means some customers don’t drive to the store by my house and clog up the street with vehicles and block my driveway, I suppose that could be a silver lining, though I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. :(

  3. That will make 6 mini marts between 23rd and 30th. How can these stores stay in business?

    Maybe this store will get some tips from the market on Union between 33rd and 34th in and offer quality products and service. Fingers crossed…..

  4. is a place for garfield students to get a healthy affordable lunch, .. too many go to Ezell’s, the AM/PM … a place like Saigon Deli would be better

  5. “Is this really the highest and best use for this building?”

    “Close Neighbor”, looking forward to seeing your “better” business in that space soon!!

  6. Yuck. What a pathetic use for that space. Nothing personal but I hope it tanks.

  7. I love how the ‘community’ is showing support of a local business before it even opens it doors. Wishing that it tanks or determining that the service is not needed before knowing what service is actually being offered, is a tragedy.

    I find these comments show a distorted view of what community actually is and what supporting our locally owned businesses is all about. I hope that the people, who are posting negative comments, don’t have their business and their family’s business judged and treated the same way. Everyone deserves better from their community.

  8. this seems like an excellent place to include pioneer-square style ‘alcohol impact area’ limits on the cheap and nasty stuff that is well known to serve as a nexus for criminal elements.

  9. why would we want to do that?

    have you been to pioneer square lately?

    exactly how much of an “impact” does that alcohol bullshit have?

  10. I lived across the street from one of these little mom and pop stores for 5 years and sold my house and moved, at last, because the store was such a crime magnet it impacted everyone living on the block in all directions. When we’d call the liquor control folks to ask why they weren’t cracking down on the illegal liquor sales to minors (40 oz-er, single beers, fortified wine = bum and drug addict fare), they told us that they couldn’t do a sting for all the drug dealing going on in front. The spotters for the drug dealers would see them and point them out and their cover would be blown. Mom and pop stores in the CD which sell alcohol in cheap, single serving sizes with high alc. content are a magnet for the kind of people who stand out front drinking from a paper bag, selling crack and terrorizing the neighbors. Now to place yet another one of these across the street from the community center which has been murder central in recent years, it’s just more ghetto-izing of the neighborhood. To the commenter who complained about folks no supporting small businesses like this, have you ever lived across the street from one? I did, and was literally run out of my home my the crime, crack, illegal alcohol, bum magnet and drive-by shooting factor this type of store brings to a neighborhood.

  11. I’d be fine with a new grocery mart coming to 23rd and Cherry, especially if the selling of 40 ouncers, etc. were limited somehow.

    Healthy options for Garfield students and other people in the area would be great. Some produce would be appreciated. Something more like a deli and less like a typical minimart. The AM/PM has always felt pretty sketchy to me. I usually go to Tana if I can get what I need there rather than the (closer) AM/PM.