Go east for buns and blooms in Maltby and Clearview

By 11:40 on a Tuesday morning, the entrance of The Maltby Cafe was already full of people waiting for a table under framed menu covers signed by various grades of celebrities.

"Trust me, it's worth the wait!!!" proclaimed one, inscribed by "Evening Magazine's" John Curley.

Tucked in the back corner of the restaurant, a mother and daughter from Renton mentioned that they just came from Flower World, the gargantuan plant nursery down the road.

"You didn't buy all the flowers, did you?" the Federal Way man sitting with two friends at the next table joked. "Because that's where I'm headed right now."

He probably had more to fear from the diners at another nearby table.

"We came up with two cars and are sitting with flowers on our laps," reported Sharlene Nelson, one of seven raucous women from Federal Way.

Gardeners no doubt could spend all day, or several days, in Flower World. But those who want to entice their spouses and kids to come along could consider adding a meal at The Maltby Cafe and a side trip to Clearview Nursery & Stone, which intersperses kitschy old commercial signs, ancient tractors, a fleet of Tonka trucks and a biplane among its piles of sand, gravel and bark.

We started with lunch at the The Maltby Cafe, which is justly famous for its crowds, omelets and dinner-plate-size cinnamon buns. We quickly got a table, but the volume of visitors on a Tuesday made me leery about coming on a weekend. (When the line gets really long, some people put their names on the waiting list, then go to Flower World to shop or wander the aisles for a while, according to Marijke Postema, one of the owners of the nursery.)

		Grant M. Haller / P-I
	Chelsey Ulvin takes a lunch order from Karen Hake-Santana and Kare Shults at The Maltby Cafe.

The mother and daughter -- Ann LaValley and Lisa Lord -- guessed that they've been making an annual flower run to Maltby together since about 1993.

"I think you'd be surprised how many people make the journey," Lord said.

They're drawn by the sheer size of Flower World, she said. "It's enormous. There's just so much selection."

The Federal Way group has trekked to Maltby for about five years.

Sadie and Tom McCollum said Sadie buys the plants, while Tom tags along for the food.

"It's very good and it's plentiful," Tom said of the cafe's meals. They had a box of leftovers and a cinnamon bun packaged to go.

The Federal Way ladies had one bun cut up for them to share and three more stacked up to take home to their husbands.

"We ordered six, but they ran out," Muriel Haelege said.

The women have been driving up to Maltby once a year for about eight years, said Terry Keifer, who organizes the trip.

"This is a small group," she said. "We usually have between 10 and 12."

There are nurseries in Federal Way, but going to those wouldn't be an event, Nelson explained. "We like to spend time together and it's a good excuse."

Over at Flower World, annual day-trippers mixed in with shoppers such as Cory Volkert of Normandy Park and Nancy Strahle of Bellevue.

"We're here on our lunch break," Volkert said.

The women, who work together in Bellevue, each pulled a cart laden with plants.

Nearby, Kathi Trebon loaded plants into a cardboard carrier on the lap of her husband, Bob, who uses a wheelchair.

"She's the flower lady," Bob explained. "I just look at them and say, 'Yeah, they look pretty nice.' "

It was Bob's first trip to Flower World after a decade living just down the road, in Thrashers Corner.

"I was too busy remodeling to fool around with flowers," he said, adding that lung cancer has forced him to give up his remodeling business.

Our next stop was Flower World's pleasant park to admire the pond, complete with fountain and waterwheel, and cavort with the band of chickens before we headed to Clearview Nursery & Stone.

		Grant M. Haller / P-I
	Bill Sagen, looking for rocks for his pond, walks by a giant Ivar's clam, part of Jim McAuliffe's collection of massive memorabilia at Clearview Nursery & Stone.

I learned of Clearview's eclectic collection last year, when Jim McAuliffe acquired the huge bowling pin sign from Seattle's former Leilani Lanes.

McAuliffe and his son, Dan, who owns Clearview Nursery & Stone, are always looking for more memorabilia, manager Susan Torchia said. "If they're gone for more than three hours, you know they're up to something."

The business doesn't bother with a sign, Torchia said. Everyone just looks for the Ivar's clam perched on a pole two stories up from state Route 9.

The collection includes a 76 gas station ball painted like the Earth, and traditionally shaped signs proclaiming: "Flying A Service," "Use Champlin oils," "Texaco farm lubricants sold here," "Red Crown gasoline" and "Rarin' to go! Frontier."

Then there's the biplane, ancient tractors, steam shovels and railroad engines, an 8-foot plastic Rainier Beer bottle, a covered wagon that says "Maltby or bust," a nearly life-size orca that's missing its tail, a chess set with thigh-high pieces and a lawn for bocce ball.

Oh, and the bowling pin, which was joined by Leilani's smaller bowling-pin sign that's perched on a pole and lights up.

"In the morning when you come in and it's all foggy, it's lit up and that's all you see is the bowling pin across the yard," Torchia said.

Lots of locals show up to picnic, play chess and bocce ball and let their kids push sand with the Tonka trucks, she said.

Karin Garrett of Echo Lake drove to Clearview on this Tuesday with her 18-month-old son, Colton, to pick up bark for her landscape business, Karin Garrett Design.

Clearview's service is great and Colton loves playing with the trucks, Garrett said.

"They all know him," she said. "He flirts with all the girls in the office and they take care of him."

Bill Sagen of Lake Forest Park was picking through Clearview's supply of round rocks looking for the right ones for his home waterfall.

"I sometimes come out just to walk around and get ideas," he said. "A lot of places where you can buy rocks aren't nearly as entertaining."

If you go

		Seattle P-I

The Maltby Cafe – 8809 Maltby Road, Maltby; 425-483-3123; maltbycafe.com; 7 a.m.-3 p.m. daily (breakfast 7-11:15 Monday-Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday). Directions: Take state Route 522 to SR 524 and turn left (west). Stay on 524 as it jogs right, then left, becoming Maltby Road. The cafe is on the right after you cross the railroad tracks.

Flower World – 9322 196th St. S.E., Maltby; 425-481-7565; flowerworldusa.com. 9 a.m.- 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday, 9-7 Friday, 9-5 Sunday. Directions: Take state Route 522 to SR 524 and turn left (west). Follow 524 as it jogs right, but go straight on Yew Way when 524 turns left. Take the left branch of the “Y” intersection onto Broadway Avenue. Turn right on 196th Street Southeast and look for Flower World on the right.

Clearview Nursery & Stone – 16918 state Route 9 Southeast, in Clearview; 360-668-4390. 7 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. Directions: Take state Route 522 to SR 9 and turn left (north). Look for Ivar’s clam on right side of the road after passing 172nd Street Southeast.