In Anchorage, Alaska, there is a plethora of local businesses amongst the corporate chains. In the last two years a surprising amount of new businesses have been opening all over town. Some of the new businesses popping up include The Writers Block, Market Juice, and TK Korean BBQ and Sushi.

Writer’s Block is a cafe and bookstore located on 3956 Spenard Rd where locals go to read, write, or even recite poetry. One of our very own teachers at West Anchorage High School, Adam Mackie, was just recently featured to recite his poetry at a Poetry Parley on March 21. Writer’s Block is the newest business in town having only opened on March 9th.

Vered Mares, one of the four owners, said that first got the idea to open up Writer’s Block after Out North Contemporary Art House closed “We saw that there was a big hole that was left in the wake of The Outnorth closing,” she said. The plan for Writers Block started in 2012/2013, in 2015 the owners bought the property and then after the two years of construction it finally opened in early 2018.

Another popular new business is Market Juice, a cold pressed juice shop located on 2601 Spenard Rd. Market juice, while not as recent as Writer’s block opened in July of 2017. Sarah Glasset along, with her brother, own the store together and have recently made plans to expand next door into a newly opened store front in the complex.

Glasset is very health conscious and believes very strongly in the process in juicing and when picking out the flavors for the menu “I look at having well rounded choices.”  Market Juice is right across the street from Anchorage Yoga and Cycle and Organic Oasis so the majority of customers, according to Glasset, are young health conscious people after a yoga class or a quick stop to Organic Oasis.

Lastly there is TK Korean BBQ and Sushi. TK Korean BBQ and Sushi is opening for business this upcoming Saturday. It was previously Hawaiian sushi, however the woman who was running the restaurant has an aneurysm recently and now cant run the restaurant. The woman leasing the property to her is Chung Sanders who now is revamping Hawaiian sushi into TK Korean BBQ and Sushi.

Sanders came to America in 1960 and has been working in the restaurant business since. She said that it was always her dream to own her own restaurant and that she originally opened in 1980 when she moved up to Alaska, “That’s why I opened a restaurant, I had a dream” Sanders had a Sushi years before Hawaiian sushi opened but decided it was time to retire and decided to start leasing the restaurant and so it became Hawaiian sushi.