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• After five years on E Pine, the owners behind Capitol Hill’s Poco Wine Bar are looking for somebody to take over the business. Here’s some of the note sent out to their newsletter subscribers this weekend by Peter Moore and Bart Reynolds:

As corny as it might sound, we opened Poco in 2006 as a way of giving back to the neighborhood. We really love wine, and we love that special groove you only get in a good wine bar. Sharing that with neighbors, friends, and visitors has been a dream come true in more ways than we ever imagined. If you’ve ever thrown a really successful party, you can understand how much fun we’ve had doing this.

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This has been a fantastic time in our lives, so deciding to move on hasn’t come easy. But the timing is right to change our focus from Poco to spend more time with family and to new projects. Besides, there’s not much more that we can give to the business that we haven’t already given.

We’re hoping to find a buyer who wants to take Poco to the next level, whatever that turns out to be. We’ve had our turn, and now its up to somebody else to take this little wine bar that we love and make it into something new and something even better.

If you love Poco like we do, don’t worry. We aren’t going anywhere right away. Poco remains open and ready with great wine, great food, and great company as always. Come on by and enjoy it!

No price tag, yet, we’re told — yup, of course we asked — for the “buyer who has heart and imagination that exceeds our own.”

• No buyer, it seems, for the Varro lounge concept. We reported on a Craigslist-powered fire sale last week.
• In last Monday’s food+drink notes, we made a big deal about two burger joints and a new sandwich shop opening on Capitol Hill. The burger joints didn’t open over the weekend — Blue Moon was delayed a week and should open later this week and Lil’ Woody’s has been playing it cool and talking up a mid-this week opening. We had preview pics from Blue Moon and from Woody’s. Meanwhile, we said Broadway’s Grubwich would follow everybody and up a little later in the month. Um, good call. Grubwich apparently beat everybody out the chute this weekend. UPDATE: Lil’ Woody’s is now open, too. Blue Moon? Any day now. You could always crash this Tuesday night tasting party.
• Speaking of gear for sale, need a La Marzocco espresso machine? Electric Tea Garden is selling theirs in the free CHS Classifieds.
• New E Olive Way club The Social is gearing up for an August opening but not before they’ve completed a few thousand dollar sound proofing upgrade. We’re hoping to write more about that and the other Social plans before they open their doors.
• From the Seattle Weekly: “According to Pizza Marketplace, Mod Pizza is one of five chains positioned to ‘be the Chipotle of the pizza industry.’ Its competitors for customer-designed pizza dominance include Top That!, an Oklahoma operation that got its start in a retrofitted Quizno’s; Pie-ology, a California brand that utilizes a hot-burning, open-flame oven; Pie Five, masterminded by the 50-year old Pizza Inn chain; and Uncle Maddio’s Pizza Joint, backed by a Moe’s Southwestern Grill founder.”
  • Poppy’s Jerry Traunfeld does mall food, consulting on the menu for a new University Village restaurant.
• Hrm. Can a karaoke bar really have sidewalk cafe seating? Rock Box can. Or plans to, at least.
• In a long anticipated return of activity to the Central District corner, the old Philly’s restaurant at 23rd and Union is now Beehive Bakery and started serving up well-regarded cinnamon rolls this weekend.
• Also in the Central District and a sign that you are getting really, really old, Twilight Exit now welcomes children on the weekends.
• CHS go-to Thai provider on 15th Ave E, Jamjuree also plans to add outdoor seating making sidewalk walking in the area pretty much perfectly ridiculous. As long as folks in wheelchairs, scooters and Segway man can get through, we’re all for the increasingly crazy stretch of Hilltop sidewalk.
• Victrola loves 15th Ave, too. This Saturday, the coffee shop is holding a party to celebrate:

15th Ave Neighborhood Appreciation Day!

We love you 15th (and it is obvious that you love us back)! Thank you (and you and you)!

We can’t wait to celebrate. Neighborhood Appreciation Day: August 13th, 3-7ish, with $2 Odin beers on tap, cheep tasty food and Eric Miller playing music. It’s going to be AWESOME. Join us (wear your best gingham, you look so good in it).Best & Love,Victrola

You might recall that in winter 2008, the Capitol Hill-based mini chain was sold to Whidbey Island Coffee, Co. but it hasn’t really skipped a beat and continues to pack in the 15th Ave crowds.

Poco Wine Room and Big Mario’s are CHS advertisers.