Service & Repair
Event Planners
Seattle teems with creative types such as the ad execs at Wexley School for Girls, who bring an outlandish aesthetic to the corporate table. In that proud-to-be-weird spirit Aviva Palmer and Cori Ready, the party planners at The Adventure School, have shaken up Seattle’s events scene, transforming weddings, private parties, and corporate hobnobs into other-worldly scenes where cupcakes take the shape of snowballs, stilt walkers serve drinks, and mimes mingle (albeit silently) with the crowds. The Adventure School, 802 Sixth Ave S, Ste 6, SoDo, 206-354-3752; www.theadventureschool.com
Foodie Web Site
Becky Selengut fondly recalls her first trip to Seattle, when she walked Madrona’s streets snacking on fresh pears picked from backyard trees. Moving here in 1997, Selengut toiled in local restaurants, including the Herbfarm, then started her own chef business whipping up organic, 10-course meals for dinner parties. She also founded Seasonal Cornucopia, an indispensable online resource providing seasonal information for over 275 Northwest ingredients. A Web database detailing when and where to buy local produce? Sounds like someone’s gone native. Seasonal Cornucopia, www.seasonalcornucopia.com
Produce Delivery
Long before the word “locavore” entered the American lexicon, Seattle-area shoppers regularly sought out all-natural produce grown nearby, and Carolyn Boyle’s New Roots Organics brought it to them. Since 1999, she has delivered luscious bundles of organic, recently picked produce to doorsteps all over the city, providing ingredients for countless low-impact, highly tasty meals. We’re just happy the rest of the world has caught on. New Roots Organics, 6259 Third Ave NW, Phinney Ridge, 206-261-2500; www.newrootsorganics.com
Weight-Loss Coach
Just because we’re always topping those “Healthiest Cities in America” lists doesn’t mean we can’t use some tips when it comes to weight loss. Sammamish-based Deborah Enos offers locals a health overhaul that’s fine-tuned to individual needs. Raiding fridges, tagging along on grocery trips, and checking in via telephone, the ever-energetic Enos learns about the challenges each client faces, then creates custom solutions to target specific weight woes. Deborah Enos, 704 228th Ave NE, Ste 255, Sammamish, 425-996-0207; www.deborahenos.com
Self-Defense Trainers
Our city’s one of the country’s safest, but when a crime wave hit Capitol Hill last year, denizens turned to self-defense studio Home Alive, where students kick and scream their way to safety during a three-hour “basics” course or develop their thug-thrashing skills through an intensive series. A true neighborhood gem, the 15-year-old nonprofit—founded by friends of a musician murdered on Capitol Hill—offers everyone the opportunity to feel buffer, tougher, and ready to take on the world. Home Alive, 1415 10th Ave, Ste 3, Capitol Hill, 206-323-4663; www.homealive.org
Jogging Coach
No city in America logs more hours of hard-core cardio, but when Rain City needs a push to get off its tush, Tony Williams is its go-to jogging guru. The elite athlete started his coaching company Always Running in 1993, and today offers one-on-one training plus organized group runs at trail sites in and around town. Every level of fitness is welcome, but prepare to feel the burn: Signing up with Always Running has a way of making you feel like you’re doing just that. Always Running, 7300 E Green Lake Dr N, Greenlake, 206-985-7405; www.alwaysrunning.com
Skin Care
Every entrepreneur should live here a while before opening up shop; that way they’d understand that though Seattleites love to be pampered, we hate to be pandered to. Jessica Campbell, Spa Scotta owner and Seattleite since 1993, knows her city, and has perfected a warm, low-key approach—clients awaiting treatment casually browse Scotta’s sweet little boutique or relax with banana chips and bottled water in a comfy area apart from the lobby—as well as effective skin care services like the High Frequency Treatment, which targets patients’ worst dermatological woes. Spa Scotta, 4915 25th Ave NE, Ste 103W, University District, 206-522-5800; www.spascotta.com
Hair Removal
Around these parts, people like to be well prepared for a day of sunshine, and High Maintenance Salon owner Naomi Lewis’s almost ouch-free waxing technique keeps our bikini lines beach ready. Combining oil and an Australian hard wax, Lewis creates a gooey elixir that vacuum seals the hair, and, once removed, leaves less irritation and fewer bumps than a traditional wax—so you can slip into your Speedos at a moment’s notice. High Maintenance Salon, 1706 Bellevue Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-322-6939; www.highmaintenanceskin.com
Green Thumb Girl
Amy Pennington
Forget the 100-mile diet: Amy Pennington wants us living off our own backyards. Raised on a Long Island farmstead, this veggie guru has spent her life tending edible gardens. Earning her culinary chops, however, took eight years of working for Tom Douglas Restaurants, where she did a little of everything: hostessing at Palace Kitchen, running operations at Dahlia Bakery; she still produces Douglas’s radio show. Her tenure with Tom taught Pennington all about season-based cooking, but things really came together during a course at the Quillisascut School for the Domestic Arts. “After that I was like, I’m done not eating seasonally; I want to grow food,” Pennington says.
Returning to Seattle, Pennington created an organic garden for some friends, and gradually took on clients. Today Go Go Green Garden maintains 11 private veggie-and-fruit plots in the Seattle area, and helps wannabe growers get their own private P-Patches up and running.
Backyard eating requires a lifestyle commitment, so Pennington shows clients ways to use spoils before they spoil: boiling up long-lasting tomato comfits and baking veggie tarts that can be frozen and reheated. “I want people to eat healthier,” says Pennington. “It’s not that hard, and it’s superdelicious. You just have to get a little creative.” Amy Pennington, Go Go Green Garden, 206-571-5646; www.gogogreengarden.com
