This month’s Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features Casa del Pollo! It’s our final business highlight, and it’s momentous because of Casa del Pollo’s full circle journey. It’s also National Hispanic Heritage Month, so what a fantastic time to showcase this fabulous family-owned Costa Rican business, and their recent return to Boones Ferry Road!

Casa del Pollo and the Zuniga family (Jorge, Zoriada and Mario) have been through quite a whirlwind. In 2011, they opened their Costa Rican family style restaurant in the little red shack next to Naomi’s Lampshades and Lamps on Boones Ferry Road. A few years later, they discovered they would eventually need to relocate due to the expansion of the road and the project improvements. In 2018, Casa del Pollo relocated to Bangy Road. Earlier this year, they discovered there was an opening on Boones Ferry Road, next to the Lake Music Center. Owner and Manager, Jorge Zuniga knew that they needed to return back to Lake Grove. In July, the restaurant reopened at 15572 Boones Ferry Road.

Jorge is very proud that the restaurant plays such a huge part in this community. Their Costa Rican culture and authentic love of their customers has been warmly welcomed throughout the region. Jorge knows that people appreciate and support small family owned businesses in Lake Oswego. When they relocated to Bangy Road, many people stepped up to support them and offer them help. Jorge is happy that many people are discovering they are back on Boones Ferry, and he is looking forward to welcoming many more.

Costa Rican homestyle cooking is hard to find here. Casa del Pollo has been the only brick-and-mortar Costa Rican restaurant on the west coast since 2011! While their specialty is aptly chicken – Casa del Pollo translates to “House of the Chicken” – their most popular dish is Gallo Pinto, a national dish of Costa Rica. It features a mix of rice and beans, and it can be served with many different meats. They also offer a traditional Casado, great food options for kids, and family meal deals for busy, working families. And, more importantly, they have Costa Rican coffee!

If you ask Jorge to share his thoughts about the Boones Ferry Road project, surprisingly, he expresses excitement. Originally, he had no idea how big the project was or why their red shack was going to be demolished. But, after seeing the work progress, he feels the project improvements will be good for small businesses and help attract more people to the area – a win-win for everyone in the community and the region as a whole.  

When you stop in to get a little taste of Costa Rica, and welcome back Casa del Pollo to Lake Grove, be sure to say Pura Vida! Pura Vida means “pure life” or all good. Casa del Pollo applies it throughout their cooking and you can find the saying throughout the restaurant, including wonderful photos and décor representative of Costa Rica!

Casa del Pollo
15572 Boones Ferry Road
503-344-4354
https://www.casadelpollo.com/index.html

This month’s Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features Piper Louie Home Boutique!

While it might be tucked back at the end of the parking lot that is shared with Healthy Pet, Dogtopia and Labelle Nails, when you discover the locally owned Piper Louie store, you’ll be sure to come back! You’ll be captured by the incredible selection of curated gifts, hand bags, jewelry, pillows, plants, and homewares – many representing goods made my local artisans like Happy Candles and three local gift card makers.

Julie Nordby is an interior designer and owner of Piper Louie. She is excited that Piper Louie represents so many local artisans, as they help make her business a unified one. Piper Louie also has an online store that offers a small fraction of what they have in the store.

Julie and her husband John also operate Nordby Design, which provides architectural design services from as small as styling and consultations, to brand new builds for residential and commercial properties.

Piper Louie has been located in Lake Grove for about five years, and they’ve enjoyed seeing the transformation taking place on Boones Ferry Road. Julie is particularly looking forward to how beautiful it will be with all the plantings in the medians.

Julie loves operating a business in Lake Oswego because she loves the community. Her and John also live in Lake Oswego, so they enjoy all the community has to offer both residents and businesses.

One thing to remember, Piper Louie does have an abundance of unique gifts and products, many that are one of a kind. So, if you don’t snag it when you see it, you just might miss out!

Check out their fabulous store!

Piper Louie Home Boutique
16148 Boones Ferry Road
503-305-6426
https://www.piperlouie.com/

This month’s Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features Art Heads Custom Framing!

When you come across Art Heads Custom Framing in Lake Oswego, you will likely meet store manager, Karen Fox. A humble framer of 40 years, Karen won first place in an international framing competition for best frame/print and best shadow box.

Art Heads in Lake Oswego has been operating for almost 20 years. It’s a small little store and neighborhood shop.

