(Image: Hidden)
Ghost kitchens coming to Capitol Hill are set to shake up the food and drink scene by competing for real estate with traditional restaurant concepts while making new spaces for nimble experiments and new ideas. An “experience” company’s new arrival here also brings promises of new energy and help for existing restaurants and bars to fill their spaces with customers in these uncertain pandemic times — but, so far, the experiences for customers and venues in other cities haven’t been good.
The Hidden Media Network plans to take over Capitol Hill’s Knee High Stocking Co. for the holidays starting Thanksgiving week through the end of the year with “a boozy Alice in Wonderland-style tea party.”
The Hidden company appears to be gearing up to expand from its Sydney, Australia base to bring its pop-up “experiences” to Capitol Hill and across Seattle this year. It also lists Melbourne, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Manchester as its markets for creating ticketed events at area venues though it appears to also already be active in other cities in the United States. Its Seattle plans include cocktail parties, drag brunches, trivia nights, and more.
“Hidden is a marketplace for all the most exciting live and virtual experiences in your city,” the company says. “Working with a network of carefully selected event promoters we aim to deliver customers exciting, fun and new events and experiences in your area. All the events are unique, different and exclusive to Hidden!”
(Image: Hidden)
The Seattle PI picked up the company’s press release and is hyping the Capitol Hill run of the “Alice Immersive Cocktail Experience” as a “whimsical, alternate reality experience” that the company says lasts for 90 minutes and “includes two bespoke cocktails, riddles and challenges guests will have to solve, ‘Eat Me’ cakes, and plenty of bonkers photo opportunities.” $40 per person tickets are currently on sale.
Pennsylvania is apparently out ahead of Seattle on this one. Here’s what a Pittsburgh City Paper reporter got with her ticket:
For my $49.82, I received one shooter and what looked like a store-bought sugar cookie, followed 45 minutes later by a second cocktail. If I wanted another drink before then, I had to pay $10 for flavored shooters with names like Tweedledee and Tweedle-Rum or Some Kind of Mushroom, which, despite the name, did not contain actual mushrooms.
Knee High Stocking Co., the Capitol Hill host for Hidden’s Alice event, has fashioned itself as a neighborhood speakeasy. CHS visited in 2016 as the lounge looked to move beyond the gimmick. This year marks its twelfth on E Olive Way.
While the events might be opportunities for places like Knee High to turn over their space for the buzz of a temporarily more profitable pop-up, Pittsburgh City Paper reports that some events in the city were changed to different locations after tickets had been sold, frustrating customers and restaurant owners.
Meanwhile, the Hidden company is planning more promotions here including a $20 “2D Sketch Bar,” and an “ABBA Immersive Musical Brunch” to be held at a “secret location.” Ticket prices for the brunch have not yet been announced.
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