Horizon Books ends a 53-year-old Capitol Hill story

Donald Glover

Horizon was giving away its remaining stock for free last weekend on 10th Ave (Image: CHS Facebook Group)

Let’s close this current chapter of neighborhood classics saying goodbye. Another of the longest running businesses on Capitol Hill closed quietly last weekend. It wasn’t a restaurant, cafe, or bar.

Horizon Books was proudly established on Capitol Hill 53 years ago making it contemporaneous with fellow class of 1971 business licensees Country Doctor Community Health Clinic, architect Roger Newell, and Vogue Coiffure Beauty Salon on our list of the oldest businesses in the area a few years back.

The bookseller that made its name on Capitol Hill long before Elliott Bay Book Company was transplanted to 10th ve quietly turned the page and liquidated its stock last weekend, handing out free books to anybody who stopped by its underground 10th Ave space home to “the largest and finest used books collections in Seattle.” 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

Fundraiser supports Pike/Pine business couple struggling with medical expenses

Friends are rallying around a fundraiser to help cover expenses for two members of the Pike/Pine business community battling health challenges.

A fundraiser has been set up to help Ray Ochs and Rick Jones as the couple behind E Pike fashion boutique Sergius & Bacchus have struggled to keep up with around $10,000 in unplanned medical expenses:

“We’ve been able to scrape by over the last few years relying on money we had in personal savings, which are now depleted,” the couple writes. 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

The Last Drop opening new beer shop and tap hall on Capitol Hill

(Image: The Last Drop)

The Maple Leaf original (Image: The Last Drop)

With plans for a preservation minded redevelopment of the block now fully paused, Seattle bottle shop and beer hall The Last Drop is growing onto Capitol Hill after years serving the Roosevelt, Ravenna, and Maple Leaf neighborhoods.

The new Last Drop expansion from Seattle beer and pub entrepreneur Seth Howard is set to open soon in the 500 block of E Pike taking over the two-level cafe space left empty by Kaladi Brothers Coffee’s 2023 exit.

The Last Drop opened in the Maple Leaf neighborhood in 2011 and features beer on tap as well as a bottle shop featuring local craft brewers and imports. Howard is also part of ownership behind 2nd Ave’s Collins Pub and the College Inn Pub in the U District. Continue reading

Six Shop the Hill (and nearby) ideas for last-minute gifts

(Image: Station 7)

Still looking for a few perfect gifts? It’s the most wonderful time of the year to shop locally and skip the sadness of telling your special gift-getter that the perfect present is still somewhere in the back of UPS truck. Here are a few ideas from around Capitol Hill and the Central District. Let us know where you’re shopping this year in the comments.

Station 7 is a second-generation family business that focuses on handmade goods, and has made a retired 1920s firehouse its home. Lauren Tilden, owner, told CHS that some of this season’s bestsellers are shower steamers, which allow you to turn your shower into a full-blown steam room. Volcano topography coasters, candles, and minimalist jewelry by And Arlen have also been fan favorites.

“When you shop with us, you’re not only supporting our small business, but dozens of other local makers and artists whose goods we carefully curate,” Tilden said. “From candles and home goods to jewelry and paper goods and everything in between, Station 7 has you covered this holiday season.” Continue reading

Want to shop the Hill? Try Pike/Pine’s clusters of indie fashion shops

The bold choices at Veridis have been part of shopping on Capitol Hill for 15 years (Image: Veridis)

While the big chains come and go, small independent fashion retailers are calling Pike/Pine home, creating personal shopping experiences, building relationships, and activating the neighborhood.

“Capitol Hill has had a more of a grunge-y vibe in the past few decades but now it is becoming like a ‘mini-Soho’ full of tourists and locals,” Susan Kim, owner of SUM Style, tells CHS.

New clusters of small fashion retailers are giving the neighborhood more activity during the day and customers the opportunity to shop at multiple locations at once.

Here are just a few of the fashion boutiques you’ll find around Capitol Hill (Source: Yelp)

  1. Veridis
  2. Pretty Parlor
  3. Glasswing
  4. Refind
  5. Likelihood (closed)
  6. Revival Shop
  7. Retail Therapy
  8. Standard Goods
  9. Casita International
  10. A Mano

more…

Sergius & Bacchus, a menswear boutique bringing fun, bold fashion to Capitol Hill, focuses on cultivating authentic personal shopping experiences and supporting LGBTQ+ brands. For owners Ray Ochs and Rick Jones, seeing customers gain confidence through fashion has been one of their most rewarding experiences.

“There are several of the customers that I would consider them as friends,” Ochs said. “They come in and they shop, we get to know them, we are able to remember what they bought last time and point them towards other things that they might like. In many cases, we can custom order things in for them. It’s just a whole lot more personal with a small business.”

Building community and taking care of the neighborhood is something Ochs and Jones take pride in. Every morning before their store opens, they pick up trash around the block to help keep their block clean.

Retail Therapy recently celebrated 20 years on Capitol Hill. They specialize in the intersection of arts and goods through gifts, clothing apparel, jewelry, and cards, all created by independent artists. Continue reading

‘Solid loss’ — A Capitol Hill low-waste retail experiment ends as The Naked Grocer will close to end 2023

Truesdell at the grocery’s opening in 2022

One of Capitol Hill’s most ambitious retail experiments is coming to an end.

The Naked Grocer and its low-waste approach to shopping will shut down to end 2023.

“I started realizing it was a possibility that we would need to close around the middle of November—up until then, I held out hope things would turn around,” owner Jayne Truesdell told CHS about the decision. “Our sales steadily declined throughout the fall and it ultimately came down to the amount of money coming in versus the amount of money going out.”

Truesdell said the Naked Grocer has been operating at a “solid loss.” She said the sales needed to create a thriving business would have to be about double, and that the amount of growth needed does not feel possible. Continue reading

As drugstore bankruptcy woes continue, Broadway Rite Aid joins Bartell Drugs in exit from Capitol Hill

Shelves are bare inside the Broadway Rite Aid as Capitol Hill is losing two drugstores and pharmacies to close 2023.

Monday is supposed to be the final day of business in the big chain drugstore that made its home in the one-time Broadway Theater building at the corner of Broadway and E Olive Way. The old neon marquee advertising store specials and the everlasting “COME GET SHOTS HERE” message is a neighborhood landmark.

The Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid chain has yet to confirm the closure with CHS. It seems unlikely they’ll get around to doing so now. Continue reading

Glasswing celebrates ten years of fashion and design on Capitol Hill

(Image: Glasswing)

As Capitol Hill’s independent retailers welcome holiday shoppers, fashion and design shop Glasswing is celebrating a decade of shopping on Melrose — and plans for a leafy Pike expansion that will help boost its growing “plant design” business.

“I was just looking at photos of the shop when we opened in 2013, and it’s truly amazing to see the growth of where we were then, and where we are now,” co-owner of Glasswing, Alisa Furoyama said. “Today, it feels full of life and with such thoughtful care put into every little corner of our space. We can only exist and continue working on this project because of our amazing customers and community.”

Following several years operating as a pop-up shop, Glasswing signed their first lease a decade ago at 1525 Melrose Ave. November 24th marks their 10 year anniversary. Continue reading