Columbia City’s own Tutta Bella (at least it started out as our own) and La Medusa are both mentioned in Forbes’ “The Surprising Secret Behind Small Business Success.” Tom Post explains:
Sometimes a single startup can kick off a mini-community.
It wasn’t that long ago that Seattle’s Ranier [sic] Avenue was a series of uninhabited buildings in the crime-ridden neighborhood of Columbia City. Then La Medusa opened in 1997. Serving Sicilian dishes made from locally-sourced ingredients, it was one of the first of a string of small businesses, like Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria, to move on the block. Today the restaurant rubs elbows with weekend brunch hotspots and artisan bakeries–a transformation that hints at a community-oriented small business’s power to pave the way for more small businesses.
