Essensuals London brings British beauty to 11th and Union — Plus: Kismet opens on Broadway, Bang celebrates 2 years

IMG_3864Paris and London at 11th and Union? Newly opened boutique salon Essensuals London is bringing the freshest cut, coloring and styling techniques from Toni&Guy UK to Capitol Hill. After nearly a year of commuting back and forth between Los Angeles, hair whisperers (and twin brothers) Jason and Robert Townsend have opened up shop in the new retail space located next to French pastry shop Ines Patisserie at 11th and Union in the Viva building.

The brothers left Beverly Hills in search for a new home to offer their UK-inspired styling services and quickly set their sights on Capitol Hill. “We had been coming to Seattle quite a bit and fell in love with it,” Jason Townsend tells CHS. “It seemed like to us, at least, Seattle is what other major cities wish they were,” he said.

“We started looking around, we saw the style here, the cool people here, we just wanted to be part of it,” he said. Continue reading

Trumpet brings men’s shoes and fashions to Capitol Hill this winter

Artist rendering of the coming-soon Trumpet

Artist rendering of the coming-soon Trumpet

Aaron DelGuzzo and Daniel Carlson see a void in men’s shoe stores in the Capitol Hill retail scene, and they aim to fill it.

“The fact that there is nothing means that we need it,” DelGuzzo said.

The first-time business owners are opening Trumpet in a retail space inside the new Viva building at 12th and Union selling fashionable footwear and men’s fashion accessories.

They stressed the shoes won’t be athletic or urban, but fashion. The bulk will retail for between $100 and $400 a pair. While there will be some options that sell for much more, the duo also has plans for some pairs that will be less than $100.

“We believe that fashion footwear does not have to be expensive,” Carlson said. Continue reading

Developer says Capitol Hill apartment building ready for tenants despite $500k+ construction lawsuit

(Images: CHS)

(Images: CHS)

IMG_5425A color problem briefly brought one E Union development project to a halt earlier this year — a $500,000+ problem has put the development of another E Union apartment project into what the developer says will only be a short limbo even as the more than $11 million construction of the six-story building is mostly complete and marketing for new tenants already started.

CHS has learned that a King County judge ruled late last month that a construction company holding a major lien on the mostly completed Evolve Apartments project at 10th and Union is owed hundreds of thousands of dollars and can proceed with a foreclosure on the property if the developer behind the project does not pay up.

Despite the ruling, the developer tells CHS the building is open and already home to tenants. Continue reading

Capitol Hill food+drink | Inès Pâtisserie: pastries you can sink your teeth into, no baguettes

(Images: Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

(Images: Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

The French pastry shop Ines Patisserie opened on Friday at its new location where Madison meets 11th. We gave it each and every one of its proper French doohickeys in the headline.

Owner Nohra Belaid and her staff will be having an “understated soft opening for the month of August,” then will kick things into full gear once fall begins.

Belaid sold her old location on Madison and 29th earlier this year and took three months to set up the new home on the western, currently sun-drenched side of the new Viva building.

The new shop is “more modern, cleaner, in terms of aesthetics, and a little feminine,” says Belaid. The interior is all white with pops of color from the pastries on display and candy in delicate glass jars.

Belaid wants to build a community where people come to treat themselves to a coffee and a pastry while interacting with one another. Warning laptop jockeys: The shop has only three power outlets and Belaid says this is by design. A majority of the time on Friday morning, Belaid was in front of the counter sitting down with customers she knows and meeting new ones. Continue reading

Inès Pâtisserie opens on Capitol Hill

(Image: Rayna Stackhouse)

(Image: Rayna Stackhouse)

The backside of Pike/Pine now has a French bakery. CHS told you almost exactly one year ago about the plans for Inès Pâtisserie to move up Madison to join the Viva building at 1111 E Union. Friday, the bakery and cafe made a quiet debut with reported 9 AM openings planned this weekend. We’ll have more on the new addition soon.

Capitol Hill food+drink | With mission to offer ‘$17 rolls’ for $10, Yuzu coming to E Union

Yuzu's new home at 954 E  Union is *almost* ready to open after a few construction delays

Yuzu’s new home at 954 E Union is *almost* ready to open after a few construction delays

Over Block Party weekend, the Madison Holdings-backed Kaisho concept quietly debuted, replacing the Madison Holdings-backed Boom Noodle at 12th and Pike. It was part of the group CHS called — tongue in cheek, Eater Seattle-style — 9 of Capitol Hill’s most anticipated summer, maybe fall Asian restaurant openings… ever earlier this year. On the backside of Pike/Pine, another new player part of the Asian-flavored wave has plans cut from cloth altogether different than its 12th and Pike counterpart.

The owner will also have something in common with many of his customers.

“My rent is ridiculous!” Jun Park tells us about his partnership’s investment in a new restaurant space in the new construction at 10th Ave and E Union.

