Category Archives: Food & Drink

Kamp Social House — Madison Valley’s only lesbian bar — is closing

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(Image: Kamp Social House)

Business tends to work in increments of zeros and fives.

Sometimes there is a three.

Three years after it debuted and five years since a legendary Seattle restaurateur bid his home neighborhood goodbye, Kamp Social House is closing down in Madison Valley.

Its final day of business will be Wednesday.

“This decision comes after much reflection and is rooted in the need to take a personal pause. Kamp has always been more than just a restaurant, it’s been a community hub, a labor of love, and a place where countless memories were made,” the Kamp announcement reads. “We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who supported us along the way, whether you stopped by once or became a familiar face.”

CHS reported here on the 2022 debut of Kamp, a food, drink, and social project from partners in business and live Marceil Van Camp and Katy Knauf. Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill Class of 2024: ‘If you want to do something that hasn’t been done yet…’ — Ramie celebrates first year on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Ramie)

By Domenic Strazzabosco

Trinh and Thai Nguyen (Image: Ramie)

In spring and summer 2024, Capitol Hill welcomed several new bars and restaurants to The Hill. CHS checked in with owners to see how the first year of business has been and what residents can expect to see and experience in the upcoming year. In Part 1, CHS talked to Koko’s Restaurant and Tequila Bar on 10th and Broadway’s Chandelier Lounge. This time around, we visited with 14th Ave’s Ramie.

Trinh Nguyen, who co-owns Ramie with her brother Thai, said they’re happy with the way the first year has gone and how Capitol Hill has responded to the restaurant’s approach to Vietnamese cuisine.

“The first year is always like a whirlwind. You never really know what to expect until you open,” Nguyen said. “We’re super happy with what we’ve accomplished so far. I can’t even believe that it’s already been a year — like it went by so fast.” Continue reading →

Groovy — Capitol Hill mushroom coffee joint Wunderground adds founder of one of Capitol Hill’s most popular cafes

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(Image: Wunderground Cafe)

A founder of one of Capitol Hill’s most enduringly popular cafes has returned from retirement to help create “the coffeehouse of the future” with an overhaul of E Pike adaptogenic mushroom coffee joint the Wunderground Cafe. They’re celebrating Saturday with a Pride rave.

Ericka Burke says she is joining Wunderground founder and CEO Jody Hall to give the four-year-old E Pike cafe and adaptogenic mushroom startup’s showcase cafe a fresh start, “offering food and beverage to nourish and flourish.”

CHS reported here on the fall 2021 debut of Wunderground, a grain bowl, bone broth, and mushroom coffee hangout in the space formerly home to Hall’s E Pike Cupcake Royale location and a center for the startup coffee company and its fusion of “health benefits” from mushrooms like Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps with the daily ritual and the “antioxidant properties” of coffee. Continue reading →

Under New Ownership: First, Pride, then new life and new memories at The Cuff

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First, Cuff Pride Fest (Image: The Cuff)

Scott Walent lived in San Francisco for 15 years where he worked to fill the city’s nights as a promoter and co-owned the music venue Rickshaw Stop. He gave it up to move to Seattle in 2018 to build his career.

Seven years and a lot of nights later, Walent is an owner again, the holder of the keys to The Cuff Complex, the Capitol Hill leather bar that has been a backbone of Seattle’s queer scene for more than 30 years.

“I’m really focused on providing a range of music types and party types. We’re really focusing on having the gambit as far as we have in the queer community,” Walent tells CHS.

CHS reported here on Walent’s spring acquisition of The Cuff as the Queer/Bar family of Capitol Hill businesses decided to spin off the 13th Ave leather hangout to an owner who could focus on the historic gay bar’s unique place in the city’s queer nightlife scene.

Queer/Bar nightlife veteran and co-founder Joey Burgess is still on hand to help guide The Cuff this Pride weekend through its major Cuff Pride Fest street party but, after that, Walent is ready to move forward in reshaping The Cuff on his own.

There will be changes. And expansions. Walent said he’s working to produce a Girl’s Night Out event so lesbians, queers and allies can also feel welcome at The Cuff, adding how he’s “making sure that it’s not just the typical gay bar.” Based on the mix of people he’s seen at The Cuff, Walent is excited to give this new effort a try. Continue reading →

Return of the Capitol Hill complex: Double O’ Burgers joins family of food+drink businesses growing at Summit and Pine

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(Image: Feed it Creative)

(Image: Feed it Creative)

The “Capitol Hill complex” food and drink concept isn’t dead yet but it is being reinvented. A veteran neighborhood restaurant group has announced the next piece of its complex puzzle at Pine and Summit.

