Cascina Spinasse, the small but powerful player in the Capitol Hill food scene, is about to get much bigger. In plans filed to end 2010, the gourmet Italian restaurant and home to one of the best new chefs of 2010 is set to expand into the space left behind as retailer Whimsy packs up its final baubles and heads for the Internet.
According to the permit filing, Spinasse is set to inhabit a space that will be close to 7,000 square feet, almost doubling in size. The buildout of the former Whimsy space is valued at $58,000 in the filing and being backed by the building’s owner, Redside Partners, the group we reported on earlier this week as they overhaul the old Jade Pagoda building on Broadway.
Seattle Times food columnist Nancy Leson has the scoop from inside the kitchen on the changes coming to Spinasse:
Their plan: to create a mirror image of the current dining room in an adjacent space, and install a corridor leading to a contemporary-styled bar, Artusi, on the corner. Artusi (honoring the author of a classic Italian cookbook) will feature a 12-seat counter where, come May, you might perch for a plate of pasta and a glass of wine. “One of the attractions of Spinasse is seeing what’s going on in the kitchen,” said Stratton, who intends to keep “that peek-a-boo look” into his culinary workshop and create a new glassed-in pasta-making area as a visual draw.
Image: Spinasse Facebook
The December permit filing is yet another example of Capitol Hill retail space being pulled into the food and drink scene. Earlier this week, we reported on a fresh seafood shop replacing a boutique in the Melrose Market. Recently, CHS reported that Samurai Noodle was set to take over in the space left behind by Bailey Coy Books.
You’ll have a bit of a wait for the Spinasse expansion. With the permit application only filed in December, it doesn’t appear work is anywhere near ready to start. The news comes as 14th Ave transitions to a new set of business owners with Porchlight Coffee, Blue Sky Cleaners, Mezza, 14th Avenue Salon and SPUN Collective (a CHS advertiser) all arriving in the last two years.
You can follow Cascina Spinasse on Facebook to keep tabs on their expansion progress. You can also follow chef Jason Stratton via Twitter @bambichronicles where he confirmed a “springtime” expansion late Thursday night.
One more food note…
Boylston at East Olive Way wine shop Vino Verite has been advertising with CHS for a long time. It’s cool to see them all grown up and, Friday night, releasing their own bottles of Capitol Hill Red. You might have seen the stealthy ads on the site this week. Their big media release describes the new venture as “a wine named and produced for Capitol Hill’s diverse community.” You can stop by the shop Friday night starting at 6 PM for a free tasting. Congratulations, Vino Verite.
I’ve been noticing a trend on the hill .. residents/visitors support the restaurants but retail for the most part seems to fail. There are exceptions, Elliot Bay had a great year and record stores seem to be doing OK but small single storefronts seem to have a tough time figuring out what works on the hill. We really need both to succeed for our neighborhood to work .. so folks visit your local stores and try to buy something!
It would help if the retail shops sold things people wanted.
I shop local as much as possible, but most of the things that i’m looking to buy either aren’t in the small local shops, or are so overpriced that I can’t afford it.
No tears for Whimsy, though – I don’t know how they stayed in business as long as they did. How many mermen ornaments can one neighborhood buy?
Insofar as this phenomenon plays out in my existence I find myself trending over the years to consuming more “ones and zeros” and less and less actual physical things. Food is the exception. More and more people are moving to urban cores and into smaller and smaller homes. There is a limit to what one can physically possess however there is a relatively high ceiling for our collective purchasing power. The desire to consume can be sated by the purchase of services and experiences. New haircuts, painted nails, ever more sophisticated caffeine and alcohol products and bo-bo (bohemian-bourgeois) dining experiences are in ever greater demand.
also: the photo used by the Seattle Times for Spinasses has my brain in a knot. Is that a reverse image?
The article does say Spinasse’s plan is to create a mirror image…
The photo was taken through two panes of glass, the side-window and the front door. The door was propped open, so Spinasse reads backwards.
So true. Thanks. The rest of the photo now makes sense to my less than photographic memory of the hood through there. The street positioning and the bit of the Braeburn in the background seemed way out of whack.
It’s a great shot.
I think Residual makes a great observation…I’ll just add that while CapHill is clearly a regional hub for dining & entertainment, the neighborhood doesn’t work well as a regional retail hub — there are just too many challenges with getting here (access, parking) compared to shopping downtown, U-Village, wherever. On the other hand, I think our area is undershopped for locally consumed goods, maybe the departure of independent fashion shops will herald the arrival of useful but unsexy neighborhood places like a hardware store or Radio Shack or something.