By CLAYTON PARK

I recently spent an afternoon exploring the Wedgwood neighborhoodıs main business thoroughfare, 35th Avenue NE. Here is my report:

Happy Palace Restaurant

I dropped by this family-run Chinese restaurant, located at 9400 35th Ave. NE, to chat with proprietor Alan Ma, who, along with wife Jennifer, bought the business 11 years ago from the original owner Linda Chong. The restaurant has been serving the neighborhood since 1984.

³Weıre remodeling,² said Alan, pointing to the cocktail lounge area, where the restaurant hosts a weekly Karaoke Night on Thursdays, beginning at 9 p.m.

Alan explained that he has been installing insulation in the walls to keep the sound down during Karaoke Night, after some neighbors complained that the Happy Palaceıs patrons were getting a little bit ... well, too happy. Since then, ³Weıve quieted it down a lot,² said Alan, who added that he totally understands his neighborsı concerns. ³If I lived next door, Iıd feel the same way,² he said.

Meanwhile, the popularity of the Happy Palaceıs Karaoke Nights has prompted Alan to consider adding an Open Mic night as well at some point in the near future.

Alan and his wife are both avid music lovers themselves, who not only enjoy listening to it, but also enjoy playing it themselves on occasion at home for fun and relaxation after work. Jennifer plays piano while Alan plays guitar. ³We started out playing classical but soon began playing classic ı60s and ı70s rock tunes as well,² he said.

Their daughter Angie, a freshman at Meadowdale High School in Edmonds, is a talented multi-instrumentalist as well. The couple also have a son, Brian, who currently attends the University of Washington where heıs studying to earn a degree in engineering.

Alan is a native of Taipai, Taiwan, who came to the United States in 1975 to study at Armstrong College in the Bay Area where he earned an MBA. While in school, he supported himself by working as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant.

Upon graduating, Alan decided to apply his business skills in the restaurant field, first by helping his sister run a restaurant in Edmonds, the North China Restaurant, which his sister has since sold, before he and his wife decided to buy a restaurant of their own.

Jennifer is a native of Seoul, South Korea, who may not have a fancy college degree, but makes up for that with an innate sense for business that Alan says exceeds his own.

The couple chose to buy the Happy Palace after hearing about Linda Chongıs interest in selling it from a business consultant. Alan said he and his wife enjoy serving the Wedgwood neighborhood because of its family atmosphere. Many of the restaurantıs customers are longtime regulars who live nearby, such as Mr. and Mrs. Jim Crippen, who hail from the Lower Laurelhurst area.

Happy Palace serves Szechuan, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hunan-style Chinese dishes.

Honeymoon Pizza & View Ridge Video

The husband-wife team of Martin and Cheryl McArthur purchased this business, located at 7347 35th Ave. NE, in October from longtime owner Rick Vanderberg, who is planning to move to New Mexico.

For the McArthurs, who live in the Maple Leaf neighborhood, this is their first time of owning a business. Martin is a former drug and alcohol counselor who used to work for Hope Recovery Services in Kent. Cheryl is a registered nurse who used to work for King County Public Health in downtown Seattle and who continues to work part-time as a nurse.

³My wife has always liked movies and I always felt I would want to own a restaurant someday and I love Italian food,² said Martin, who said he and his wife jumped on the opportunity to combine their two passions when they learned that Honeymoon Pizza & View Ridge Video was for sale.

Martin focuses on running the restaurant part of the business, which specializes in gourmet take-and-bake pizzas, while Cheryl focuses on running the video store.

Many of the coupleıs employees are kids from the neighborhood, including students from both Roosevelt and Nathan Hale high schools.

Martin says he and his wife bought the pair of adjacent stores as a family business as thatıs the way they plan to keep it. The restaurant side of the store, for example, is decorated with pages from a dinosaur coloring book, colored in crayon by some of their customersı children. When asked what the biggest surprise has been for the McArthurs since becoming business owners, Martin said ³The fact that owning a business is totally consuming!²

When asked to describe the strangest thing, he said they had one customer who ordered a pizza, took it home and ate half of it only to bring the rest back in a Safeway shopping bag, demanding a refund because it was ³too spicy.²

³My wife and I actually refunded her!² Martin says.

When asked to name her favorite movies, Cheryl, who was dashing out the door when I dropped by, rattled off the following: ³Harold and Maude,² ³Fargo,² ³Duck Soup,² and ³any of Bogartıs movies.²

Dan Tierney, State Farm Insurance

Dan Tierney purchased the insurance agency located at 7006 35th Ave. NE from longtime State Farm agents John Cuneo and Jay Kaneshige on Sept. 1. The business has been in Wedgwood for 20 years. Cuneo is now retired and Kaneshige now lives in Hawaii where he continues to work for State Farm, with his father.

Tierney, who has been with State Farm since 1977, held an executive management post with the company prior to taking over the agency from Cuneo and Kaneshige. In Eugene, Ore., where Tierney was previously based, he ran an agency field office where he oversaw between 30 and 50 agents.

He got his start with State Farm working in claims, and later became an agent in Montana, before getting promoted into management.

He decided to return to being an agent because ³I love the relationships. I love being with people. After being in management for so many years, I decided to get back to my roots.²

Tierney adds that he thoroughly enjoys being in Wedgwood. ³I love this little neighborhood because itıs quaint, itıs quiet and itıs safe. And itıs also close to I-5 and close to the U-District.²

Tierney now lives in Brier. He and his wife have three kids: Rob, age 24, who works as a claims adjustor for State Farm, Matt, 21, who is a junior at Oregon State University, and Lisa, 17, who is a junior at Blanchet High School.

Matthewıs gone, but not forgotten

Itıs been over a year-and-a-half now since the popular Matthewıs Red Apple Market was closed to make way for a QFC supermarket in Wedgwood, but judging from the yard signs (pictured above) that continue to be displayed by some local residents, Matthewıs has not been forgotten. Loyal Matthewıs shoppers waged an impassioned campaign to save the locally-owned grocery when the store lost its lease. Their efforts failed, despite a petition drive that gathered more than 20,000 signatures. A citizens group called the Wedgwood Community Advocacy Association later organized a boycott of the new Wedgwood QFC, which some continue to maintain to this day. While their efforts wonıt bring back Matthewıs, the groupıs goal is to encourage the public to support local businesses and to ³tell megacorporations to go elsewhere.²