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Trove is closing — How many concepts will it take to fill its ‘Capitol Hill complex’ space?

The peak of the Capitol Hill food and drink economy boom created a few opportunities so large, they could not be contained in a single concept. Now some four and five years after the debuts of these Capitol Hill complexes, we will get more of an idea of what comes next to the ambitiously large spaces.

Trove, which husband and wife chef team Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi debuted as a restaurant and bar fourplex — “bustling noodle bar, tucked-in-the-middle bar, new-era Korean BBQ with grill-at-your-table tradition, and a frozen custard walk-up doling out giant parfaits” — in the overhauled 500 E Pike Greenus Building in the sunny September of 2014, will close later this month.

“Today, with a heavy heart, we would like to let you guys know that Trove will have its last dinner service on Sunday, June 30th,” Yang wrote, announcing the plans to close the project in a message to friends and family. 

“It has been an incredible experience and opportunity to be able to call Trove our home. For those who have watched us closely over the years know how much we have worked to make Trove relevant. This industry is tough and this wasn’t our turn,” she writes.

The Relay Restaurant Group continues to operate Joule and Revel in Seattle and expanded with Revelry in Portland in 2016.

In 2014, Yang and Chirchi told CHS they decided to develop multiple concepts for Trove when faced with the project’s 5,000 square feet of space to work. Heliotrope architects, Dovetail Contractors, and artists at Electric Coffin helped bring the effort together.

The mutli-pronged undertaking was similar to what Renee Erickson took on to hold down the corner at 11th and Union where she opened a raw bar, a modern day steakhouse, a bar, and a doughnut shopBar Melusine, Bateau, and General Porpoise — in 2015.

One example for the future for these kinds of spaces can be found in Chophouse Row where the large space where the development’s original anchor tenant restaurant concept failed was whittled down by carving out berths for more shops and turned into a restaurant and bar sibling setMarmite and Spirit in the Bottle.

Developer Hunters Capital who purchased and upgraded the auto row era building that has been home to Trove must now find a new, equally ambitious set of concepts to fill the giant and soon to be empty space on E Pike.

As for Yang, she said, despite it not being her “turn,” her time creating in the neighborhood was a happy stay.

“We had an amazing time being part of vibrant Capitol Hill community for last five years and thank you again for welcoming and supporting us,” Yang said.

UPDATE: We asked Yang if she might ever come back to Capitol Hill with a new project.

“Capitol hill is THE dining destination of Seattle with arrays of different restaurants,” she writes. “We wish we could made it here and hope to come back. Next time it will be a bit smaller space :)”

 

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