Two small Valley businesses win King County awards

King County Executive Dow Constantine has chosen The Grange in Duvall and Miller’s in Carnation as two winners of the 2024 King County Executive’s Small Business Awards.

Constantine announced the winners at an awards event Oct. 7. This year’s small business of the year categories included rural, exporting, workforce development, minority-owned, woman-owned, creative economy, green/sustainable and general small business. Each category had three finalists, but The Grange and Miller’s won their categories of green/sustainable small business and rural small business, respectively.

“This event really recognizes the courage and resiliency of our small businesses and, really, desiring to be an entrepreneur,” said Sandy Hanks, manager of business development for King County.

Businesses can either nominate themselves for the awards or be nominated by fellow businesses or organizations. Nominees must be located in King County, have been in business for at least three years and have 50 employees or less. This year, King County received roughly 380 nominations.

“We call on our cities and our chambers and business associations to look around in their communities and identify small businesses who are doing well or thriving and adding to the vibrancy of their towns and to nominate them for recognition,” Hanks said.

The Grange, Duvall: Green/Sustainable Small Business of the Year

Co-owner Sarah Cassidy nominated her farm-to-table restaurant, The Grange, for the green/sustainable category after receiving an email about the awards.

“I was like, ‘Green business — we got this,’” she said.

The green/sustainable award recognizes “excellence in the creation and implementation of sustainable business practices,” according to King County. Cassidy and her husband, Luke Woodward, have been operating the restaurant for six years while also operating Hearth Farm, which supplies most of the restaurant’s produce and pork.

At The Grange, local produce makes it way into everything, from pizza to elegant entrees to cocktails.

“It’s always been the plan to keep organic food on the menu in winter, spring, summer and fall,” she said. “We feel really strongly about keeping agricultural land vibrant and productive and keeping the surrounding community eating from that rich soil.”

In the “chicken or the egg” scenario, Hearth Farm came first. Owning The Grange, Cassidy said, was a way to make use of the farm’s product, and she and Woodward are farmers at heart. In this way, The Grange stands out from its local counterparts.

“We kind of feel like The Grange is the working man’s farm-to-table,” she said.

This work is Cassidy and Woodward’s passion and mission, but Cassidy admitted running both businesses has been no small feat, and the award is appreciated.

“It’s really nice to get the recognition for being a farm-to-table with a farm attached to our table,” she said.

Miller’s, Carnation: Rural Small Business of the Year

Miller’s co-owner Nancy Colton isn’t quite sure what her business’s opening date was — the grand opening was originally scheduled for March 2020, and “time was broken back then.”

But in the last four years (give or take a pandemic), the music and event venue has evolved into a true community gathering place. Miller’s hosts everything from live music to country line dancing to weddings — and it’s even been the site of a Super Bowl party. It’s small enough to be homey, Colton said, but can hold up to 99 people.

“Miller’s is a place where arts happen and gathering happens. Everybody’s welcome. It’s inclusive,” she said. “We just didn’t know when we started which was going to take off. We just kept trying new things, and we continue that process of trying new things.”

According to the King County website, the rural small business award is for “excellence in one of the traditional rural industry clusters — agriculture, forestry, equine, home-based or other.” Colton isn’t sure who nominated Miller’s, but she is appreciative of the recognition. Like Cassidy, Colton acknowledged the difficulty of running a small business and said the award was encouraging.

“It helps to put us on the map a little bit more because we aren’t as well known — we live in a town with one stoplight,” she said. “To win that award just says, ‘Hey, good job. Just keep going.’”

Miller’s has a long history, starting with the building’s construction in 1925. In 1940, Howard Miller bought it and renamed it Miller’s Dry Goods, which he ran with his wife until 1982. Lee Grumman, former Carnation city councilmember, purchased the space in 2004, and Miller gave her his blessing to run it as Miller’s Community and Arts Center. Grumman later changed it to Miller’s Mercantile, a general store that showcased local art.

Before Grumman passed away from cancer in 2018, she asked Colton and her husband Bill Pritchard, close friends of hers, if they would take over Miller’s and “carry on the torch,” Colton said. Colton and Pritchard are long-time entrepreneurs who have dreamt of owning a business on Carnation’s main strip since they moved to the town in 2000, so it was any easy yes, Colton said.

“We had the same view on art, so it’s a gathering place that’s full of art and community,” she said. “That’s the driving force of what Miller’s is: to bring in the arts, music and a community gathering place.”

Owning a business is hard work, but it helps that Colton and Cassidy have each other, as well as a tight-knit community of other small business owners in the lower Snoqualmie Valley.

“We always commiserate together, and then always celebrate together, too,” Colton said. “As difficult as [the work] can be, it’s very, very rewarding.”