The closest you can get to Seattle restaurant veteran Marco Casas Beaux’s plans for Argentine pastries, empanadas, and pizzas on Broadway is 3,300 miles away at Miami’s Buenos Aires Bakery — the actual Buenos Aires is 7,000 miles away.

“When you see an Argentine bakery, you’re gonna see a mix of pastries from around the world. The best flour. Mineral water, you know?”

No, we don’t but CHS is looking forward to finding out later this year when the Boca Argentine Bakery and Pizzeria opens on Broadway.

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The sister bakery to Casas Beaux’s steak-filled Boca Restobar and Grill will take over the space left empty by the 2019 exit of Pagliacci after nearly 40 years on the street. The siblings will be separated by about 80 feet and neighbors Infinity Nails, Wedgwood II Vegetarian Thai, and the Hardware Salon.

Casas Beaux says the coming Boca bakery will be a daytime counterpart to the meaty night scene at the steakhouse with plans for a “7 to 7” type day with breakfast pastries, lunch and early dinners with pizzas and sandwiches, and an early happy hour before shutting down to make way for Broadway’s nightlife and Boca’s grill to fire up.

“I don’t want that Boca to interfere with this Boca,” Casas Beaux said.

And though Argentina’s European influences don’t leave much time for morning dining — “European breakfast is a coffee and a cigarette,” Casas Beaux says — Boca Bakery will join the Capitol Hill brunch scene with a menu including American classics.

The new project comes for Casas Beaux after decades creating restaurants in Seattle. The Boca steak joint was originally born as a pizzeria but in 2018, Casas Beaux switched up the concept and created what has grown into a popular hangout while weathering the pandemic.

Forgoing programs like the PPP loans, Casas Beaux is transitioning to a return to dine-in service and looking at the time as one for opportunity — including better lease terms.

“This city was insane before the pandemic,” he said. “They were asking you to be Jeff Bezos to get into a place.”

Now doubling down with two Broadway leases, Casas Beaux said his landlords share his enthusiasm for creating “something special” on Broadway. An overhaul will take place at the old, cavernous Pagliacci to brighten the space an install imported equipment and a wood fired oven. This would all take time anyhow, but Casas Beaux said reopening-era Seattle is especially busy and backed up with planned construction.

“Even if I want to speed it up, I have to be patient,” he said.

Staffing at the Boca grill and the new bakery will also be an issue as Casas Beaux said he, too, is feeling the labor crunch as the economy reopens but the workforce hasn’t fully returned. In the meantime, he is hoping to recruit more Argentinians from around the country to join him in what he says is a growing community in the the not-so-sunny Pacific Northwest. “Convincing them to come to Seattle from L.A. is not easy,” Casas Beaux said.

Boca Argentine Bakery and Pizzeria is planned to open at 426 Broadway E later this year. Keep track of updates on bocarestobar.com.

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