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Capitol Lounge joining the Comet on E Pike

screen-shot-2016-12-07-at-10-46-58-amAfter sitting empty for two years, the lounge space formerly home to the Lobby Bar has cracked back into motion in recent weeks with the bang bang bang of hammers and the whir of saws and sanders. Japanese hot dog king Shinsuke Nikaido is at work on E Pike again.

No, he’s not building a cat cafe.

Nikaido tells CHS the under construction Capitol Lounge will be a bar and night spot with booze, music, and dancing. It will neighbor his Ikina Sushi which debuted this summer in the madness of the main stage crowd at the Capitol Hill Block Party.

Nikaido knows the area’s nightlife well. His business has been serving Japanese-style hot dogs from his Gourmet Dog Japon carts since 2010.

The Capitol Lounge will revive the location left empty when Lobby Bar left in November 2014 after five years of business. At the time, CHS was told rising rent was behind the exit and search for a new space for the popular gay bar. The building’s long time owners have not responded to our past attempts at contact. The Chao family purchased the building for $650,000 in 1992, according to King County Records. The Lobby never reopened.

The Capitol Lounge joins a block of E Pike with its sibling Ikina Sushi, and the overhauled and revived Comet Tavern. There are also two commercial spaces that remain open after the plan to transform the old Ballet into the new Buddha’s Kitchen fell through and music gear retailer High Voltage exited the block.

Ikina’s space on the block also represented an E Pike revival thanks to Nikaido’s investment. The location once host to nightclub King Cobra was temporarily lined up to be home to a Moneytree money lender. It had been empty for more than five years.

There are more details on the Capitol Lounge to come but we’re told the club will be fully separate from Ikina so don’t expect to order sushi. No word on whether you’ll be able to score a Japanese hot dog, though.

As for an opening date, stay tuned. The buildout underway is focused on relocating the space’s bar and reconfiguring the layout so there is still some work to be done.

Sugar Hill opens for real
Following a VIP pre-funk party last week, E Pine “Thai chicken and rice” restaurant and bar Sugar Hill will open again Wednesday night for drinks and kick its kitchen into gear Thursday, owner Guitar Srisuthiamorn tells CHS. Speaking of the new plans for a Capitol Lounge, the Sugar Hill space was home to the much-loved Capitol Club.

Sugar Hill ‘Thai chicken and rice’ restaurant and bar ready to join Capitol Hill 2016 openings

 

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Steve
7 years ago

I’m so glad to see the old Lobby space being used again. Lobby was my #1 favorite place to just go and have a drink, and while I know it’s not likely, I hope this new place will be similar. Unfortunately most of those sorts of spots have disappeared of of CH for various reasons.

joser
joser
7 years ago

Wasn’t that space “Sugar” for a while, too, or was that the adjoining one? (The last 20 years on the Hill is all starting to blur together for me).

Also, WTH is upstairs, on the second floor above all those spaces — the Comet, Lost Lake, all of them? I know at one time there were apartments up there, but it seems entirely unoccupied and derelict now.