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Next for former Pettirosso space? Gemini Room project from growing Queer/Bar-Elliott Bay-Oddfellows business family

A favorite Pike/Pine bartop may soon see new life as the business family behind Capitol Hill’s Queer/Bar, Elliott Bay Book Company, and the Oddfellows Cafe is making plans for a new venue.

Early permit paperwork shows plans for a project in the former Cafe Pettirosso on 11th Ave called the Gemini Room from Joey Burgess and Murf Hall, the husband and husband team behind the newest and fastest growing business family on Capitol HIll.

CHS talked with Burgess earlier this month about the five year anniversary of Queer/Bar and the investments he and Hall are making in the Pike/Pine neighborhood.

“The goal of the company is to make sure legacy businesses stay local and preserve businesses we feel could be at risk,” Burgess told CHS earlier this month. “Queer bars are fading over the country. Bookstores are Important mainstays that create education, vibrancy but are also challenged. A bookstore and a queer bar are not too far away from each other.”

How exactly Gemini Room will fit into that continuum isn’t yet clear.

CHS reported here in February on the final days for Pettirosso as founder Robin Wright was there to help say goodbye with owners Miki and Yuki Sodos after the cafe’s 28 years of service in the neighborhood. The Sodos sisters said they decided to close the cafe on its “own terms” amid the business challenges of the pandemic and a planned redevelopment of the historic Baker Linen building it calls home.

Building owner and neighboring Chophouse Row developer Liz Dunn said early in 2022 the Baker Linen street-level space could become home to a new restaurant or bar with the planned overhaul of the structure still in the planning phases.

City records now show early permitting for a “seismic retrofit and two story penthouse addition” to the three-story unreinforced masonry building has been completed. CHS reported on the early plans for the construction back in 2019.

The spirit of Pettirosso, meanwhile, could live on with plans for a new bar and lodging project from Miki and Yuki Sodos on 23rd Ave.

On 11th Ave, the absence of Pettirosso spread beyond the cozy bar and cafe’s space as the exit of the business also meant the end of its popular street cafe space.

We’ll have more on the Gemini Room plans — and any plans for returning a street patio to 11th Ave — soon.

For now, what we know is the family of businesses that also includes The Cuff, the Grimm’s nightclub, and new-era newsstand Big Little News on E Pike is expecting and, yes, it is going to be twins. Congratulations.

 

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CentralDistrictPerson
CentralDistrictPerson
1 year ago

Glad to see something opening back up here!

Nomnom
Nomnom
1 year ago

I really respect how these guys are preserving the soul of Capitol Hill. They seem like people who love the Hill and want to see a strong queer presence.