Capitol Hill’s first plant-based ice cream shop is now open and CHS was there the Friday after Thanksgiving for its first hours of business to see what the hubbub was all about.
Let us introduce you to Frankie and Jo’s salty caramel ash so you can get acquainted:
grey ice cream? yep! we mix autumn’s famous dry-burned caramel with our cashew and coconut milk base, sea salt, and then fold in our activated charcoal caramel sauce called *moon goo.*
The new shop debuted Friday in the mixed-use, preservation incentive-boosted Broadstone Infinity development on E Union between 11th and 10th where it joins Soi and Rene Erickson’s battery of projects General Porpoise, Bar Mesuline, and Bateau as well as the new Capitol Hill location for Sweet Iron around the corner. Designed by H2 Design & Build, the new shop intends to bring a “Palm Springs-feeling” to this stretch of Union.
The opening flavor roster includes Frankie’s Brown Sugar Vanilla, Chocolate Date, California Cabin — “a smoked vanilla and pine ice cream with gluten-free cardamon-black pepper shortbread”, Cocoa Nib Mint Brownie, Gingered Golden Milk, Concord-Grape Shrub Sorbet, Beet Strawberry Rose Sorbet, Pumpkin Butter with Cornbread and Spiced Pecans, and Salty Caramel Ash. According to the press release, mini scoops run $4, regular, $6, large, $8, in your choice of with your choice of a compostable cup or a $2 gluten-free vanilla maple waffle cone. Add various “100% vegan, gluten-free” toppings at $2 a pop and there’s your ice cream lunch.
Time will tell if the offerings will draw lines to this other side of Pike/Pine across from Seattle U the way Molly Moon’s can on a summer night across from Cal Anderson.
CHS gave you more details here on the joint venture from Autumn Martin of Hot Cakes and Kari Brunson of Juicebox Cafe. Now you know what all that goodness looks like. Martha Stewart is a fan. Brunson and business partner Brandin Myett started Juicebox as the Broadway farmers market and eventually landed the “urban juicery” concept on 12th Ave. Martin started Hot Cakes in Ballard before bringing her decadent dessert cafe to Capitol Hill on E Olive Way at the same location where the much-loved B&O Espresso once stood.
Frankie and Jo’s joins a small set of dedicated, diet-sensitive dessert providers in the area. Alternative sweets on the Hill got a boost in the summer of 2015 when vegan all-star chef Makini Howell opened her Sugar Plum shop on 15th Ave E. She’ll soon include a Sugar Plum counter in her new 12th Ave mercantile expansion. Also on 12th, Niche gluten-free cafe and bakery also opened in 2015. Meanwhile, on 15th Ave E, Nuflours gluten-free bakery opened in 2014.
Frankie and Jo’s is located at 1010 E Union and is open Sundays through Thursdays 2 PM to 10 PM and 2 PM to 11 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. You can learn more and also purchase the ice cream online at frankieandjos.com.
Capitol Hill food+drink notes
- Also opening soon: Central District Ice Cream Company from Darren McGill of Nate’s Chicken and Waffles.
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Racha and Wassef Haroun (Image: Alex Garland for CHS)
Happy fourth birthday to Mamnoon. The Melrose original is celebrating with a week of Middle Eastern-flavored party favors:
mamnoon opened to an incredible reception in 2012 and they have been going strong ever since. Their mission then, as it is now, is to bridge the ancient and deep Middle Eastern cultures with the progressive and forward looking ethos of the Pacific Northwest. They do it by staying as true as possible to the roots of the food and hospitality while projecting these cultures into the future. Mamnoon will celebrate 4 years with special food and beverage options during the week of Monday, November 28:
* $4 Happy Hour: From Monday November 28 to Thursday, December 1, all items on the happy hour menu will be available for $4.
* 4-Course Tasting Menu: On Friday December 2 and Saturday, December 3, Executive Chef Carrie Mashaney will prepare a special 4-course tasting menu for $44, with a wine pairing offered for $24. Please mention your interest in the tasting menu when you reserve.
* Champagne + Harra Frites: Throughout the week, celebrate with a half bottle of Chandon Brut Classic with an order of Harra Frites with za’atar mayo for $24.