Everyone who works at Art Heads is an accomplished framer. Karen is a gilder, so she can do gold leaf and silver leaf. She also does great shadow boxes, which she particularly enjoys. They can do some wood finishing, oil paint restoration, hand finish frames or make repairs. They seem to offer a lot of things that other framing shops don’t. Here is one shadow box Karen recently created for a client.

You can tell Karen loves her job and making clients happy. She wakes up in the morning and is happy to go to work. She feels the best part of working at Art Heads is the clientele, helping them with framing their artwork or memories – you create a bond with your client and their stories can break your heart.

During the pandemic, Art Heads saw an increase in customers who were bringing in old pieces that may have been left in the attic or needed some TLC. Karen also shares that since the road project started, she has received more customers because their store visibility has increased. She noticed that when her parking lot was looking busy and she was getting a lot of new customers, so too was Sherwin Williams across the street – many people were working on home projects and she has loved meeting new clients.

Karen has spent time not only working in Lake Oswego but living here. She is excited for the transformation of the road. Her analogy: “it’s like putting a new frame on an old piece, this artwork that has been hanging in your home and you love it, but the frame is dated and maybe chipped. It’s like that with the road, with Boones Ferry Road.” She feels it is going to revitalize the whole area, and she is particularly excited for the new signal and crosswalk at Lanewood Street intersection.

Be sure to stop in and see Karen at Art Heads for all your framing needs!

Art Heads Custom Framing
15630 Boones Ferry Road, Suite #4
503-635-5266
www.art-heads.com

This month’s Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features Kumon Math and Reading of Lake Grove!

Debbie Siegel, owner of Kumon Lake Grove, started the learning center in 2003 when she wanted to build academic enrichment for her own daughters. Kumon offers preschool through high school tutoring help in both reading and math. Together they try to prepare kids for school, and being self-sufficient in high school.

Kumon as a company has been in operation for 63 years. Active in 50 countries, Kumon is very well-respected overall worldwide.

Because Kumon is an international program, Debbie and her staff see a lot of kids from all over the world. At Kumon Lake Grove, as a staff they speak seven languages, so they are here to serve people from everywhere. Debbie loves that it’s a really fun chance to get to know kids from all over the world and their families.

When the pandemic hit, Debbie switched all services to online. Recently, they started offering in-person two days a week, but they are still offering online options seven days a week.  A lot of families have liked the online option, not only because it was safer, but it was also more convenient.

When you ask Debbie about what she loves about owning a business in Lake Grove, she shares that it is having that sense of community and sense of place. She is seeing it be illustrated right now with the project’s little pieces and decorative accents that are going in. In conjunction with the construction, a lot of owners have also done something different to make their businesses more welcoming. Debbie is most looking forward to seeing families and kids coming in from the neighborhoods more, and especially having a new signal at her driveway across from McDonald’s!  

To help families and support kids in catching up, Debbie has waived registration fees since the start of the pandemic. Families can enroll at any time and most lessons are one-on-one.  

Visit Kumon’s website or call to sign-up for an orientation session!

Kumon Math and Reading of Lake Grove
16063 Boones Ferry Road, Lake Oswego
https://www.kumon.com/lake-grove
503-635-2647

This month’s Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features Dogtopia!

In March 2020 – right at the start of the pandemic – the Lake Oswego Dogtopia became the first location to open its doors in Oregon. General Manager, Pat Daugherty, says he was grateful they were able to stay open to offer socialization for dogs in a time when socialization was not really allowed. Blakely Thomas, community and marketing manager, feels lucky they were able to provide care and support for many of their pet parents who are essential workers, including teachers, nurses, doctors and grocery store workers.

Both Pat and Blakely love LO. They describe it as being small, but feeling big with many welcoming community members – including lots of doodle breeds! They’ve both enjoyed meeting all the dogs and their pet parents in the community.

At Dogtopia, it’s always the most exciting day ever! They surely can guarantee that for the dogs. Offering daycare, boarding and spa, Dogtopia has spacious, open playrooms. The dogs are placed according to their size, temperament and play, and they are always supervised by a certified canine coach. Each playroom has compressed rubberized flooring, individual HVAC systems, agility equipment, web cams, and they even provide flavored bubbles for all the pups!

At Dogtopia, they encourage dogs of all ages and breeds to have stimulation and socialization at their facilities. Blakely says that all dogs see benefits from daycare, and unlike other daycares, Dogtopia does not have a breed restriction, but they do have a meet and greet process.

