(Images: Little Oddfellows)
It wasn’t as big a surprise as finding out Atticus Finch is a racist, but Little Oddfellows wasn’t in the plans. This spring, Capitol Hill food and drink veteran Linda Derschang told CHS her decision to take over the cafe space inside Elliott Bay Book Company was too good an opportunity to pass up.
This weekend, Derschang will unveil her version of a literary cafe:
Little Oddfellows will be making its debut this weekend inside of Elliott Bay Book Company on Capitol Hill. The menu includes baked goods and desserts, coffee and espresso from Caffe Vita, sandwiches, grain salads, and housemade juices and scratch sodas. Beer and wine will also be available.
Little Oddfellows will be open at 10am on Saturday, August 1st. It joins Linda’s Tavern, King’s Hardware, Smith, Oddfellows Cafe+Bar, Bait Shop, and Tallulah’s as part of The Derschang Group.
Little Oddfellows is open from 10am to 10pm Sunday through Thursday and from 10am to 11pm on Friday and Saturday. The Derschang Group has been a long-time admirer of both Elliott Bay Book Company and Caffe Vita and are very excited to partner with both of them.
Following a summer buildout, Little Oddfellows replaces the Elliott Bay Cafe after Tamara Murphy said she decided not to renew her lease for the space to “pursue other interests and projects.” Murphy and her cafe accompanied the legendary and last of its kind Seattle bookstore in its move to Capitol Hill from Pioneer Square in 2010.
From the business side of things, the opening also presents the opportunity to see how Derschang’s managers integrate a counter entity added on to their ongoing operations at Oddfellows. Ericka Burke will unveil a similar set-up on 11th Ave when her “juice and provisions” counter opens at Chop Shop.
Meanwhile, Derschang isn’t the only Capitol Hill food and drink maven taking a bookish turn this summer. The guys behind Lost Lake and the Comet are preparing to open Hemingway-inspired Ernest Loves Agnes “later this summer” in the old Kingfish Cafe space on 19th Ave E.
I find this unfortunate. I expect prices to go up, and for it to be less friendly as a place to sit and read. I am hoping that it will not start to be loud and full of rap music like some of Linda’s other venues. I will check it out and hope my predictions are wrong.
“full of rap music”?! Wow, you really said that?
Maybe they don’t like rap music.
I hope they don’t play classical music. That drives me nuts.
Would you have made the same comment if they said that?
I don’t know. Let’s all go back in time and find out. Though it will require changing history so saying full of rap music isn’t a racially charged comment and full of classical music is. Good luck with that.
It’s only a racially charged statement because you are trying to make it one.
I don’t recall ever hearing music of any kind in Elliott Bay, and don’t imagine they’ll start playing it just because Linda Derschang is taking over the café.
Personally, I loved the Elliott Bay Café, but the iteration that moved with them from Pioneer Square was a pale imitation. I’m not surprised that the owner is moving on, as it really seemed her heart wasn’t in it.
The cafe always had music playing, but it wasn’t audible in the rest of the store. Usually it’d be either 80s pop or classic folk music.
Will the prices also be little?
UgH. Fucking Vita Coffee????? It’s on every corner, let’s get something original.. Kuma, Broadcast, Elm… Please, no more vita.
Might be a matter of convenience – Vita’s right across Pike and thus easy to source.
Agree about Vita. Vivace is only a few more blocks away and they’ve got the best coffee in the city. They also don’t have their own cafe 1 block away.
Happy to have the cafe reopen, though.
A bunch of friends and I would meet up at Elliot Bay Cafe every Thursday to draw and socialize and make comics and stuff. We’ve missed the space while it’s been closed, and I really hope it’s as nice as it was before for that!
And, if they can have the cafe open later than they used to, all the better.