Post navigation

Prev: (12/25/12) | Next: (12/26/12)

Capitol Hill food+drink | Pie Bar, Kedai Makan coming to E Olive Way

We know. You can’t eat another bite. But there’s always room for pie… bar. Send tips here.

  • Imagine a set of “identical mirror twins.” One is an “intoxicating mixologist” — the other, a baker of pies. No, this is not CHS’s 2013 HUMP! entry — Pie Bar is coming to Capitol Hill.

“We wanted to create something sinful,” says Alyssa Lewis. “There is nothing I love more than having a piece of my marionberry pie with a frosty Organic Fishtale Amber.”


Over the first months of 2013, Lewis and sister Natalie Delucchi will be hard at work creating Pie Bar in the space left behind by  Saley’s move down Olive Way. Look for an early spring opening.

At the overhauled shop, you’ll find beer, wine and cocktails and a menu piled hight with pies sweet and savory including fruit pies, savory pot pies, quiches and cream pies. A walk-up window will begin serving slices for those on the go every day at 2 PM. You’ll probably want to try the marionberry pie suffused with St. Johns Wort. Prices will run around $4 for a slice — $3.75 during a planned 3-6 PM happy hour. Whole pies will clock in at $17 or $15 for a goat cheese or a pork, basil cheddar quiche. 

We don’t which is which or who is who (Images: Pie Bar)

Meanwhile, as much as the idea invokes images of unfortunate things floating in your drink, you might also try a “pie infused” pietini. “What is a Pietini, one might wonder? It’s a fascinating experience!,” the sisters’ write-up on their venture puts forth. “Combine local distilled vodka with pie.”

OK, we trust you, sisters. We’ll try it… once. CHS is nothing if not good, giving and game.

After all, these two aren’t exactly new to the business. Lewis’s pies already drew a crowd to Magnolia of all places for her Seattle Pie Company shop. It shuttered to start 2012 with some crazy talk of starting a floating pie barge in South Lake Union. In the meantime, Lewis has been working to finish her book, Pie Girl, and “gunkholing” in the San Juan Islands. Delucchi and her husband Dustin, who runs a Granite Falls-based masonry and construction company, round out the partnership.

When it opens in spring. Pie Bar will be the second pie-focused entity on the Hill. Entrepreneur Dani Cone opened here High 5 Pie bakery and cafe at 12th and Madison in December 2010.

Pie Bar will join forces with new neighbors Speckled & Drake and John John’s Gameroom to form one of the quirkier strips of Capitol Hill nightlife. Speckled & Drake took over the old Living Room space to create a Brooklyn-infused, Pacific Northwest-style hangout, while John John’s brought the Add-a-Ball gang to Capitol Hill for beer and pinball. Looked at in aggregate, lower E Olive Way has traded a place hipster DJs really liked to hang out, the funky Faire Cafe and Gallery and crepes for a place hipster DJs really liked to hang out, pinball and pie. What this tells us about the future, we’ll let you sort out.

  • We can tell you more about the future of E Olive Way, however. It’s Malaysian.

Broadway Farmers Market faves Kedai Makan are supplanting Tacos Gringos and making its take on Malaysian street food the bar food solution at the expanding Montana.

KM’s Kevin Burzell and Alysson Wilson spilled some early details of the plan here: 

Official hours and menus are still in flux, but Burzell says he intends to carry on the Taco Gringos tradition of serving late-night drinking food–it will just be from a different continent.The tiny storefront, essentially a walkup counter with a trio of seats, may be a modest space, but it’s a huge step up from a tent and generator-powered burners. Kedai Makan hopes to be up and running in its new space by mid-January.

Earlier this year, CHS reported on Rachel Marshall’s decision to move her Rachel’s Ginger Beer operation off of E Olive Way to make room for her Montana venture to expand.

Kedai Makan will continue its search for a fixed-place restaurant space to call home. We thought KM might be one of those sniffing around the old Skelly & the Bean space after its turn rotating through the community kitchen.

As for Tacos Gringos, what is there to say? It sprung forth for late night chow needs in fall of 2007 and remained an aloof, chowhound experience. We don’t know who owned it but we’re sure somebody out there will miss the 8 PM openings and late night gamble on finding out if the tiny shop would actually be open. Or not. Adios, amigo.

 

This week’s CHS food+drink advertiser directory

Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

12 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
seattlebear
11 years ago

I’m happy to see the Malaysian place getting their own space but I also really enjoyed Tacos Gringos. Great tacos and fun guys.

Jason
11 years ago

Much as I love pie and Kedai Makan’s food, I will truly miss Gringos. They’ve been my late night go-to place for years. I hope to see them somewhere nearby soon.

Cody
Cody
11 years ago

I look forward to a pie place close to my apartment, and hope it produces a better product then what comes out of High 5.

snark
11 years ago

Ugh. Liquor is the last thing the scuzzy, dirty Online Cafe needs.

jz
jz
11 years ago

Some background on Tacos Gringos, which will be missed: http://cityartsonline.com/issues/seattle/2012/08/taco-salvat

Chef Thunder
Chef Thunder
11 years ago

Yes I hope this place makes pie worth eating.

dod
dod
11 years ago

I can’t wait to have Kedai Makan in the hood on a regular basis. I have fallen in love with their dishes and think it’s a great addition to the neighborhood. I only visited Taco Gringos once. It wasn’t for the lack of trying. They were never open when I stopped by.

Bright Lights
11 years ago

“No, this is not CHS’s 2013 HUMP! entry” Slightly incest joke. Really? I’m sure the sisters LOVED reading this.

SeattleSeven
SeattleSeven
11 years ago

Curmudgeon

lilsue
11 years ago

Correct me if I am mistaken but didn’t the gal from Seattle Pie Company go out of business partly because she put lard in her crusts and didn’t advertise so? I hope her business practices have improved because that just does not fly.

Uncle Vinny
Uncle Vinny
11 years ago

This really makes me sad. For $2, their tacos were incredible taste sensations. I woulda paid $3, and told them so regularly.

vanessa
11 years ago

I love Taco Gringos. Does anyone know why they closed? Landlord issues (seems to happen all over the hill)? Tired of spending every night at work? Lack of business (they always seemed pretty busy)?