Sound and Fog is coming to E Denny Way from West Seattle bringing along hard to find coffee roasts to Capitol Hill but swapping out its wine club for craft cocktails.
“This one is a little bit different,” owner Justin Krebs says of the planned expansion. “We’re not carrying the wine component.” Instead, the second location will be a coffee and cocktails “mash-up” in the spirit of Sound and Fog’s quest for unique cafe experiences.
“If you can get it down the street, I probably don’t want to serve it,” Krebs said of Sound and Fog’s focus on European roasts.
Krebs, a former Starbucks employee who opened the first Sound and Fog in West Seattle six years ago, will also have an interesting window on the coffee giant’s tangle with unionization efforts.
The new Sound and Fog is being planned to open in the street level of a new seven-story apartment building on the same block as the Broadway and Denny Starbucks where workers last week became the first in Seattle to vote to unionize.
“Workers have been trampled on a lot,” Krebs says, adding that he was happy to see the pro-union vote. As a small business owner with a small — but growing — set of workers, Krebs said he hopes it is easier for his employees to talk with him over salary and working conditions.
With the lease signed, planning is underway for designing and building out the 600-square-foot cafe and patio below the newly constructed apartment building at the corner of Denny and Harvard. Krebs says the cafe will be a day and night experience, serving as a neighborhood cafe during the day and transitioning to craft cocktails at night.
It’s not the first time he has opened a cafe in an empty space in new construction. The first Sound and Fog was also built inside a new development. But it will be “the first time we had a better budget,” Krebs said.
While the city’s permitting systems remain backed up and delayed, with luck, Krebs said, the new Sound and Fog will be open at 800 E Denny Way before the end of the year.
You can learn more and keep track of progress at soundandfog.com.
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