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Capitol Hill food and drink veteran sells Broadway’s Corretto

Corretto opened on Broadway in spring 2014 (Image: CHS)

Corretto opened on Broadway in spring 2014 (Image: CHS)

After a year of coffee and cocktail craft in the location, a Capitol Hill food and drink veteran has cashed out of Broadway.

Duvall said he’s “only usually on the other side of the counter”

Travis Rosenthal, owner of longtime Pike date spot Tango and next door sibling rum bar Rumba, tells CHS that he has sold his Broadway Italian restaurant and cocktail bar, Corretto. Rosenthal said the sale was driven by a desire to spend more time with his family and focus on his neighboring Pike ventures.

CHS spoke with Jim DuVall who said he bought the Broadway restaurant as an “opportunity” even though he’d never been inside and is new to the food and drink business.

Duvall, who said he works in city government in the greater Seattle area, said he’s “only usually on the other side of the counter” so is in learning mode and isn’t planning any major changes in the near term. “Just like anything else, we’re figuring out how they’ve been doing it,” Duvall said. Later, an expanded menu and hours could be part of the plan.

“Its location actually has quite a bit of potential,” Duvall said.

It’s the second sale of the restaurant business in only three years. In 2014, Rosenthal acquired the Panevino restaurant that had inhabited the space. The Corretto concept he had been planning for Minor and Pine was moved up the Hill. Along with an ambitious overhaul came an ambitious mission to mix the worlds of craft cocktails and craft coffee:

One small business cannot completely embody a neighborhood, but it’s not uncommon for a single bar or cafe to reach symbolic status in a city, to be first thing that leaps to mind upon mention of a certain area or its inhabitants.

It remains to be seen if Corretto will become that business for Broadway or Capitol Hill. But the melding of craft cocktails with craft coffee wrapped in a decidedly Seattle decor certainly looks like Capitol Hill’s ultimate act.

Hmmm. That might have been a bit… much. Over the year since it opened in spring 2014, Corretto scaled back and shed the daytime hours. This month’s sale will further shave away the original concept.

Given our track record in the search for any greater meaning in our write-up on Corretto’s opening, you might want to take any CHS big picture pontification at this point in 416 Broadway E’s lifespan with a grain of salt. But we can tell you this. In addition to more family time and time at Tango and Rumba, Rosenthal also tells CHS he received his commercial real estate agent license, “so if anyone is looking to buy or sell a restaurant,” he says, “look me up.” We’ll let you sort out what it all means.

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iknowsnow
iknowsnow
8 years ago

That stretch on Broadway is just tough for the kinds of food/drink businesses that are better suited for Pike/Pine. Joints that sell low-cost, “fast casual” type fare seem to do ok. The occasional high-end, sit-down restaurants that draw in a sedate crowd driving in from more affluent areas also seem to do ok. But the trendy, nightlife oriented places really seem to struggle – even Linda’s Bait Shop is not the runaway success it was originally hoped for.

waterman
waterman
8 years ago

Corretto combined elements of a cocktail bar, coffee shop, and osteria, but never seemed to emphasize any one aspect enough. Not to mention that if you go there after 10, the odds that you are going to be told you can’t get a coffee drink because they’re cleaning their espresso maker shoot up exponentially.