I am quite sure there wasn’t a dry eye in Ballard when Souvenir finally closed up shop in February. If yours were among them, buck up.

I saw owner and accessories auteur Curtis Steiner at a private dining event last weekend and he had pretty good news — not just for Ballardites, but for Souvenir lovers city-wide.

You know that triangule-shaped acoustic guitar shop that sat right pointing out at Market Street there on Ballard Ave? Sort of a sun-drenched ‘70s feeling joint that made you want to get your Joni Mitchell on? Well, they’re apparently hanging up their six-strings and calling it quits, so Steiner swooped in and scored the space.

He told me that while the space is bigger, the actual merchandising opportunities are fewer and more far between. It’s the windows. Well, no matter. Steiner deals in small, small, and he’s also opening a second spot. He said the Ballard location will be totally girly and frilly, and the other one will be "more butch," but then he smiled as if to say, "not that I really do ‘butch’."

The secondary storefront will be near the Frye Art Museum — not technically a retail hot zone, but if Steiner builds it, they will come.

The Ballard shop will open around the end of April — I’ll be sure to let you know when there’s something more specific to say than that — and the First Hill-ish location will come later this summer.