(Image: Gold Bar)

An Instagramable hangout born to cater to Seattle’s young South Lake Union tech community with backing from an up and coming social media agency will move to E Olive Way this summer.

Before you shun the “tech worker” friendly vibe, realize Capitol Hill has more in common with Gold Bar than you might think.

The four-year-old bar and community space is planning its summer move to Capitol Hill as the 9th Ave N block where it was born in 2018 is about to be demolished to make way for a new seven-story office and commercial development. Longtime neighbor Banya 5 appears it will be left standing. The buildings Gold Bar and neighbors have called home will not.

Anna Davies says Gold Bar also has grown a community of its own over the years as it felt tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft change the way its workers work amid the pandemic.

Gold Bar on 9th Ave N (Image: Gold Bar)

The 9 North development set to replace it

(Image: Gold Bar)

(Image: Gold Bar)

(Image: Gold Bar)

(Image: Gold Bar)

Gold Bar survived and has managed to create a solid reputation for its DJ music and events, not to mention its elevated bar food and bright, tropical, and fun drinks.

“The tech thing was kind of a big thing for us,” Davies says, “but that shifted because people are working from home. Now we have a lot of DIY music connections, booking DJs, fun events, local artists, and local talent.”

This summer, Gold Bar will bring that energy to Capitol Hill, making way for the demolition and construction in South Lake Union and putting the space most recently home to Dacha Diner back into motion, continuing a run at this wedge along E Olive Way that has also included longtime favorite The Saint.

CHS reported here on the abrupt closure for Dacha earlier this year as health and career took priority. The Jewish and Eastern European-flavored Dacha was born in December 2018 in a “Tbilisi grey” overhaul of the wedge-shaped restaurant space along E Olive Way at E Howell as a daytime spot specializing in Eastern European and Jewish foods like knishes, borscht, matzo ball soup, latkes, and vareniki.

Gold Bar will undoubtedly bring new shades to the building’s already colorful history.

A nod to the Pacific Northwest and, maybe, a sly reference to the riches to be won in the work hard, play hard, get paid world of Seattle’s tech economy, the name Gold Bar may fit in on E Olive Way where regionalism is already at play with born as a dive bar Montana just up the street. When it completes its move, Gold Bar will also be part of a new community of E Olive Way drinking establishments including Montana, fellow transplant Hula Hula, Revolver, and Hillside.

It will also bring a social media game that punches above the belt. The bar was founded by tech CEO Zach Huntting of the Crown Social agency. The entrepreneurial spirit means Gold Bar comes packing its own line of Boo’s Booze bottled cocktails.

And it definitely won’t be the only tech-affiliated food and drink venture in the neighborhood. CHS reported here on the project from Add3 to overhaul the old R Place building as offices and a new restaurant and bar concept.

Davies said Crown at first used the original Gold Bar as its hangout and work space but the lounge and event venue now carries on in a more independent fashion. Coming to Capitol Hill was a logical next step. Davies lives only a few blocks away. But Gold Bar is also looking beyond Capitol Hill. She says the E Olive Way Gold Bar will likely be the first of a family of venues around the city.

Gold Bar is planned to open at 1416 E Olive Way by mid-July. Learn more at goldbarseattle.com.

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