(Image: CHS)

(Images: Black Bottle)

The owners of the Black Bottle family of restaurants are working to put a long-shuttered food and drink space on 15th Ave E back into motion.

CHS has learned that a company including Black Bottle’s partners Chris Linker, Judy Boardman, Brian Durbin, and William Bruiniige has inked a lease for the former home of 22 Doors which shuttered in late 2013. Boardman, by the way, lives in the area so will presumably bring some local knowledge to the project.

Workers are busy inside the 2,374 square-foot restaurant and bar that was known for having one of the best patios on the Hill. The restaurant was also known for its mysteriously long, two-year vacancy as the street’s food and drink scene grew and seemingly thrived around the dark and empty space sandwiched next to Rione XIII, The Wandering Goose, and old-timer Tim’s Barbershop.

(Image: Black Bottle)

We don’t yet have details from the Belltown-based Black Bottle crew about what they have planned for their first venture on Capitol Hill. Black Bottle opened on 1st Ave in 2004 and owns the distinction as the first of what would eventually become legion — the Seattle gastropub. The partners also opened a Black Bottle Bellevue in addition to taking over the old Marco’s Supperclub space in Belltown for the Innkeeper in 2011.  “The mood is intended to be unpretentious and communal while customers enjoy good food and spirits at a high value,” this UW Foster School of Business evaluation of the Black Bottle business reads. “More flavor than flash,” is the catchline on the Black Bottle “gastrotavern” site.

Earlier this year, Linker and Black Bottle caused a stir when they joined Seattle restaurant heavyweight Tom Douglas in adding a 2% surcharge to offset the city’s new minimum wage law. Both restaurant groups eventually backed off the plans after backlash. There are signs, however, service charges — with better communication and positioning — might be the direction for more and more restaurants. Newly opened Renee Erickson projects Bar Melusine, Bateau, and General Porpoise all feature a 20% service charge and the restaurateur said she has been busy meeting with others about plans for similar approaches to improve pay equity.

There’s no word yet on what the Black Bottle team will be opening on Capitol Hill — though we’re expecting it to be “gastro”-something — or when. But it looks like 15th Ave E will celebrate 2016 with one of its long empty spaces back in motion.

Capitol Hill food+drink notes

• Speaking of Bar Melusine, Bateau, and General Porpoise, have you been over to check out the very pretty new spaces yet?
• The Stranger’s editor in chief has: “It’s like biting into a pillow of bright, tart lemon.” General Porpoise Coffee and Doughnuts is already drawing lines.
• For as many new restaurants and bars that have opened on Capitol Hill in the past three years, casualties among the new wave are relatively rare. Zhu Dang’s demise on E Olive Way comes with a roster of exceptional elements. Read up.
• People continue to doubt that EuroPub — a bottle shop and beer room in the middle of Broadway on the same block as Dick’s — can be real. It’s real. And, Saturday, it’s celebrating its grand opening.
• Also Saturday, E Union’s new bike shop + training facility + cafe Metier debuts.

It's official, we're having our grand opening on November 14th. Hope to see you there, please spread the word. pic.twitter.com/WDygUzHoEX

— Métier (@metierseattle) October 28, 2015

• Also seemingly unreal: Capitol Hill has a cheese bar.
• What happens when your crowdfunded neighborhood bakery has to find another neighborhood? Pocket Bakery tells you.
• Inès Pâtisserie — open at 11th and Madison since summer of 2014 — is adding beer and wine.
• No, Amante’s is not going out of business. Yes, after eight years, they’ve turned off that crazy flashing sign.
• Chipotles are apparently back in business across the PNW after an E. Coli outbreak that included the Capitol Hill location. Last we checked, the Broadway location had yet to reopen.
• Worker-friendly Wisconsin import Ian’s Pizza on the Hill is almost ready to open. This picture was taken on Halloween — 14 days, the sign notes. Do the math.
  

  (Image: Ian’s)