(Image: Bad Robot 6 via Flickr)

There is finally a buyer for Ballet.

While the news could join the slog of sadness around the announced closure of Value Village on 11th Ave, not all is lost.

“I wanted to make sure it went to the right person,” Ballet owner Dzung Nguyen tells CHS. “This is the best way for everyone.”

Don’t freak out. It’s not Dave Meinert.

According to the liquor permit filed for Ballet’s address, cheap taco and burger provider Freddy Rivas of Rancho Bravo and Freddy Junior’s fame is behind a new venture ready to take on the dirty spoon Vietnamese restaurant space for a new project.

Nguyen says the new ownership plans to keep things mostly the same.

“The restaurant won’t change,” he said. “The same recipe, the same staff, the same cooks.”

Nguyen said business was still good but that he personally was ready for a change after his family’s 16 years of running the restaurant. The young Nguyen’s first mission next week after Ballet changes hands? A vacation.

Ballet’s existence on E Pike as a last bastion of affordable meals without craft cocktails or microbrews has been fragile, at best. CHS reported in the summer of 2011 on the “for lease” signs up on the block. The building is owned by Ron Amundson who bought the 1908, three-story masonry building in spring of 2007 for $2.4 million according to King County records. Amundson is a prolific Capitol Hill real estate investor and developer who also owns the land lined up for eventual development where Rancho Bravo stands today.

Plans for the new Ballet will likely include later hours — but no craft cocktails, yet. For now, Rivas has applied to take over the existing restaurant’s beer and wine license. A larger transition at Ballet including an updated menu and new name could be a slow one. Rivas held the lease for his Broadway burger joint for more than a year before opening. In the meantime, he is also working on reactivating the old drive-through at Rancho Bravo. The sign is ready, at least.

Meanwhile, Ballet’s block of E Pike is undergoing a rapid shift after the overhauled Comet Tavern reopened in spring of 2014. The exit of the High Voltage music store will be followed by the opening of a yet to be identified new retailer. The space left open after Ballet neighbor the Lobby Bar exited the street remains empty — but we’re told a new tenant has been lined up and will be announced soon. And Iki, a new sushi bar from Shinsuke Nikaido, who also operates a small fleet of Pike/Pine hot dog carts, is planned to open on the block in early 2016.