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Capitol Hill food+drink | Machiavelli’s new owners are familiar faces

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  • “We’re all family being together for all these years,” Suzette Jarding says of the more than a decade she and Javier Arevalo-Gonzalez have spent working side by side with Machiavelli’s long-time owners Tom and Linda McElroy.

If that’s the case, then Jarding and Arevalo-Gonzalez are celebrating their inheritance. With the McElroys stepping down from running the restaurant they opened at Melrose and Pine in 1988, the two longtime employees are taking over the reins and are part of the new ownership at the long-loved Capitol Hill eatery.


“It’s just a great neighborhood place. We have so many great neighborhood customers,” Jarding says of her new acquisition — the first restaurant she’s owned and her only place of employ since coming to Seattle from South Dakota in 1999.

Jarding is taking over the place — and will continue to serve Machiavelli customers

Arevalo-Gonzalez’s kitchen crew

Jarding says the menu hasn’t changed much since and still features favorites like the roasted red pepper penne and the chicken Milanese. She also said the intention is to Machiavelli focused on the same things that have worked for years.

“We want people to know that we’ll be operating business as usual,” Jarding said. “Tom and linda will always be part of the restaurant.”

It seems to be the season for couples behind long-time Hill businesses to hang ’em up and retire. Diane and Jim DeAmbrosio just stepped aside and shuttered Brocklind’s . Meanwhile, the couple behind another Capitol Hill Italian restaurant with a strong history opted for a different sort of ownership change as CHS reported on the new ownership at La Spiga  as Pietro Borghesi and Sabrina Tinsley have brought in additional investors as they continue to run their 12th Ave osteria.

At Melrose and Pine, the changes at Machiavelli are a family affair. “We have kids bringing dates to prom at the restaurant that we waited on when they were 5 years old,” Jarding says. “You end up seeing the progression of life through Machiavelli.”

You can read more about Machiavelli’s 25-year-old history on the Hill at machiavellis.com.

  • Nope. Machiavelli never did get its sign back.
  • CORRECTION: Last week, CHS reported on the new project from Maximillien creator Willy Boutillier on Capitol Hill — Le Zinc. We mistakenly reported that Maximillien chef Christian Potvin would be part of the 15th/Pine Le Zinc project. We have been corrected! Joining Boutillier in the venture is business partner business partner Axel Mace.
  • The Social is battling the state to get its liquor license back. That’s a tough number for a dance club.
  • Soon at Little Uncle: beer and wine to go.
  •  Ethan Stowell opened Bar Cottoover the weekend. It’s 1,000 square-feet, shares a chef and specializes in cocktails and light meals. But it’s not an expansion of Anchovies and Olives.
  • Latest Capitol Hill food+drink Portlandia episode involves a mobile food start-up serving pancakes on a stick. Hilarity — and lunch! — ensues.
  • Sun Liquor is doing Monday “industry” brunch. Joins Broadway’s Americana with the brunch on weekdays thing. Seems genius — especially as more and more people have weekends that include a Tuesday.
  • Have you tried the Broadway Alley’s newest resident Barriga Llena? The torteria’s “full belly” sandwich is worth a visit.
  • State bill could open Capitol Hill wine shop shelves to craft liquor.
  • Capitol Hill mixers were among the competitors at the recent Speed Rack lady bartender contest. CHS has pictures!
  • Soon popular on the Hill: cheesy video game + beer dispenser.
  • More reasons for people to sneer at Von Trapp’s two-liter beer glasses shaped like a boot. CHS would drink it — if the glass was shaped like Das Boot.
  • Seattle noir: “I was greedily gobbling up grits and grillades at The Wandering Goose one brisk, sunny morning in January when a woman blew in from the cold, bundled to the chin in gray woolens, long, wavy hair flowing behind her.
  • From the CHS Flickr pool, Liberty tender Nik Virrey mixes it ugly style. Thanks to Aaron Brethorst for the photo that will either earn the Liberty regular free drinks for life or a knuckle sandwich depending on how good a sport Virrey is.

Nik Virrey, originally uploaded by aaronbrethorst.
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4 Comments
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kerry
kerry
11 years ago

No reason to sneer at the boots at Von Trapps, beer boots are authentically German-American. (You can even get a boot at Feierabend). Save your sneers for everything else there.

Plandad
11 years ago

The only change that I would like for Machiavelli would be to be open on Sunday.

aaronbrethorst
11 years ago

I took *good* photos of Nik, as well ;-)

Kim
Kim
11 years ago

We love everything about Machiavelli’s! Best Wishes to Suzette and Javier! Can’t wait for the Parmesan Chicken!