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Gay City spreads out as Kaladi Brothers settles into new (old) home on E Pike

A long, fruitful partnership on E Pike has ended — but everybody is still friends. Kaladi Brothers Coffee is now spread out in its own space just a few doors down as its longtime partner Gay City sets to work on creating a new library and resource center in the former cafe space.

CHS reported on the planned move for Kaladi this summer as the Alaska-born coffee chain’s sole Seattle location readied for the new E Pike address. While the move was logistically easy thanks to an underground connection in the building, the buildout of the former Sun Liquor bottling facility took a bit longer than expected.

 

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The resulting space has high, auto row-worthy ceilings, and is also blessed with enormous windows for watching Capitol Hill commuters make the hike up and down E Pike. Lots of tables provide plenty of space for hanging out and there is also a mezzanine level with even more room above. It’s not exactly the same but you might be reminded of the original Bauhaus if you were lucky enough to visit that E Pine and Melrose cafe.

For Kaladi, though the space is completely changed, the move is a return to the address it called home from 2007 to 2012. That year, building owner Chip Ragen overhauled his property — the old building was part of what was once intended to be The Michigan, a project that would have been the tallest building in Pike/Pine — to provide a new expanded home for both Kaladi and the growing Gay City complex.

Kaladi’s return to its first E Pike home became possible when Sun Liquor Distillery moved off the Hill last year. Sun had been using the space on the south side of Pike as a bottling facility for its contract to supply “minis” to Alaska Airlines.

Gay City, meanwhile, is busy getting set to put the space left empty by Kaladi to work holding its new “storefront” library and resource center. Gay City says it is also working on adding a new food and drink vendor to the space.

You can now find Kaladi Brothers at 511 E Pike. You can learn more at kaladi.com.

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