The small business challenges of the pandemic shut down plenty of Capitol Hill shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars. Many survived. Few are unchanged. Another rebirth along E Pine is Sugar Hill where a nightclub with food has flipped and reversed into a restaurant with music.

“We turned into a community kitchen”, owner Guitar Srisuthiamorn tells CHS. “We got together with a bunch of other restaurants and created a group called Community Kitchen Collective and we provided food for frontline workers and would deliver to hospitals.” After making 600 meals a week for months, non-profits began contracting the restaurant and the restaurant could pay to retain it’s staff.

Food and drink industry veteran Srisuthiamorn has been in restaurants all her life.

“My mom was telling me, when I was seven, I was helping them bus tables in our first family restaurant in Pioneer Square, Bangkok Hut 1,” Srisuthiamorn says.

27 years ago, the family took over Capitol Hill’s Ayutthaya, where Srisuthiamorn worked as manager while going to school for hospitality.  In 2016, CHS covered the opening of Sugar Hill with her two partners. “I bought out my last business partner right before the pandemic hit.”

Like many other restaurants on the Hill, Sugar Hill faced its own stressful financial situations. “We all got to take a break and step back, look at what we were doing. We were working ourselves to death.” The environment and family that’s created in the workspace helps keep Srisuthiamorn interested in the business.

“I like the people that are here. The turnover is really small.” While away in Thailand, she was nervous, but knows she has a staff that will show up and keep the place running. “I’m lucky to have a really good staff that cares.”

“Before this, we were known as a club. No one really knew us for the Thai street food we were doing…people came for the nightlife here, the food was in the shadows.”

The transition from club to restaurant was necessary. “People weren’t clubbing, people weren’t dancing, but people still wanted to go out to eat, so we turned it into a restaurant.”

Inside the street’s former Bauhaus space — and onetime Capitol Club — Sugar Hill’s kitchen was built to serve small bites and bar food, so space is limited, but Srisuthiamorn is making it work.

When you come to visit the new Sugar Hill, you’ll be eating food that reminds Srisuthiamorn of her visits to Thailand. “This is a woman owned business and I’m proud of my food”, Srisuthiamorn tells us. “We dumbed down our food when we first came. Here I try to create a menu where it’s gonna be spicy, but we use authentic ingredients and make it taste like home… I love all the food that comes out. They’re my favorite dishes that I grew up with. I want people to come in and taste what we have to offer that’s not watered down Thai food.”

Although the former club has shifted into restaurant mode, they’re still keeping the nostalgic 90’s hip hop vibe with DJ’s that spin on the weekends from 10 PM to 2 AM, now with “good music AND good food.”

Sugar Hill is open at 414 E Pine Tuesday-Thursday from 5 PM  to 11 PM with last call for food at 10 PM, Friday and Saturday from 5 PM to 2 AM with last call for food around 10:30 PM. Sundays they’re open from 5 PM to 10 PM. Learn more at sugarhillseattle.com.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