Was Re-bar an extension of Capitol Hill? Or was Capitol Hill an extension of Re-bar? We’ll never know. Closed during the pandemic and reportedly on the hunt for a new Seattle-area home, Re-bar won’t be coming back to Howell St. as its old space is making a home for a new piano bar just as a new ebony and ivory tinkled venture is being readied on Broadway.

According to construction permits and a newly issued liquor permit, the former Re-bar is being prepared to reopen as the new home for Seattle’s Keys on Main piano bar.

Plans for the 3,000-square-foot club designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects show arcs of tables between a back wall bar and a front stage.

The company announced the closure of its previous Seattle location and planned move from W Roy St. about five weeks ago. There are also Keys on Main in Tacoma and Salt Lake City.

Re-bar closed last year and ownership said it was searching for a new home for the dance club with plans for a new location to open “on the South Side” in the fall of 2021.

On Capitol Hill, the neighborhood’s longest running clubs have also struggled during pandemic closures and reopening restrictions. Queer bar and club R Place shuttered on E Pine after losing its lease. Longtime manager Floyd Lovelady is now preparing to open The Comeback in SoDo as a new LGBTQIA+ club with dancing and performances in the spirit of the Capitol Hill favorite.

Keys on Main, meanwhile, will face a dueling piano bar rivalry with Dorothy’s Piano Bar and Cabaret. The project is planned to make its Capitol Hill home in the former Highline vegan heavy metal bar space above Broadway.

UPDATE: Dorothy’s tells us they weren’t able to work out a lease and won’t be opening in the Highline space. Construction work, meanwhile, continues to transform the area into a club for a new tenant. No word, yet, on what is planned for the venue.

Original report: The new lounge from Dorothy’s founder, “pianist, singer, arranger, promoter, producer, accompanist and teacher” John Lehrack will fill the upper-floor space with a main room “equipped with a digital piano, fully capable of transposing your music into any key, several microphones, professional lighting, a beautiful mural depicting many of the famous Dorothy’s we honor and a full bar.”

The major project which will include closing in the building’s external stairwell and combining upstairs spaces into one large nightclub is still wrapping up permitting, according to the city.

Lehrack grew Dorothy’s as a roaming tour of piano nights at venues across Seattle including, yes, Re-bar.

You can learn more at keysonmain.com.

UPDATE: We received this note with style guidance from Re-bar founder Steve Wells:

As for your article about a possible piano bar opening in the space formerly known as Re-bar; just to let you know, as the original creator and owner or Re-bar, in Seattle, I can attest to the fact that it was, always was, and always will be known by its proper name’s spelling, to those that are “in the know” as “Re-bar”, not Re-Bar, or even worse, “The ReBar”.

Only those that were out of the loop called it The Re-Bar, with an unnecessary “The” and capital “B”. Our imitators in other cities named their joints The ReBar or Re-Bar.

Re-Bar corrected to Re-bar throughout, above.

And, no, we’d never refer to it as The Re-bar.

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