By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

As Rod and Judy Neldam crisscrossed Seattle for the perfect spot to open a neighborhood bakery, they felt the most important ingredient would be "a place that had a regular, hometown feeling."

They found it in Wedgwood.

"It's like being in a small town and not being in part of a big city," says Judy Neldam, co-owner of Wedgwood's Grateful Bread.

With its flower boxes, amateur artwork and mismatched wooden chairs, the 2-year-old bakery fits Wedgwood like a favorite pair of worn jeans. The Neldams even keep a water bowl out front for the local hounds that lounge outside as their masters linger over coffee, breads, soups and tasty pastries.

Life is a little slower in Wedgwood. It has more in common with Ballard than it does with Capitol Hill. Once the caffeinated commuters clear out, Wedgwood can seem darn right sleepy, in a pleasant, tree-lined sort of way.

There's no jockeying for position in the checkout lines at Matthew's Red Apple Market, where seemingly half the adults in the neighborhood once bagged groceries. Now many of their kids do.

Wedgwood's post office and library are other informal greeting spots, where snippets of news about school functions and neighborhood events are exchanged.

By noon, the regulars are filing into the Wedgwood Broiler, a longtime eatery known for prime rib and steaks.

"It's a prune-and-raisins neighborhood," says Jack Robinson, describing the place where he grew up and later bought his childhood home from his mom.

A lot of Wedgwood residents are retired or close to it -- hence the prunes, explains Robinson. Wedgwood also has a lot of young families -- the raisins, says Robinson, president of the community council.

If recent home sales are any indication, the scales appear to be tipping in favor of young families moving into the neighborhood, says Robinson, "which is great. It adds a new dynamic to the community."

In the words of one longtime resident, Wedgwood "was a middle-class residential, family-oriented area, and it pretty much still is."

Continued:

• Even the business district is small-town cozy
• From rats to schools, active council works to enhance community