Let it Bean closure will add another teensy, tiny hole on Broadway

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The “permanent closure” notice posted at Let it Bean. Thanks to Mark and many others for sending pictures to us

We’ve been surprised before by the coffee shack’s business resiliency but this just might really be the end. Yet another hole — this one, teensy, tiny — is about to be torn in Broadway’s business fabric. Let it Bean is set to close this coming weekend.

Owner Candace Smith confirmed the closure plans with CHS earlier this month. It has been no secret. Smith posted a note to let customers know what was coming.

Smith tells CHS the 80-square-foot coffee stand in the teriyaki restaurant parking lot at Broadway and Harrison, despite its grandmothered usage allowing it to operate as a drive-thru, just doesn’t generate enough business to cover costs. “I’m closing because the rent and labor costs are too high for where our sales are,” she writes. “Coffee is a hard product to charge more for.” Continue reading →

Shooting of anti-fascist at UW biggest scar on Seattle’s peaceful weekend of protest

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University of Washington Police are investigating after an anti-fascist protester was shot during ongoing fighting in the crowds that gathered on the campus Friday night. The shooter has been identified and released from custody pending the investigation.

“We’re spending a great deal of time sorting through video we have received from the public and others,” Major Steve Rittereiser of UWPD tells CHS. Rittereiser tells CHS the department’s detectives are identifying witnesses and setting up interviews, a process that will stretch out over the coming days. A vehicle in the case has also been impounded and is being examined for evidence. Continue reading →

What Capitol Hill’s new Kelly Springfield office building will look like

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“But we just ate at the Capitol Hill Cafe yesterday” (whiny voice)
You’ll see these old beams again

Here is a Pike/Pine history lesson. In 2013, CHS reported on a mixed-use apartment, office, and commercial development being planned to incorporate the 11th Ave block home to the REI-rooted, auto row-era buildings housing The Stranger and Value Village. Nearly four years later, the developers behind the project are ready with what could be the final design for a reduced, apartment-less version of that original plan.

With final design approval Wednesday, the new project will mean an overhaul and new life for Value Village’s old mid-block Kelly-Springfield Motor Truck Company building and its landmark-protected exterior. But thanks to landmark status both inside and out, the lucky old one-time home to White Motor Company next door — where The Stranger still does its thing — at 11th and Pine will live on untouched by the new Kelly Springfield project and its planned 65,000 square feet of office space, 12,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, and parking for around 30 vehicles — none of them probably “motor trucks.”

The project faces what should be its final design review after years of meetings with everything from the design review board, to the landmarks board, to community groups, Wednesday night: Continue reading →

Women’s March stretches from Central District to the Seattle Center — UPDATE: 120,000

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A defiant and very pink wave or marchers stretched from the Central District to the Seattle Center as women from across the region — and womxn and those who love them all — stood up and hit the streets for reproductive, immigrants, and LGBTQ rights Saturday.

It looked like early estimates of up to 50,000 marchers could have been accurate as the first columns of people arrived at the Seattle Center as the tail end of participants was still leaving the morning rally site at Judkins Park, more than three miles away. UPDATE: The unofficial estimate being used by police is 120,000 people participating in the Seattle march.

“You would not believe the view from up here. It’s nothing but nasty women and pussyhats,” Chris Charbonneau of Planned Parenthood said in her time at the speakers platform to fire up the crowd as thousands gathered Saturday morning. Continue reading →

After 41 years, Dilettante leaving Capitol Hill

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Cakes and Tortes at the Dilettante

The original Dilettante in the 400 block of Broadway E

The original Dilettante in the 400 block of Broadway E

How crappy is this Inauguration Day on Capitol Hill? Even chocolate can’t help you.

The ownership of Broadway’s Dilettante Mocha Café announced Friday afternoon that by the end of January, the “Chocolate Martini Bar” will serve its final desserts in the neighborhood where the company was born:

It is with a heavy heart that we must announce our impending closure. We are sorry to say that we will be closing our doors at the end of business hours on Sunday, January 29th, 2017. We have been proud to be a part of the vibrant Capitol Hill community for 41 great years, sharing our love of espresso, good food, strong drinks, and all things chocolate and dessert. Words cannot express our appreciation for all the memories throughout the years. Thank you!!

A call to the Broadway at Mercer cafe confirmed the closure plans and that the company was planning to keep its other cafes open. A manager told CHS that he was grateful Dilettante’s ownership gave employees a few weeks before closing.

Continue reading →

Seattle’s weekend of anti-Trump protests starts with Capitol Hill student rally — UPDATE

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UPDATE 1/21/2017 8:00 AM: Police announced an arrest overnight in the UW shooting.

SPD also reported that a police vehicle suffered a busted window Friday morning:

Around 9:30 AM, an unidentified person threw a rock through the windshield of a Bellevue Police Department officer’s vehicle—which was assisting Seattle police in the Capitol Hill area.

