(Images: CHS)

Over the weekend, Rachel Yang finally got to see the pieces of her new food and drink puzzle come together on E Pike as the last step in the preservation-minded overhaul of one of the neighborhood’s remaining auto-row buildings. Trove, a gastronomical “fourplex” of concepts, brings the couple and the teams behind Seattle favorites Revel and Joule to Capitol Hill for the partnership’s first foray in the neighborhood’s booming nightlife economy.

Rachel Yang

The new project calls the 500 E Pike Greenus Building home and brings Capitol Hill-based developer Hunters Capital’s investment in purchasing and rehabilitating the 1924-built structure full circle. Earlier, shoe boutique Edie’s made a two-block move to the rehabbed building while “destination furniture store and interior boutique” Great Jones Home also make the retail stretch, well, home. Above, the techies at search marketing firm Add3 rub elbows with longtime tenants 8 Limbs Yoga. Not everybody found the new life for the Greenus Building agreeable, however. Theater Schmeater left its subterranean space after 21 years on Capitol Hill and is now resident in Belltown.

“The goal is to bring the building as closely back to its original look as possible,” Hunters told us earlier this year about the Greenus overhaul. “This will include a full brick and concrete restoration, new wood double hung windows, new roofing, flashings, refurbished street fronts, etc.”

CHS has followed the changes — along with a false start or two — as the building’s redevelopment took place and plans fell together for Trove:

• 1/6/2013 — ‘Sale of the year’ — Preservation-minded developer scores two more pieces of Hill’s auto row past
• 1/9/2013 — Hats off to Brocklind’s for 106 years of dressing up Seattle
• 6/10/2013 — ‘Roman-style trattoria’ from owner of The Saint planned for Hunters Capital-restored Greenus building
• 10/22/2013 — Owner behind The Saint, Havana pulls back on E Pike project
• 12/10/2013 — Chef duo behind Joule, Revel find place on E Pike
• 12/18/2013 — Revel and Joule creators say new Capitol Hill project will bring together Korean BBQ, noodles, ice cream *and* beer

Meanwhile, across the street, another Hunters Capital preservation-minded development project has dug in as the seven-story Dunn Automotive mixed-use building has started construction incorporating the facade of the auto row-era H.E. Holmes structure. By the time it’s ready for tenants in the next couple of years, maybe Chang and Chirchi will have four more concepts waiting.

Yang and husband Seif Chirchi had solid doubts about putting the entire 5,000+ square-foot space at E Pike and Summit to full use with only one concept — so they developed four: bustling noodle bar, tucked-in-the-middle bar, new-era Korean BBQ with grill-at-your-table tradition, and a frozen custard walk-up doling out giant parfaits.

Here’s how the Trove team describes it all:

TROVE NOODLE — “Imagine the fragrant sizzle, smoke, and flames from woks lining hawker stalls throughout Asia, beckoning diners in from the street.” Hours: 11 – 2 pm, 4 – 11 pm daily

TROVE PARFAIT — “Entering the front door of Trove, all diners will be met with the sight of a custom-painted truck that has been sawed in half to house Seattle’s most intriguing ice cream shop. Trove Parfait will feature three rotating frozen custard handles, all with decidedly Korean-influenced flavor and texture combinations.” Hours: 12 – 11 pm daily

TROVE BAR — “Just beyond the bright and frenetic noodle shop is Trove’s intimate bar lined with dark, charred wood and a large-scale painting of an erupting Mount Rainier.” Hours: 4 – 11 pm daily

TROVE BBQ — “The soul of Yang and Chirchi’s new vision, Trove BBQ, is one the couple has been talking about since moving to Seattle in 2006. In many respects, it is their most traditional venture thus far. Hours: Sunday – Thursday 5 – 10 pm, Friday & Saturday 5 -11 pm

Tying it all together is a bright, open design built by Heliotrope architects, Dovetail Contractors, and local artists Electric Coffin. “When I first saw it, I had a little heart attack,” Yang said of the “millionaire red” theme. “There’s a lot going on.” Add the glorious late-day sun of a September early evening and Trove practically bursts with color.

With “made-to-order, fresh hand-formed noodles and extruded pastas” and a bar boasting “six well-curated taps of local beer, as well as a selection of rare international bottles and cans designed to pair with Trove’s noodle and barbecue dishes,” Trove would have easily drawn a crowd. Add eight tables equipped with grills ready for “specialty cuts pre-seasoned with creative flavors” and banchan, “house-made sauces, and hot and cold sides to round out each meal,” and you have one of the more ambitious food-focused projects to open on Capitol Hill.

But there is more to come. In the wave of the Capitol Hill complex, there are even larger, maybe even more ambitious food and drink projects coming to completion around the Hill. Next to open should be 11th Ave’s Chophouse Row with a new venture from Volunteer Park Cafe’s Ericka Burke, an ice cream/dairy shop from Kurt Timmermeister, a Slate Coffee and bakery project from the Le Gourmand folks, and a Bar Ferd’nand sibling. Read about those last two — or is it three? — here. Meanwhile, also nearing completion is the Central Agency Building. Converting an auto-row era warehouse, the E Seneca project on the backside of Pike/Pine will include a berth for the Vancouver BC-based Meat & Bread nestled in amongst a full family of projects from the team at Lark.