Yuzu by Musashi will bring together two longtime Seattle food and drink owners teaming up for the first time for their foray into the teeming Capitol Hill entertainment economy. Park opened Musashi’s in Factoria about two years ago in the spirit of the longtime N 45th St sushi favorite. His partner Sam Park is the proprietor behind Tig Asian Tapas Bar on 1st Ave. Their prior ventures are solid if not unspectacular components of Seattle food and drink. Jun Park says he wants Yuzu to make a bigger — but affordable — splash on Capitol Hill.

“I want to bring those $17, $18 rolls to people for $10 and $12,” Park said. “We’ll let people try more exotic fish without emptying out their wallets.”

Continue reading

One-Act Play Festival gives playwrights known — and unknown — a place to play on Capitol Hill

One-Act Play Festival, Eclectic Theater, 10th Ave, 2014 -- JO

2013 cast of "The Injury" by Robert Francis Flor.

The cast of “The Injury” by Robert Francis Flor, which was featured at the first One-Act Play Festival at the Eclectic Theater, in 2013.

Robert Francis Flor

Robert Francis Flor

Without gobs of cash to spend, finding a stage for an unknown script can be a dubious task. This weekend, the second — and quite possibly second annual — One-Act Play Festival at Capitol Hill’s Eclectic Theater seeks to break the barrier to getting a break. Members of the local theater community and those with a seat in the audience may be set to reap the benefits of the event’s enthusiastic approach.

Saying “go for it” to pretty much anybody who has a script, the ability, and gumption to bring a play of 15-minutes-or-less to production, the festival brings together playwrights and actors who may not typically rub shoulders for a chance to network while new material is tried out or existing works are recast. It also gives festival goers and participants a chance to see a range of approaches to theater through a lineup of concisely packaged narratives. In total, this Friday and Saturday night, 14 local playwrights and production companies will bring their short plays to the stage of the 49-seat 10th Ave theater.

“Our goal here is essentially to let the theater community get to know one another better — and with that in mind the festival’s a little different,” said Leonard Goodisman, Eclectic Theater’s development director. “We let any group or any individual who can put a play on and put it together do so, and we try hard to not have any restrictions.”

“We don’t want to tell people how to do their plays — we want them to show us what they think theater is, what it should be, and how they perceive it,” he said.

The only limit is time. Continue reading

Capitol Hill food+drink | Central Agency project rounds out its offerings with Canadian Meat & Bread

M&B's Gastown location (Image: Meat & Bread)

M&B’s Gastown location (Image: Meat & Bread)

The tennants of what will likely be the center of a southern expansion and leap across Union for the Pike/Pine food and drink scene have rounded into shape with the addition of a neighbor from the north.

Vancouver’s Meat & Bread is slated to join the Central Agency building “to hold down the opposite end of the building from Lark,” we’re told.

“M&B is in the Gas Light district, are very passionate about food and are a great compliment to Lark and the neighborhood in many ways including the fact that they are a daytime business,” a rep for the Central Agency project tells us.

Describing itself as “a man made sandwich shop,” Meat & Bread founders Cord Jarvie and Frankie Harrington created a working recipe that keeps things simple with a menu pared down to four daily offerings. Bon Appetit, doing the BC tourist thing, called the offerings “lavish.” Today’s offerings are porchetta with “salsa verde,” a “Middle Eastern Spiced Lamb, Caper Tomato Sauce, Roasted Garlic Aioli, Romaine” special, a “Grana Padano, Sambal, Gremolata” meatball variant, and the grilled cheese is “Aged White Cheddar & Shaved Onion.” They’ll run you between $7 and $9… Canadian. Continue reading

Champagne solves all problems: Capitol Hill’s Viva building overcomes its color challenges

IMG_1215The color problem that put the brakes on the brand new, six-story, mixed-use Viva building at 12th/Union/Madison?

Solved!

“They have changed out portions of the siding to a champagne colored metal siding, thus satisfying the accent color issue!” a Department of Planning and Development representative enthusiastically informs CHS.

The new building is already moving forward with moving in new residents and a couple new businesses — including the brand new location for Ines Patisserie.IMG_1206

New $1.7 million day care center (and playground) coming to backside of Pike/Pine

Pike/Pine is changing. The backside of Pike/Pine is changing. Capitol Hill is changing. The Gayborhood is changing. Seattle is changing. And in the midst of it all, there will be nearly 200 little kids and a playground on E Seneca right across the street from IHOP.

CHS has learned that Bright Horizons, the nation’s “largest provider of employer-sponsored child care,” is planning to open a new Capitol Hill facility on E Seneca between Madison and Union early in 2015. The project is slated to replace longtime community health services organization Lifelong AIDS Alliance in the office building it has called home for a decade.

We have calls out to both organizations to learn more but it appears Lifelong will not be leaving the Pike/Pine neighborhood. According to the organization it is opening a new “Client Services Center in Capitol Hill” — Continue reading