With so many wonderful things wrapped up in pretty paper and bows this time of year, the focus of this week’s notes is the brown paper wrapper in windows from one end of Capitol Hill to the other. Pretty paper and more, below. Have a present for us? [email protected]

• What’s behind the paper in the windows hiding the scurrying work crews transforming the former Broadway home of Bailey Coy into a split retail and restaurant space? According to a handful of sources — and city paperwork on the $225,000 project — we’re getting a Samurai Noodle, the third location for the Phil Sancken-backed noodle houses. Sancken is best known for his Caffe Appassionato coffee brand. His Broadway neighbor in the new Bailey Coy “duplex” will be a tobacco shop, we’re told. Apparently one of the already-on-Hill locals. Smoke em if you got em.
• BTW, off the brown paper in windows theme, but we hear there’s another, possibly more ambitious noodle project heading our way. Details soon.

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• More papered windows can be found down on Summit Ave. Here’s the tip we received from CHS contributor MRK:
  

  Not sure if you’ve covered it yet, but according to someone named Danny who says he is an owner of the business, a new cafe coming is to the corner of Summit and Thomas.  It’s in a space that most recently housed a personal training studio, next to Thomas St. Bistro and down the street from the recently renovated Starbucks and the new cafe Arabica.  There is a lot of construction work being done inside, and the sidewalk in front was just ripped up and replaced.  My guess is it’s a new Herkimer Coffee location (currently in Phinney Ridge and Ravenna), as their van was out front.

  We can’t tell you much about Analog Coffee because owner Danny Hanlon hasn’t returned our messages. Shocking, yes? He’s also busy as the manager at Magnolia’s Upper Crust Bakery. In the meantime, the paper was still up last we checked but a bunch of work appears to be near completion as construction fences around the space have been pulled down.

• You want more papered windows? CC Attle’s papered-over East Olive Way space now has a sign touting an early 2011 opening. Just down the way from CC’s, the old Quizno’s has a fresh lining of paper blocking the view of work being done to transform the space for a project called the Bleu Bistro Grotto. Up on 15th Ave East, the paper was getting downright droopy in the old space that Tilden used to call home. New paper is up and construction permits have been issued for the $125,000 buildout of Caffe Vita and Pizza Vita that we reported way back in July. You’ll also find paper along north Broadway as Asanova is apparently still taking shape and, again on 15th Ave East as The Shop Agora’s buildout is completed. No restaurant or bar incoming at the former home of East Pike’s City Home Store but landlord (and CHS advertiser!) Chip Ragen already has the all-important paper in the windows and tells CHS is open to a reinvention of the space.
• Any other papered windows we’re forgetting to update or, gasp, not aware of?
• OK, yeah, Eltana bagels and Varro lounge count. But we give up trying to predict when they are going to open other than “soon.”
• Nagle’s Rock Box karaoke got its liquor license approved and is working hard to be open this Thursday, 12/16. We change what we want to sing for CHS’s first song: “Nothing Compares 2 U” while we look into all of your eyes, quivering.
• Nope, we don’t know what the status of the Q nightclub project is that we reported on earlier this year. We’re checking on the status of the 12th and Pike project.
• Belltown evacuee The Local Vine has some special holiday events planned including a New Year’s party. Vino Verite says its upcoming port/champagne tasting is nearly sold out.

Lumpia Land. Cap Hill. Ask for Jesse. It’s legit. :), originally uploaded by Special*Dark.
• Speaking of NYE and special holiday events, we’re putting together lists of Christmas Eve and New Year’s dinners for the Hill. We know of a few like TidBit and Olivar who are serving both nights. Let us know if your restaurant has something special planned — [email protected] or add a comment to this post
• New street food alert: Leilani’s Lumpia Land has made a home in the paid parking lot across the street from Machiavelli at Pine and Melrose. Most love it. $1 lumpia drunk food seems like an obvious hit. We’ll have more on the stand soon, hopefully.
• Speaking of street food, Marination Mobile is staying on the road but also making a permanent home on Capitol Hill.
• There’s a Bakon Vodka holiday party at Liberty Bar tonight (Monday)
• Andrew Sullivan fans say check out Seattle — and specifically, the Canterbury — for some of the best corner pubs in the USA.
• Seattle Times has ended its Coffee City column.
• We joked that the American Artificial Limb Company would make a great front for a speakeasy and got a few “tips” from readers about an “actual” underground club near the AALC. Sorry to break it to you, kids, but the Electric Tea Garden has gone legit. It applied for a liquor license in September.
• Over on our sister site the Central District News, a look at Twilight Exit two years after its move from Madison into the heart of the CD. They’re talking kids and brunch, what?
• CHS neighbor beesknees has a dream, just needs a Hill space in which to live it:
  

  Taking a chance to see if anyone out there has a sliver of a space to lease or sub-lease for a small, creative, take-out concept on the Hill. We’ve inquired on quite a few spaces, but a.) they’d already been leased, or b.) required too many changes to convert into a restaurant. Our frustrations in finding a suitable space have brought us to posting this ad in the off-chance that you are here to find a tenant. Ideally, the space would be in or near Pike/Pine corridor and already have a class I hood in solid, inspection-passing condition. Your new tenants would include a CIA-trained chef and a former ad agency peon with a good idea, integrity, and plenty of motivation to make our idea work.

  So, maybe you’re just done dealing with dirty hipsters, or you’re thinking of retiring, or you have some extra space in your existing restaurant that you’re willing to part with? We’re open to space-sharing ideas as well. Please send us an e-mail about the space you have in mind and let’s talk. Thanks!

• Pike Street Fish Fry is doing its monthly free fries thing this Friday — plus a special holiday bonus. Free Polaroids with Santa. Meanwhile, way out in New York City, Fish Fry and Via Tribunali are still planning their East Coast outposts.