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Capitol Hill food+drink | The Pine Box to replace The Chapel, City Hall to test streamlined permits

Eat it, eat it, eat all about it. Got a tip? [email protected]. We pay in beer.

  • Winning points for its name alone, The Pine Box will follow inside the old mortuary that was home to The Chapel before it closed earlier this year. 

“We just got the keys last week,” the Box’s Ian Roberts tells CHS of the new venture with a spring 2012 opening target. 

As one of the main drivers behind Seattle Beer Week, Roberts is a little beer focused. “We’ll have 30 beers on tap and a full back bar with lots of brown liquor.”

CHS reported on The Chapel’s end this summer as the longtime Capitol Hill night spot said it was moving on in a “landlord/tenant” thing. 

Roberts said work is beginning to overhaul the old Chapel space. The big center-stage bar is gone. A wall is being knocked out to open up a full kitchen for pizzas and a full beer-appropriate menu of food. The vibe of the “public house” will be shifted from dark and possibly a little spooky to, oh, we don’t know… maybe some place you’d like to rest for a really, really long time.


“It will be a little more comfortable with a little more wood,” Roberts said of The Pine Box.

It’s his first bar or restaurant venture after managing Brouwer’s Cafe in Fremont. Roberts said he’s partnering with two friends he met “across the bar” from outside the food and drink business — “They’re in the business now,” Roberts said. Better get comfortable.

You can get check out pineboxbar.com for updates.

This test will be in the restaurant industry, one of the case study examples from other cities.  New York City claims that they have cut the permitting time by 75 to 80% for new restaurants as a result of their new one-stop approach.  [Finance and Administrative Services] will test this in 2012.

 

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Being Careful
12 years ago

but the allure to me of Chapel is that it’s IN the spot the funeral home Chapel was and was designed to totally embrace a mortuary meets hip bar.

Just the same, it’ll be nice to have a functioning business back in there

somecaphillguy
12 years ago

Yup. Chapel felt like something you’d see in a movie. Hoping ‘Pine Box’ = ‘Coffin’ and the place retains a little of that spooky atmosphere that comes with the location.

Ian
Ian
12 years ago

All we’re doing is ripping out the old bar and a little paint. The original charm of the building will be the same.

lola
12 years ago

I’m excited about The Pine Box! I just hope the new place smells better than Chapel did…

tournant
tournant
12 years ago

Sure, Chapel looked good but the crowd? I live across the street and it was popped-collar belltown bros ALL THE TIME. A stretch hummer parked outside every weekend until the place started losing business. Please Pine Box, be better than that. We’ve got so much cool stuff going on in out little micro-hood (Melrose Market, The Living Room, Faire, Montana, ye olde Bauhaus, Lil’ Woody’s, etc..) let’s build on that!

Dod
Dod
12 years ago

I look forward to checking it out.

brian
12 years ago

excited for the pine box. 30 taps and no mention of “with an upscale twist” in this post…perfect!

Jake
12 years ago

I guess spoof of death is catchy to some, not this one.

And, really not too creative.

The old Chapel had this strange bar – high seats and a bright light in your eyes. Good riddence to the mid room bar.

The menu and food at Chapel was decent, took me a while to figure that out.

Pine Box, no, thanks.

jerry chantrelle
12 years ago

had a burger at this new food truck on pike street alley entrance to neighbors was really good ,burgers and fries for $7,Highly recommended for late night food on the hill.