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Capitol Hill food+drink | Manhattan Drugs fills in 12th Ave puzzle, VPC burgled, fire away at Canon?

Your life on in Manhattan Drugs (Image: Chris Pardo)

While you grilled and applied sunblock liberally (we hope), CHS labored to bring you this, a special Tuesday edition of our always finger-licking good food+drink notes. Got a tip? Mail us.

 

  • When we reported the departure of retailer Izilla Toys from its space on 12th Ave wedged between Pacific Hardware, La Spiga and Plum, we would have bet on a new food and drink purveyor moving in despite a lack of paperwork filed with the city indicating so. It’s time to collect. CHS has learned that Manhattan Drugs, generator of much buzz last week and, perhaps, one of the final pieces of the Laura Olson and Chris Pardo-powered Capitol Hill food+drink puzzle, will be take over the former toy store space on 12th Ave. Here’s more from Pardo:

    We have two partners in Manhattan Drugs, the General manager and co-owner is Corey St John. He grew up in Renton and has been in the restaurant business for over 15 years now residing a few blocks from the restaurant. Manhattan Drugs was a local pharmacy located in Normandy Park that closed it’s doors 2009.



    It was locally owned and operated for 51 years. They were successful providing great customer service and being the go to place for all their customers advice and needs.Corey and I came across their old neon sign for sale about a year ago and dug into the history. We wanted create a place where our customers become our friends a welcome place to fill your comfort needs on Capitol Hill. Manhattan Drugs is designed to be a place where you can go for lunch or dinner enjoy a great steak or hamburger and an ice cold beer for a reasonable price. The decor is based on community allowing everyone to interact and unwind. 

    We’ll have to check in on the fourth partner. State paperwork only lists St. John, Pardo and Olson.

    Manhattan Drugs will join the conjoined Po Dog and Auto Battery and Grim’s and its upstairs little buddy The Woods in serving Capitol Hill’s eaters and drinkers as part of Olson and Pardo’s Pterodactyl Group investment and development corporation. In coming weeks, the group will also open the Social nightclub and restaurant on E Olive Way. Pterodactyl also has its talons in a University District bar and is developing a boutique hotel concept for Ballard. All of these have come into shape in rapid fashion since Po Dog started off the parade back in 2009.

    We asked Pardo if Manhattan Drugs is the final piece of the group’s Capitol Hill empire. “The last piece sounds very final, but there are no other Capitol Hill projects in the works at this time,” Pardo said. “We think Pike/Pine needs a retail presence so hopefully we can support growth in that area, currently it is very difficult to maintain a strong retail storefront on the Hill.”

    The 12th Ave location was home to Izilla for a year after it moved upstairs to replace Retrofit Home when it moved around the corner to E Pike. In a juicy twist for architect Pardo, the new restaurant will be directly above the subterranean offices of Graham Baba, the firm the Seattle Times said had the “blueprint for hot new restaurants” earlier this summer. “I greatly respect Graham Baba’s work and am happy to be adding another architect designed venue next to their great work on the Piston & Ring building,” Pardo said of his new downstairs neighbors.

    Manhattan Drugs is planning a November opening. You can learn more on Facebook.

  • Also on 12th Ave, Momijicoming soon.
  • Also also on 12th. Canon is open? We had pictures and a preview here.
  • The Volunteer Park Cafe saga with the Department of Planning and Development finally drew to a close last week. By the way, Crosscut and Ronald Holden, if you’ve taken the time to read our coverage and include a link to a document we posted, go ahead and link to our coverage, yes? Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…
  • From the warped timing department, VPC was burglarized last Friday:
  • First look inside Capitol Hill’s new bear bar Diesel
  • LA burger bar concept 8 oz. to fill in where Tidbit Bistro left.
  • Pony turned two, got a NSFW but SFD(rinking) makeover.
  • Man tries to eat Lil’ Woody’s giant burger, fails.
  • Zaw Capitol Hill has new delivery zones.
  • Experienced, Professional bartender wanted on Capitol Hill: “Hiring bartenders for Super busy cap-hill restaurant. Bartenders must have 4-6 years experience bartending as well as a mixology certification. We are looking for professional, fast, courteous mature workers. “
  • Unicorn needs a line cook.
  • UK’s Telegraph: “Capitol Hill is Seattle’s hip/cool, gay/lesbian neighbourhood, with a college-town atmosphere. (It is, in fact, home to Seattle University.) Greg took me on a ‘best’ pilgrimage. Best ice cream: Molly Moon. Best juice joint/health-food boutique: Healeo. Best coffee: Victrola Coffee Roasters. Best bookstore: Elliot Bay Books. Best ballroom dancing: Century Ballroom. Best yoga: Samadhi.” Nice work, Greg.
  • Panic at the disco. Not really. R Place fire alarm shenanigans.
  • First Hill’s Vito’s celebrates its first year since re-boot: “Save the date!!! Friday, September 16th is our 1 year anniversary and we are going to throw a bash you won’t soon forget. See you there.”
  • Eat out, help worthy Capitol Hill orgs. Eat Out on Capitol Hill supports Country Doctor Clinic on September 13th. On September 30th, multiple food and drink purveyors get together for Omnivorous to support Capitol Hill Housing at the Century Ballroom.

