A visit to Harry’s Guest House and mixing uses on Capitol Hill’s Bellevue Ave

(Image: Harry’s Guest House)

(Image: Harry’s Fine Foods)

By Juan Jocom

The Harry’s Good Times family of businesses is growing. There’s a place to come and stay on Capitol Hill when everyone visits.

Harry’s Guest House was once home to a beloved neighbor. Now, it is part of Harry’s Fine Foods and of the few new places to stay on Capitol Hill where recent attempts to develop new hotel projects have been slow to take shape.

Jake Santelli and Julian Hagood opened their first accommodation-based business on Capitol Hill at the corner of E Mercer and Bellevue Ave in November. It is a two-unit bed and breakfast. As their Harry’s Fine Foods restaurant took shape in 2016 out of an old neighborhood cornerstore, Santelli and Hagood were pleased to make friends with the eccentric neighborhood longtimer next door. Winnie, they say, “dined with us, laughed with us, and ultimately became a symbol of community that made the corner of E Mercer and Bellevue Ave just a little bit sweeter.”

When they learned Winnie was moving out and leaving her beloved home behind, the Harry’s guys moved to make the house part of their presence at the corner. Continue reading

This Capitol Hill burger bar won’t stay empty long — 206 Burger Company is moving in

(Image: 206 Burger)

(Image: 206 Burger)

By Juan Jocom

Capitol Hill restaurant spaces left empty by recent closures of neighborhood favorites won’t stay quiet long. For some, they will barely skip a beat. The latest example? There is a new burger joint ready to belly up to the burger bar left empty by the departure of 8 Oz. from the northwest corner of Broadway and Union.

First Hill-born 206 Burger is moving in marking its fourth burger joint in Seattle.

Suren Shrestha’s dream of expanding his Seattle burger empire is continuing with the opening on Capitol Hill. As an immigrant from Nepal, Shrestha’s journey from being a dishwasher to a business owner is quite a climb.

“It feels great, It’s my American dream. I came to this country with nothing.I came as a student with $1,300 in my pocket. I’m just proud of myself, you know,” said Shrestha. Continue reading

Meet the Capitol Hill Artist | Carolyn Hitt is reconciling timelines, sharp lines, geometric shapes, and bright colors on 11th Ave

(Images: Ananya Mishra)

Meet the Capitol Hill Artist is an occasional series on CHS documenting the lives of the artists behind the neighborhood’s galleries and arts venues.

By Ananya Mishra

One of the interpretations of the multiverse theory is that there could be alternate timelines, or multiple universes, that exist in parallel. Carolyn Hitt, an integral part of the Capitol Hill artist community, thinks very deeply about this concept. It has shaped her perception of humanity and its connection to everything. Continue reading

Bonito Café y Mercadito bringing community, culture, and coffee to Capitol Hill

(Image: Bonito Cafe y Mercadito)

By Juan Jocom

An amalgamation of a classic coffee shop with a shopping experience you’d typically find in Latino mercados, Bonito Café y Mercadito, is preparing to open on E Olive Way, neighboring Capitol Hill’s Pie Bar and Donna’s.

It will soon serve locally Latino-grown sourced coffee and will be hosting mercado events featuring Latino vendors.

From photographers to monthly hosts of Aqui Mercado in Pioneer Square, couple Daniel and Ismael Calderon, are soon to open their dream business that was inspired last year after they hosted their first mercado event. Over the past months hosting their mercado, they were able to build a community of hundreds of supporters and fans.

It was never the plan to open a cafe-market hybrid store. However, after positive feedback from the Latino and queer community from their mercado, the couple decided to pursue opening the business that captures the vibrancy of their monthly event into a daily experience. Continue reading

Capitol Hill Community Post | Capitol Hill plays itself in web series The Uncertain Detective

From Smarthouse Creative

Created by longtime Capitol Hill-based filmmaker Gregg Lachow, THE UNCERTAIN DETECTIVE is an online scripted series full of neighborhood cameos and Seattle locations. Crosscut calls it “understated and charming…Funny and appealingly odd. A genuine portrayal of what it’s like to live and work as a family of artists, inhabiting and exhibiting different selves.”