“No other arrests were made during the day’s demonstrations,” SPD reports.

UPDATE 1/20/17 8:50 PM: Police and Seattle Fire have responded to a reported shooting that witnesses say happened in the crowds assembled outside the UW Yiannopoulos appearance. Seattle Fire says a male victim has been transported to the hospital with “possible life threatening injuries. Police are investigating and the protests continue.

UPDATE 1/20/17 7:30 PM: The marchers were last reported headed north on 10th Ave E toward the University of Washington where protesters have been blocking entrance to a planned appearance by right wing Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos.

UPDATE 1/20/17 7:00 PM: A portion of the Westlake crowd marched through downtown and eventually up Capitol Hill following the downtown rally. The marchers have been peaceful and there have been no reports of significant property damage or arrests. SPD says it seized several dangerous objects from people in the Westlake crowd but did not announce any arrests.

UPDATE 1/20/17 3:00 PM: There were surprises from the start of what is expected to be two days of marches and protests following the inauguration of Donald Trump. Student walkout supporters who rallied at Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central were expected to eventually meet up with El Comite immigrants rights marchers en route from the Central District to a large rally planned Friday night in Westlake. But people were ready to get moving earlier than expected and the student marchers set out for a Central District rendezvous with the immigrants rights march. They met on S Jackson before 3 PM and set a new course together for Westlake Park, about 600 strong.

Before the marchers hit the streets, District 3 representative and Socialist Alternative party leader Kshama Sawant warmed up the crowd of students from schools from across Seattle and their supporters. Continue reading →

Clever Dunne’s steps aside as Hula Hula finds new home on Capitol Hill

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424190_336299219726477_1421862183_nOne classic Seattle nightspot will replace another on Capitol Hill. Tini Bigs sibling the Hula Hula Lounge will move into the longtime E Olive Way home of Clever Dunne’s.

Beyond trading an Irish pub for a divey tiki joint, the change will mean a longtime corner of Capitol Hill nightlife will stay in motion, free from a new “condo” building for now.

“We got a very fair deal, this isn’t like we were pushed out,” Dunne’s Jamie Saling told CHS Friday afternoon now that the ink is dry on the deal for the owner of Tini Bigs and the Hula Hula to take over the 14-year-old Capitol Hill pub. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Sanctuary at St. Mark’s

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dsc00160Born into the painful years following the Great Depression, Capitol Hill’s St. Mark’s Cathedral has helped provide a space for shelter and contemplation during hard times before. Sanctuary, a new artwork woven through with pop culture and politics was installed earlier this Inauguration Week and now hangs the length of the Cathedral Nave’s southeast pillar:

Through woven texts, sheet music, DVDs, and archival documents affixed to the textile’s face, the work integrates popular and sacred music, a supernatural soap opera, and records of gay politics, sexuality, and culture in Seattle. Sanctuary brings together craft, sociopolitical, and personal histories.

Continue reading →

Sound Transit trying to sort out how best to keep Capitol Hill Station escalators moving

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Ongoing maintenance issues have Sound Transit considering doing away with escalators altogether — in future stations. At Capitol Hill Station, however, the one-year warranty has expired and the frequently out of service moving stairways will continue to be an ongoing nuisance on the 65-foot journey to and from the light rail platform. Continue reading →

One year, 250,000 pints of Optimism

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Hakala and Gilmore, left, along with the Optimism crew (Images: CHS)

Happy birthday to brew, Optimism Brewery.

Optimism Brewery opened its doors at Broadway and Union in December 2015 and is celebrating one year of making beer on Capitol Hill this weekend.

Gay Gilmore, who founded the brewery with her husband Troy Hakala, said they always dreamed of opening the brewery in their home neighborhood on Capitol Hill, and the support they’ve received has been hugely rewarding.

“The response has been so awesome, we just want to say thank you,” Gilmore said.

In the first year, 61,000 people visited Optimism’s taproom, and the brewery has sold 1,000 barrels or 124,000 250,000 pints of beer. In addition to Capitol Hill-brewed beer, Optimism’s-16,000 square-foot brewery has become a popular space for politicians, city officials, nonprofits, and residents to hold parties and events. Continue reading →

County health officials sign off on safe consumption sites — now, where to put them?

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A mock safe consumption site came to Cal Anderson in 2016 (Image: CHS)

A mock safe consumption site came to Cal Anderson in 2016 (Image: CHS)

The locations are far from final and another round of official approval lies ahead but the creation of a safe consumption site pilot in King County — possibly the first such program in the nation — moved ahead Thursday as the Board of Health unanimously approved recommendations from a task force assembled to stem the tide of opioid addiction and deaths.

Thursday’s 12-0 vote paves the way for the creation of two safe injection sites somewhere in King County. Officials are quick to add that no candidate sites have yet been made public. That important and crucial detail will fall to the executive branch in King County and Seattle as Dow Constantine and Mayor Ed Murray are now on the clock to present plans to make the sites reality. Continue reading →