As part of their Dogtopia Foundation non-profit mission, Dogtopia Lake Oswego just recently sponsored their first service dog for a returning local veteran. The foundation also provides youth literacy programs where they send dogs into elementary schools and kids can practice their reading with the dogs. In addition, the foundation provides employment opportunities for adults with autism: each location employees at least one adult with autism. https://www.dogtopiafoundation.org/

Blakely and Pat are both looking forward to the new sidewalks, benches, streetscape features, and potential new pups that can walk down to visit them on Boones Ferry Road! At Dogtopia, they have several employees that bike to and from work, so they are especially looking forward to using the new bike lanes. They believe the project will help with the small community feeling and assist other businesses.

Pop by today to check out their new facility and let your dog have the most exciting day ever!

Dogtopia Lake Oswego
16130 Boones Ferry Road, Suite C
https://www.dogtopia.com/lake-oswego/
503-342-2919

This month’s Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features Lake Music.

Established in 1970, Lake Music is proud to be a longstanding local business that inspires people to enjoy music and encourages people to want to play and listen to music. Raised in Lake Oswego, Tim Smither is a second generation owner of Lake Music. He is honored to carry on the legacy his dad started in 1970, and it’s no wonder why: music is in his blood. Tim’s grandfather had a music academy in Astoria and his great grandmother taught music out of her home.

Lake Music is the hub for music in LO. They offer lessons, rentals, and repairs, and they sell instruments, books and accessories. They are also building a new recording studio at the store! Lake Music’s goal is to make music accessible to everyone, and there is no age limit – kids as young as three are taking lessons at the store. As Tim shares, anybody can make music, you just got to start!

Although it was a tough adjustment shifting lessons to online services, Lake Music used the COVID-19 quarantine time as a time for growth, transformation and rebirth of the store. They restocked the business, opened new accounts with distributors, changed the organizational structure, and rebranded the store.

Part of that rebranding includes a focus on four key words: Learn, Love, Play, Local. Lake Music feels these are great words to keep you happy, respecting others and live your life to the fullest extent.

Not only has Tim’s family been part of Lake Oswego for 51 years, Tim’s dad played a part in the planning and development of the Boones Ferry project. Lake Music is excited to see it actually happening, becoming a physical reality. Lake Oswego continues to grow, and they are looking forward to seeing how the project improves traffic flow. Tim believes the smartest decision was adding the new signalized intersection and crossings at the Lake Grove Elementary school to help ensure safety for kids.

If you ask Tim why he is passionate about music, he’ll say that he doesn’t know one person in this world that doesn’t like music. The level of connection you can have with music is incredible. Music has been around since the dawn of time, and Lake Music is happy to be part of a small slice of the benefit of music to communities and people.

Stop by to check out their revamped store, or sign-up for a virtual or in-person lesson today!

Lake Music
15560 Boones Ferry Road, Lake Oswego
503-636-3666
Website

This month’s featured Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features The Bar Method LO!

Beth Hutchison, owner of The Bar Method LO, believes that nothing is impossible. After initially trying a bar method workout in 2012, Beth fell in love with the intricate intense movements and stretching. Beth candidly confesses she “drank the cool aid,” subsequently quitting her job in corporate America and opening her own bar method franchise in Lake Oswego in 2016.

Founded 20 years ago, The Bar Method is the original bar workout. Everything is based on dance conditioning, physical therapy and functional movement. Their core value is to empower people to be the best version of themselves.

Beth loves operating a business in Lake Oswego because she feels like it is a family. They get to know their clients, about their kids, and what’s going on in their lives and that makes them feel more connected to the community.

Once the transformation is complete on Boones Ferry Road, Beth is excited to use the extra signals and new crosswalks – not just for safety and traffic flow, but to get across the street to other businesses in the area!

Like everyone, The Bar Method has been hit hard by the pandemic. When they were originally shutdown in spring 2020, they immediately switched to virtual services. This happened again with the second shutdown in November, which continues today. They run classes 7 days a week, with multiple live options per day and they also offer on-demand classes.

When they were able to reopen to in-person workouts for a short period in 2020, they followed all the safety guidelines from CDC and OHA – no contact environment, everyone is masked, equipment is sanitized, everyone stays 6 feet away, and the instructors don’t touch anyone. They’ll follow this same guidance again when they can reopen to in-person services.

A fun bright spot from the pandemic was their kids bar program that they created. Elementary aged kids were able to partake in modified bar exercises, PE exercises and a mindfulness moment for them to stretch and decompress from screen time during distanced learning. They’re excited to bring kids bar back when they reopen.

