Ballard's Beloved Corner Store & Cafe
Conveniently positioned at the bustling residential corner of 8th Avenue NW and NW 70th Street on the east side of Ballard, Rebecca Rouleau and Bryan Vietmeier’s Take 5 Urban Market embodies the spirit of beloved corner stores of yesterday, with a modern update of serving elevated comfort food seven days a week.
Busy professionals pick up coffee and breakfast sandwiches in the morning before hopping the bus downtown; locals stop in for a sandwich or salad at lunch and a chat with neighbors; kids hurry in for candy or ice cream treats or soda after school — and destination diners from across the region stop in for the famous BLATT, chicken caesar wrap, or whatever sandwich was just spotlighted in the media.
From the made-from-scratch elevated comfort food served fresh daily, to a curated selection of wines, beer, and sodas to a range of pantry staples from everyday dairy products and eggs to gourmet pastas, sauces, and other specialty food items—even a cup of sugar if you need it in a pinch—our customers love the selection they can find as much as the sense of community we’ve built.
Meet the Take 5 Owners
Executive Chef, Bryan Vietmeier
Bryan’s first job — a paper route — had him walking past the building that now houses Take 5 every day. He was “the cook” for his family of seven back then. “On those dark, cold, rainy mornings at age 13, I would never have thought my life would bring me back to the same Ballard neighborhood where I grew up, this time cooking for the neighborhood.” Bryan remembers.
His first job as a cook was also in the neighborhood: He presided over the grill at the Market Street McDonald’s his junior and senior year at Ballard High School. “In those days, the food was actually cooked,” says Bryan. “Almost from scratch.” It was under the Golden Arches that he learned some of the basics of kitchen organization and teamwork he still uses today.
Since then, Bryan has worked in the kitchens of several prominent restaurants, including many of Seattle’s waterfront seafood houses, 12 years as a Sous Chef with the Four Seasons Olympic, 7 years as Executive Chef with the former private fine dining club The Harbor Club, three summers in Alaska as chef of a full-service $1,000 a day fishing resort, 5 years as a chef with one of Seattle’s top caterers at the time, Lowell Hunt. “Somewhere in the middle of it all I earned my culinary degree from South Seattle Community College,” Bryan laughs.
He became executive chef at Take 5 in 2008 and co-owner in 2024.
Co-owner and Front of House Manager, Rebecca Rouleau
Take 5 co-owner and front of house manager Rebecca Rouleau was destined-to excel in customer service. Her father, AJ Culver, who worked at NASA on the first Apollo 11 spacecraft and then at Boeing, received the Hall of Fame award for his lifelong dedication to community service for his two terms as Mayor of Issaquah, where she grew up. The apple did not fall far from the tree.
Rebecca graduated from the UW with a degree in landscape architecture, by way of also studying accounting, math, architecture—all skills she uses to this day at Take 5. In mid 90s, she became the beverage manager of The Harbor Club, a former social and business club in downtown Seattle, where she first met Bryan, who was the Executive Chef there.
She then became the Banquet Director at The Golf Club at Newcastle in 2001, where the program consisted of 95 weddings a year plus many other huge events. There were brides in helicopters, with doves, on horseback—you name it, Rebecca pulled it off. “You have to use every tool in your tool belt, and sometimes you don’t have one so you improvise!”
In 2005, she began running the dining program at Broadmoor’s Ida Culver House, an independent/assisted living and Memory Care residence for seniors. This is where her passion for and attention to customer service really took form. Contrary to the restaurants/event facilities she worked at, where a different group of diners are served each day, the diners (residents) were the same every day and she strove to make the one-hour mealtimes the best possible experience she could. Motivated by asking the question, “How do we make these last few years the best possible?” She ultimately created clever programs such as “dining around the world” and July 4 marching band BBQ's and campus-wide local art exhibits with food and wine pairings, plus many others.
She was asked by the Ida Culver House owners (who also run other Era Living properties) to be a part of a new company-wide Customer Service Task Force Committee that created the company’s Mission Statement, Core Values, and taught the staff about the value of relationship building, exceeding expectations and more. When she moved on from that job, she received 200 letters from people telling her what a difference she had made in their lives.
Rebecca joined Take 5 as the front of house manager in 2013.
Take 5 Urban Market's History
In 2008, Take 5 Urban Market was born at the corner of 8th Avenue NW and NW 70th Street in Ballard, in the space of the former Wicker Basket convenience store. Back then, it was owned by Richard Aspen (Bryan’s brother in law) and Bryan Vietmeier was the executive chef.
Rebecca Rouleau joined and established a front of house team in 2013 to build community relationships in the neighborhood, and she remains the front of house powerhouse and face of Take 5 today.
On January 1, 2024, Rebecca & Bryan purchased their brother-in-law’s portion of their beloved market, finally calling it their own. They couldn’t have been happier! You may even spot their college-aged son, Alex, working in the store.
Even a tragic natural gas explosion in May, 2024, that shuttered the store for nearly a year couldn’t stop them. The neighborhood rallied with an abundance of support. “We really learned how much the community meant to us, but also how much we meant to the community,” remembers Rebecca of that time.
When Rebecca and Bryan reopened in April, 2025, Take 5’s presence in the community grew exponentially. One of the newest features is the cushy, sought-after community corner booth where customers can sit, catch up and enjoy their food. Since then, Take 5 has morphed into a wonderful gathering spot for young and old alike to enjoy the great food and drinks, atmosphere and the warm customer service.
Co-owners Rebecca Rouleau and Bryan Vietmeier relax outside Take 5