The Pike Street Hospitality Group has announced the opening this week of Double O’ Burgers, a take-out–only walk-up burger window part of the new project being launched on the street level corner where the former Mezcaleria Oaxaca group of businesses shuttered last year.

“Inspired by the Oklahoma onion burger (OO), Double O’ smashes thinly sliced sweet onions onto sizzling beef patties, caramelizing them directly on the griddle,” the pitch reads. Continue reading →

Vroom! PhĂŞ revs up Capitol Hill Vietnamese coffee ambitions with new auto row-inspired cafe

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Any echoes of its more recent than you might expect auto row past are mostly drowned out by the buzz of customers eager to try the signature banana pudding matcha lattes and pho as Vietnamese coffee joint PhĂŞ has joined the Capitol Hill cafe scene.

“Indulge in meticulously crafted coffee, matcha, and brunch favorites, all prepared with the finest ingredients. Nestled in a minimalist, industrial-chic space,” the new cafe’s hype reads. “PhĂŞ offers a unique experience that tantalizes your taste buds and elevates your senses.”

The new cafe debuted this month in one of the more unique — and hard to fill with a tenant — spaces created by the recent wave of Pike/Pine redevelopment. CHS reported late last summer on the plans for PhĂŞ along E Pine on the ground floor of a new building built a decade ago with a street-level commercial space meant to echo the old 15th Ave Garage that called the block home until its mid-2010s demolition. Continue reading →

Police: One arrest after man busts into Pike/Pine cafe with scooter, sets fire

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Police and firefighters were called to the area around E Pike and Broadway overnight after a series of small arson fires including one reported to have been set inside a cafe in the area after a break-in.

SPD says it took one man into custody in the string of destruction that started around 3:15 AM with a report of a large fire set in a parking lot along E Union where a 911 caller reported a man fanning the flames with a blanket and adding items to the bonfire. Continue reading →

‘It’s crazy out there’ — In challenging times, Capitol Hill restaurant Cook Weaver shifting to more proletariat menu

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(Image: Cook Weaver)

Food is political. Capitol Hill’s Cook Weaver is making a shift to give the people what they want — and what they need:

There is no way to say how sorry we are for everyone who is being harmed and targeted by this administration. We know that this moment requires a response at all levels: the personal, the communal, the political. For our part, we want to nourish our community, bring people together for joy, pleasure, and rejuvenation, and celebrate the culinary context of the Pacific Northwest. So, we are making a change.

Next week, the E Roy restaurant just off North Broadway is making changes it says will focus on a more affordable, more flexible menu, “so that we can serve more people and meet our community at this moment.”

“In this iteration we will offer a place to have a few dishes with wine. A cocktail with friends.
Or a full dinner,” Cook Weaver’s announcement of its new “neo-bistro format” reads. “And, we will continue to offer Chef Zac’s curated tasting menu for our guests who desire that expansive culinary experience.” Continue reading →

A rare mix of mixed-use and beer-making, Capitol Hill Redhook brewery and taproom to close

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(Image: Redhook Brewlab)

It took a few marvels of engineering to squeeze it in there but the Redhook microbrewery below Capitol Hill’s Pike Motorworks mixed-use development is shutting down after eight years of beer making on E Pike.

Tilray, the “leading global cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company” that acquired the brewery and taproom along with the Redhook brand in a $85 million deal with industry giant Anheuser-Busch in the summer of 2023, says it is looking for a new location but did not provide an explanation for the shutdown. Continue reading →

‘That nook deserves to LIVE!’ — Bean Espresso revives famed Broadway coffee bar

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Like any environment, you can measure the health of the Broadway biospher by some of its tiniest organisms.

Bean Espresso seems like a good sign.

Bean has given new life to the storied Capitol Hill coffee stand once home to Vivace’s walk-up bar. It appeared in the 300 block Broadway E space last week.

As a possible indicator species, Bean Espresso might represent a utilitarian, no-frills era for the street. Affordability is also a factor. The stand is starting with some of the lowest coffee prices on the Hill. Continue reading →