Beth’s advice: if you’ve never tried the bar method before, try not to be intimidated, just give it a shot and take the next step! You’ll find an incredibly supportive environment where everyone is rooting for your success – whatever that may be!

Take a virtual class today, or go for in-person when they reopen!

The Bar Method Lake Oswego
15780 Boones Ferry Road, Lake Oswego
503-305-5942

https://barmethod.com/locations/lake-oswego/

 

After placing a hold on our Shop Lake Grove campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are excited to be back relaunching our featured business focus! This month’s Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features Peacock Cleaners!

Local Lake Oswego residents, Nik and Susie Park, have owned and managed Peacock Cleaners for three years. They also own and manage Top Cleaners, on South Shore Boulevard. Nik is a second generation dry cleaner with 22 years of experience in the industry!

Unlike other dry cleaners, Peacock Cleaners is a full service facility. In addition to clothing, they also offer cleaning of bedding, comforters, blankets, placemats, linens, and oriental and area rugs. They also have an in-house alterations specialist.

You’ll always be greeted with a friendly smile or even some happy laughter with Nik or Susie. They are hardworking and committed to providing excellent service to their customers.

Once construction is complete on the project, Nik is looking forward to how the roadway will be flowing better for everyone – people driving, walking, rolling and biking.

Since the pandemic hit earlier this spring, Peacock Cleaners has been making cloth face coverings – to donate and sell. It started when several of their clients were working in the healthcare industry and had a shortage of PPE, so Nik decided to make and donate them. Since then, they have made thousands of masks and they try to keep them in stock for everyone who needs one. They even accept bulk orders!

Nik’s tips – if you get any spots or stains, don’t touch it and just let him deal with it first! And let’s all do the right thing and follow the rules to get through the pandemic.

Stop by to see them today! Peacock Cleaners is open Monday – Friday from 7 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Peacock Cleaners
15898 Boones Ferry Road, Lake Oswego
503-636-0934 or 503-784-4111
https://www.facebook.com/peacockcleaners

This month’s Who’s Who on Boones Ferry Road features Riccardo’s Ristorante and Café Marzocca!

If you’ve lived, worked or visited in Lake Oswego in the last forty years, chances are you’ve been to Riccardo’s Ristorante or Café Marzocca on Boones Ferry Road. Opened in 1980, Riccardo’s is a warm, family, Italian restaurant where patrons are treated more like family members than customers.

Owners Georgette and Riccardo Spaccarelli are often there to greet you with a friendly smile, wonderful hospitality, and even a hug. Having a long passion for family and the Italian dining tradition – where dining is not just about eating, but more about an event – Riccardo and Georgette have created their own little part of Italy right here in the Lake Oswego community.

The Spaccarelli’s stay true to their Italian culture and cuisine – trying to turn your stomach into an Italian by using family recipes from Italy, serving only Italian wines and “the best” Italian coffee (Illy). In the warmer and drier months, they open their outdoor seating area with a large terra-cotta patio and fountains in the center for all to enjoy.

Generations of customers have gone through their restaurant over 40 years – some of the children that used to play in their fountain are now working there!

In 1990, Georgette and Riccardo decided to expand their exclusively Italian offerings by opening a café and retail wine shop – Café Marzocca and Vin Italy – located across the parking lot from Riccardo’s. In the Café, on the second Saturday of every month from noon to 3 p.m. they host a wine tasting of 6-8 wines, along with anti pasti from the ristorante.

Riccardo and Georgette were intrinsically involved in the development of the improvements for the Boones Ferry Road project. Riccardo was a key member of the eight-member project advisory committee, providing input into streetscape features, lighting, crosswalks, and interpretive elements. He recalls how the project was a dream 20 years ago – it’s been a long road to get it to the point of construction, but they are excited to start seeing some of the pieces coming together.

In conjunction with the road construction, the Spacarelli’s thought it was a good time to also give Vin Italy and Café Marzocca a facelift. New windows, doors, stonework, stucco and an awning are being placed, and Riccardo’s will also receive some architectural work once the road project is complete.

Both Café Marzocca and Riccardo’s Ristorante are participating in our monthly Shop Lake Grove raffle, so be sure to drop off an entry card when you stop by to visit!

Riccardo’s Ristorante
16035 Boones Ferry Road
(503) 636 4104
https://www.riccardoslo.com/

Café Marzocca & Vin Italy
16045 Boones Ferry Road
https://www.riccardoslo.com/cafe-bar-marzocca