Jody Hall, owner of Cupcake Royale, when asked by Seattle P-I restaurant critic Rebekah Denn why she chose Capitol Hill for Cupcake Royale’s fourth store (at 1111 E. Pike) responded:

“I really believe that Capitol Hill is the heartbeat of the city in terms of culture, activism, arts, community, great restaurants, great coffeehouses, etc.,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I’ve lived on Capitol Hill for the last 12 years — so I’ve been waiting a long time for this chance.”

No surprise that a cupcake maven and Starbucks marketing alum knows how to butter her target market up before the big launch, but a compliment’s a compliment. We’ll take it.

One interesting side note that hasn’t yet been discussed on this topic: the launch of Cupcake Royale in Capitol Hill should also mean the introduction of Caffe Umbria’s fine, fine coffee to the Hill (via Hall’s Verite Coffee). That’ll mean access to Caffe Vita, Stumptown, and Umbria within a 3-block radius. The “heartbeat of the city” just sped up a little.

[Update: Cupcake Royale let me know via email that they use Stumptown Coffee, not Umbria Coffee. They were actually the first in Seattle to serve Stumptown. I was working off of an old Seattle PI article from February 2004. Evidently some of the details of coffee procurement have changed in the five years since that article.]