Blackburn + Sweetzer Has Moved

In Bellevue’s first Neiman Marcus, also the first in the region

I’ve mentioned here and there that I grew up in Redmond, Washington. Over the holidays, I spent time in nearby Bellevue, a suburb also east of Seattle, which has always been upscale, but has reached new heights of schmancy-ness in the past years. The Bellevue Square Mall seems to get bigger each time I go, and this fall, about a mile or so away, The Shops at the Bravern opened, a high-end outdoor mall with a roster of shops which includes the area’s first Neiman Marcus (3 floors and 125,000 square feet), Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Tory Burch, Wolford, Jimmy Choo, Ferragamo, Piazza Sempione and more affordable Anthropologie, Sur La Table and others. There’s also the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa, a gym, and a host of restaurants. You can live within an elevator’s ride away at the accompanying residences.

Of course, there’s valet and roomy parking spots (surely to accommodate SUVs). I noticed a definite focus on customer service, and sipped gratis hot pomegranate cider by the fireplace. Was it busy like the upscale (but definitely more pedestrian) Bellevue Square just before Christmas? No. But Neiman’s restaurant, Mariposa, had an 1 1/2 hour wait and the place was bustling. It is the land of Microsoft, but even so, I wondered how the shopping center was faring, how filled up those condos are…One thing is for sure—the Bellevue traffic is a nightmare.