This week’s CHS food+drink advertiser directory

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11 Comments
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Residual
12 years ago

I mean vegatarian options?

Aaron Castleberri
Aaron Castleberri
12 years ago

All space on the hill to be food joints?

And, expensive, back from vacation, now I realize how Seattle is over charging for food, booze, not so much.

I know rents are high, but, getting to be a bit much.

Mary-Alice
Mary-Alice
12 years ago

I love Victrola, I really do — but Vivace has the best coffee on Capitol Hill.

zeebleoop
12 years ago

it’s a steak and burger place. if there are options, they’ll likely be very limited. but plum is next door. there are sure to be vegetarian options there.

and it does look like there’ll be taxidermy (on the back wall in the rendering). hopefully the food will be better than the interior design.

JFD
JFD
12 years ago

“the best hamburger in Seattle, plus steaks and multiple macaroni and cheeses.”

‘Ugh this kind of lazy menu is becoming as tired as thai food around here.’

Is what I was going to say. But if MD can actually step up and serve some great examples of these staples, WITHOUT PEER, then this place would rock. Keep your prices reasonable for really good food, and you will make the profit by volume in customers served. A great example of how to do it right is http://www.mulleadyspub.com/ I got a great steak with morel gravy fries the other day for fourteen bucks. Kitschy hill ‘more bar than eatery’ would probably cost upwards of twenty/twenty five.

As someone who spends hundreds in our local restaurants and bars a month, I’m personally skeptical about Olson’s ability to deliver a space like this that will work for the long run. I look forward to investigating this latest offering.

/rambling post is rambling.

jfd
jfd
12 years ago

“We think Pike/Pine needs a retail presence so hopefully we can support growth in that area, currently it is very difficult to maintain a strong retail storefront on the Hill.”

– this is also awesome.

15th Ave E
15th Ave E
12 years ago

But it’s the Asian selections that astound. Loose tea. Green tea. Black tea. Bag tea. Tea moulded in disks like Frisbees. The largest selection of sake in the North West. Sushi galore. A brand of canned vegetables called “Western Family.” Not to mention Egg and Spam Musubi (rice and grilled spam wrapped in seaweed – a Hawaiian obsession, says the internet).

Western Family: Special Northwest-Asian delicacies! I did not know…

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
12 years ago

geeze, somebody needs to do some more research for their articles if they think Western Family canned vegetables is exotic. Or maybe Red Apple is exotic now, too?

Canned green beans, or creamed corn– Asian delicacies!

saha
saha
12 years ago

And Bluebird the best ice cream.

Ronald Holden
Ronald Holden
12 years ago

Mea culpa, should have included a link to your coverage of Volunteer Park Cafe sage. Yours was far from the only source, but apologies for the oversight nonetheless.
Ronald

Friendly Neighbor
12 years ago

GAAAWWWWD… Pardo…ANOTHER bar?? find another neighborhood, man. I don’t purchase $17 hotdog dinners at PO DOG, I don’t support GRIM’s for the premise that you drove away Gray, I’m done lobbying the bartenders to play a non-UW game on AT LEAST one TV at AUTO BATTERY, and I’m happy with the OTHER 5 restaurants that serve burgers within a 2 block radius… I keep crossing my fingers that more retail will move to our ‘hood than bars…*sigh*