Chef Chavez (Image: Cantinetta)
Simple, focused, shareable small plates and tacos from Mexico’s northern city of Durango. That’s the concept for Chavez, the latest Capitol Hill restaurant slated for a soft opening — this time, just after Christmas amid a flurry of food and drink news on 12th Ave.
Chavez is a culinary coming home for Duranguense head chef Gabriel Chavez. After five years in the kitchen at Cantinetta, Trevor Greenwood’s Wallingford Italian restaurant, Chavez is taking charge with his hometown favorites in Greenwood’s latest venture.
In addition to a rotating menu of tacos and antojitos (Mexican appetizers), Chavez will also feature one main seafood dish a night and a tasteful-but-not-overblown selection of tequila and mezcal.
In August, CHS wrote about plans for a restaurant going into the street-level space below the 12th and Howell microhousing project. At the time, Greenwood was calling the venture El Correo, inspired by an especially romantic street in Mexico (not, as we had fantasized, the Basque newspaper). Greenwood opted to honor the man behind the food, instead.
“This will be Gabriel’s place,” Greenwood said. “It’s a great way for us to be a part of what he’s doing,”
(El Correo, the street that inspired Chavez)
The restaurant’s interior is speckled with pieces of Mexico, like the hand-painted tiles lining the wall and the stone bartop imported from Durango. The front of the restaurant will open garage door style on warm summer days, and Greenwood plans to add a sidewalk patio.
Despite Greenwood’s trans-Atlantic shift in cuisine from Italian to Mexican, in some ways Chavez won’t be a major departure for Greenwood and company. Cantinetta and its Madison Valley sister venue Bar Cantinetta are neighborhood-friendly establishments that offer a focused menu of seasonal fare in a relaxed atmosphere. Chavez will strive to do the same. “We do what we know how to do,” Greenwood said.
Chavez will be Greenwood’s first venture on Capitol Hill, a move he said he’s been eyeing for a while. Greenwood was once a general manager at the Capitol Hill Via Tribunali.
Melrose Market developer and new Harvard Exit owner Scott Shapiro developed the microhousing project atop Chavez.
Chavez joins coming-soon nano-brewery Outer Planet as food and drink ventures finding homes within 12th Ave microhousing projects. The 12th Ave Arts building will bring new food options to the street in 2015 as well headlined by the new Capitol Hill Rachel’s Ginger Beer. U:Don Fresh Noodle Station and Pelmeni Dumpling Tzar will also be part of the recently opened complex.
Capitol Hill food+drink notes
by jseattle
- Breaking 12th Ave news: Calf and Kid cheesemonger Sheri LaVigne confirms she plans to open her new cheese bar Culture Club on Capitol Hill — not Ballard as originally planned. No details on the change yet but LaVigne promised more information about the project planned to neighbor Outer Planet soon.
- More breaking 12th Ave news: With Lark open in its new home inside the Central Agency building, its old 12th Ave home will be temporarily put to use this winter with a February/March pop-up of acclaimed Eastsider Cafe Juanita while the Kirkland restaurant undergoes a remodel.
Lark is open — and beautiful — in its huge new home. More on the big move later this week (Image: CHS)
- Open officially Tuesday night — but with a full week already under its belt — Zhu Dang is serving kung pao frog legs, duck noodle soup with fried shallots, mustard greens, shiitake and dates, kabocha squash doughnuts, and braised pork shank with tea smoked egg on E Olive Way.
More on Zhu Dang here: Zhu Dang ready to mix tradition with new flavors on E Olive Way
- Also newly opened: Stateside — “It feels like you’re somewhere else. The plants and the colors are pretty true to far away environs.” and Suika — “I don’t want to do any marketing or anything, just let people talk, if they like it.“
- Do star ratings from “big media” matter? Dunno. Seattle Times hands out two to Broadway’s Corretto.
- More love for Hill regular Becky Selengut’s cookbook Shroom.
- You can live where Ethan Stowell grew up way north on Capitol Hill.
Jerry Everard — one of the godfathers of Capitol Hill food+drink entertainment who we profiled here — now owns (scroll down) Belltown’s Rendezvous and Jewelbox Theater.- Volunteer Park’s Ericka Burke is doing the Today Show.
- You can find Communion “Mexican Hangover Brunch” on Saturdays at Nacho Borracho and Sundays at the Rhino Room.
- As we await updates on bringing the Seattle Meowtropolitan to Capitol Hill, here’s how things work at Meow Parlour, New York’s first feline cafe.
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Bar Cantinetta is in Madison Valley, not Madison Park.
Good point! Fixing!
[…] to the Capitol Hill food and drink options along 12th Ave. CHS reported earlier this week on Northern Mexico-flavored Chavez ready to open after Christmas only a block away. The 12th Ave Arts building will bring new […]
[…] CHS wrote about the new project here last month: […]