(Image: Joe Bar)

The pandemic continued to reshape Capitol Hill’s food and drink economy in 2022. You might have forgotten, but the year began with venues still facing uncertainty over issues like vaccination card requirements. But the environment accelerated in 2022 after the previous two years of restriction and caution. That new motion brought a wave of changes and closures including the shuttering of some Capitol Hill favorites. It brought new battles over labor and workers rights. And it brought a surprising number of new openings with new owners, new chefs, and new ideas ready to add to the culture and community around going out to eat or having a drink on Capitol Hill.

SAD GOODBYES AND MILESTONES.    |.    NEW OPENINGS

Yuki Sodos, Robin Wright, and Miki Sodos, of Cafe Pettirosso

SAD GOODBYES

• Joe Bar ended its run of 25 years of community, coffee, crepes, and art on Capitol Hill
• Cafe Presse’s story came to an end after 15 years on 12th Ave with its ownership beginning the process of winding down to a food+drink retirement
• February brought the last days at Cafe Pettirosso, a Capitol Hill mainstay reborn under new ownership that gave Pike/Pine a comfortable place to hangout for 27 years
• Kevin Burzell and Alysson Wilson completed a more than a decade journey through Capitol Hill food and drink from farmers market tent to a busy brick and mortar run on Bellevue Ave before closing Kedai Makan on their own terms to end 2022. There are rumors the Malaysian flavors could live on under a new chef’s guidance.
• Jai Thai’s long, affordable run on Broadway came to a close with a long term demolition and development plan looming for the 1903-era building it calls home
• The last vestige of Amante Pizza, once notorious for its outsized E Olive Way flashing sign, left the Hill
• After three popular and busy years on E Olive Way, Jewish and Eastern European-flavored Dacha Diner was forced to close by two key life circumstances: careers and health
• The Canterbury gave up the ghost after 46 years on 15th Ave E
• Speckled and Drake, RIP on E Olive Way

MILESTONES

Aviv’s David Nussbaum

• Captain Black’s and the Stumbling Monk teamed up to purchase the property they call home off E Olive Way
• Ristorante Machiavelli’s building has a new owner but the Capitol Hill classic is doing just fine
• Vito’s suffered a long-term closure after a fire damaged its building on First Hill. And somebody stole their cat :(
• Dick’s celebrated the reopening of its Broadway drive-in after a much needed overhaul
• Queer/Bar turned five and is now the center of a growing food+drink+retail family
• Speaking of that family, Oddfellows is now part of the growing Burgess/Hall group
• Capitol Hill rum bar Rumba turned 10 on Pike
• Around the corner, Mamnoon marked 10 years on Melrose
• Aviv Hummus Bar celebrated five years on 15th Ave
• The Pine Box notched its tenth beery year on Melrose
• Mezcaleria Oaxaca reshaped itself as part of a larger Mercado Luna concept on E Pine
• Coastal Kitchen debuted its “fish house and oyster bar” makeover to reinvigorate the nearly 30-year-old business
• Nearly 40 years old, The Wildrose upgraded its kitchen and its menu with help from chef Mahogany Williams
• A former Linda Derschang joint, 15th Ave E’s Smith got new owners
• Another Derschang creation, Broadway’s Bait Shop marked a decade as a Northwest Nautical dive bar
  

  Inside The Doctor’s Office

• After a decade above 15th Ave E, Bamboo got a new owner
• Qin Xi’an Noodles marked five years on Capitol Hill where its Pine expansion has become its only home after a devastating fire
• Capitol Hill-born Top Pot Doughnuts turned 20
• Broadway’s T’Juana Tacos made a claim to the “best tacos in Seattle”
• The Peloton “Cafe Bike Shop” expanded on E Jefferson
• Good Weather Bicycles and Tailwind Cafe clocked in with five years in Chophouse Row
• Starbucks burned through any goodwill in the neighborhood, closing cafes, adding to toxic politics, battling organized labor, and leaving behind a bit of a mess.
• Ooink expanded to Fremont
• Wedgwood II Vegetarian Thai became Broadway Wok
• Jesse Rhodes became the new owner at E Pike’s Poco Bar & Lounge which remains one of Capitol Hill’s few Black-owned bars and restaurants
• European Vine Selections celebrated 50 years on 15th Ave E
• The Doctor’s Office survived the pandemic

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