CHS was there, of course, in November 2011 for the debut of Mamnoon from its first time restaurateur owners Wassef and Racha Haroun. In 2014, we talked with the Harouns about how their background in technology and business had applied to their new lives in the restaurant industry. In his past life in tech, Wassef spent much of his time worrying about who would use a product and how to measure user feedback. At Mamnoon, he told us in 2014, the feedback is instantaneous. “They’re sitting right in front of you.” These days, they have even more data to process with Anar and Mbar now open across I-5. Happy birthday, Mamnoon. - Another Middle Eastern favorite is preparing for a return. Med Mix owner Otmane Bezzaz was happy to confirm for us that he is, indeed, returning to the Central District after a 2013 arson fire destroyed his restaurant at 23/Union.
- Now at Knee High — Silent Movie Sundays, and musical Tuesdays:
Holy smokes, we’ve been busy with some great Capitol Hill-area food and drink stories that have been mostly off the citywide Seattle media radar this November… Katsu Burger Capitol Hill coming to 12th Ave… Capitol Hill Heritage Distilling will be making small batch booze on backside of Pike/Pine… #pacifiquenorthwest L’Oursin now open…. it’s time to enjoy Annapurna and The Redwood as development looms… Little Lago Italian grocery now open in Portage Bay… Ernest Loves Agnes has new chef and familiar new face behind the bar… Capitol Hill IHOP: not dead… Altura, Capitol Hill’s most expensive (and probably best) restaurant turns 5… Papa Bois begins year tour of duty in Pike/Pine nightlife street food scene… Jackson’s Catfish Corner has returned to the Central District…- Seattle Times may not have been on those stories but this piece about the birth and life of E Pine’s Fogon is wonderful:
“Anybody and everybody feels really comfortable walking in the door, and that’s what I want,” he says. While the atmosphere, with floral-carved wooden panels and a wall of silvery crosses, is a step above a family Mexican restaurant, “I don’t consider us fancy,” Cortez says. “Mexican food, to me, can never really be fancy — it’s just comfort food, for me at least. Because I grew up with it, I know how it is, and that’s how I feel we are: just comfortable and not super-expensive. And it’s tasty, flavorful and simple. Simple ingredients.” You can watch Fogón’s tortillas being handmade while you wait for a table, and when you taste them, they are superlative.
CHS was there in 2012 at the start. We look forward to Fogon’s fifth anniversary this summer. - Suika Seattle’s second anniversary celebration starts December 1st.
- Don’t forget: Capitol Hill has a new farmers market every Wednesday at the Chophouse Row night market.
- Probably says a lot about the state of food and drink journalism that this is the best interview and loveliest pictures of Porchlight Coffee and Records and neighborhood nice guy Zack Bolotin ever. “As a kid, I mostly wanted to work at the zoo or play professional baseball…” Me, too, Zack. Me, too.
- Capitol Hill wine expert Jameson Fink doesn’t live in Seattle these days :(
- Fun night: Winter Solstice Breakfast for Dinner at Coastal Kitchen:
Winter Solstice is an astronomical phenomenon marking the shortest amount of daylight and the longest night of the year. Join us for a cozy night of Belgium Waffles, Eggs Benedict, Fresh Shucked Oysters and booze! - Monday (11/28!) night at Cafe Pettirosso:
Rocker’s New Mexican comfort food popping up at Pike/Pine’s Pettirosso
- Broadway. Don’t know much about it. Also, nope, don’t have the scoop on the new Mexican joint lined up for 10th Ave E. You?
Hrm pic.twitter.com/FuKddA5Mkr
— jseattle (@jseattle) November 17, 2016
Frankie & Jo’s wants to bring a “Palm Springs feeling” to their place? Good luck with that!
If $14 a pint for not ice cream wasn’t enough of a deterrent, those flavors sure will be.
Thanks CHS for mentioning the variety of great dairy-free and gluten-free dessert options here on Capitol Hill. It’s one of the things I love about living in Seattle. I go to Niche and Nuflours regularly. The food is great (and doesn’t leve me in massive amounts of pain like anything with more than a bit of gluten ddoes) and the people who work at both places are some of the kindest, warmest, most helpful folks I’ve met. Looking forward to heading over to Frankie and Jo’s later this week. My Spouse, who has no dietary restrictions, is game. It’s sweet stuf with a creamy texture; how could you go wrong? :)
Well, you could go wrong by supporting a business with truly outrageous prices. But, hey, it’s your money to waste!
@Bob- One might say you could “go right” by supporting a business that abandons the unsustainable practice of an animal-based diet.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