In the show, art imitates life and life imitates art. A film director (played by Lachow) creates a surreal, neo-noir tv series featuring a bumbling detective, and casts his wife and kids in it (played by Lachow’s actual family). In the show, as in their lives, each character tries to solve the central mystery of life: in a world that seems to be falling apart, where is the love that binds us together? Continue reading

Capitol Hill Community Post | The Clay Apartments opening of Section 8 waitlist

From the Low Income Housing Institute

LOW INCOME HOUSING INSTITUTE (LIHI) PUBLIC NOTICE

Opening of Section 8 Waitlist at the following building: The Clay Apartments

Effective on February 6, 2024 through February 12, 2024

LIHI will temporarily reopen the Section 8 waitlist for the Clay Apartments on February 6, 2024 at 10:00 AM, and the waitlist will remain open for one week, closing on February 12, 2024 @ 5:00 PM.  This waitlist is for studio apartments only.  These units have a maximum income limit of 30% Area Median Income, currently $28,800 for an individual. Continue reading

Capitol Hill Community Post | Comedian Pearl Lam takes a deep dive into reality TV at 18th & Union

(Image: Pearl Lam)

From Todd Matthews

Actor and comedian Pearl Lam has been thinking a lot about reality television’s effect on its cast members, viewers, and the larger culture—all of which has resulted in her solo show XXX Island, premiering this month at 18th & Union on Capitol Hill. The show centers on “It Girl” Amethyst Crystal, newly arrived at XXX Island to film the hottest new dating reality show promising Instagram fame and lucrative branding deals. Instead, she finds a hellscape of producer manipulation and drug-induced hallucinations.

“It’s like Man vs. Wild and Too Hot to Handle if they had a child,” Lam explained during an interview at a local coffee shop. “It’s a 60-minute comedy with dramatic elements—a dramedy, but I hate that word. Amethyst Crystal has to last 30 days on nothing but a fully stocked mini-bar while uncovering things about herself that she has kept hidden for a very long time. It’s absurd and off the wall, but it’s also a commentary about fame. I think most artists will go through a period where they question whether they’re doing their art for the art or the fame. There’s no shame in wanting to be famous, but when you knock on that door, you’re going through a passageway and won’t come out yourself.” Continue reading

All 케이팝, all the time, Kpop Nara Seattle pops into Capitol Hill retail scene

(Image: Kpop Nara Seattle)

(Image: Kpop Nara Seattle)

By Isabel Smith, UW News Lab/Special to CHS

The first store in Seattle exclusive to K-pop music and culture is celebrating a grand opening on Capitol Hill this weekend.

Fans of the popular music originating in South Korea are going delulu* about the opening of Kpop Nara Seattle on E Pine.

(* Don’t blame Isabel for trying to squeeze some K-pop slang into this sentence. Blame the CHS editor.)

“I was so excited that there was a store quite literally a few minutes walk away from me,” Kayla Pham, a K-pop fan living in Capitol Hill and studying at Seattle University, said.

Kpop Nara, a K-pop merchandise chain with locations in New England and the Midwest, is the first store in Seattle exclusively dedicated to K-pop merchandise. Continue reading

Kanom Sai Cafe making a home for ‘Asian fusion sweet and savory’ creations in the Central District

Chumita “Sai” Huntress (Image: Juan Jocom/CHS)

The best Pad Thai in Seattle? (Image: Juan Jocom/CHS)

By Juan Jocom

What started as a side hustle providing Thai food, treats, and drinks at street fairs and events is now a fully realized business in the Central District. Kanom Sai Cafe is now serving “Asian fusion sweet and savory” creations hoped to evoke comfort and belongingness just south of 23rd and Union.

For many immigrants, finding a way to translate home away from home in a foreign place can be a challenge. Many have different ways of searching for this feeling, but for Chumita “Sai” Huntress, home is found through food.

“It’s like a snack or treat that’s made by me,” Huntress said. Kanom means “to serve,” she says.

Huntress immigrated to the United States 15 years ago from Thailand. She took matters into her own hands after being disappointed at not being able to find Thai food in the States that fully satisfied her longing for a taste of home.

“I started cooking for myself and then I made too much. Then I started giving it to my friends and then they started buying it from me.” Continue reading

Meet the Capitol Hill Artist | BT is recovering their art and teaching at Vivid Matter Collective and Blue Cone Studios

(Images: Ananya Mishra)

(Image: @artbreakerbt)

Meet the Capitol Hill Artist is an occasional series on CHS documenting the lives of the artists behind the neighborhood’s galleries and arts venues.

By Ananya Mishra

“I was technically a professional artist since I was 14 or 15. I was getting paid for doing portraits and designing t-shirts… someone also stole my painting while I was in high school. [It was] super bittersweet.”

If you have walked past the Black Lives Matter street mural, then you have already seen BT’s (they / she) artwork. They are responsible for the “A” in “Matter” and worked with other Black and Brown artists to complete the entire mural in under 24 hours. Many of these artists met each other the day of the project. Now, they’re part of an artist collective co-founded by BT called Vivid Matter Collective.

BT’s paintings are surreal and depict a range of topics. Some of their work will show the good and bad sides of the human experience, while others are a nod to favorite childhood movies. Continue reading