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(Image: Mt. Joy)

The start of a 1,000 or so location “pasture raised” chicken sandwich chain from prolific Capitol Hill and Seattle restaurateur Ethan Stowell appears destined to hatch at 11th and Pine.

CHS has learned Stowell’s Mt. Joy venture is planning what could be its first location on 11th Ave with plans to share the corner with another food and drink chain with mega aspirations. CHS reported here more than a year ago on the plans for “fast casual” salad chain Sweetgreen to overhaul the former pub concept at the corner.

Sweetgreen’s path, as predicted, has been slowed by pandemic permitting bottlenecks and behind the scenes corporate maneuverings but the project has continued to move forward with fresh rounds of construction permit activity happening in November.

According to city permits, Mt. Joy would slice out around 1,500 square feet of the former 5,000-square-foot Stout Pub with an 11th Ave presence for the fast food sandwich concept.

In October, Mt. Joy’s chicken ambitions first took flight with pop-ups at the Ethan Stowell Restaurant Group’s E Pike location of Stowell’s Tavolata concept providing the “first glimpse of the actual food that will drive this ambitious project” and giving the Mt. Joy team “a chance to get public feedback on its menu of fried chicken sandwiches, milkshakes, and french fries with five housemade dipping sauces.”

The E Pike Tavolata was transformed into a temporary Mt. Joy for a short test run earlier this year (Image: Mt. Joy)

Stowell is pairing with Seattle telemedicine tech dude Robbie Cape to fund the venture and the long march to global super green chicken supremacy. Mt. Joy is hyping a focus on “pasture raised” poultry at chain scale though the “pasture raised” term has been at the center of lawsuits over the unregulated label and wrangled about in the industry.

11th and Pine, meanwhile, was the location of the most intense clashes between police and demonstrators during the CHOP protests. The Stout restaurant located at the corner missed the action after it was boarded up during the pandemic and never reopened.

Mt. Joy’s salad slinging roommate, meanwhile, could be a model for what the chicken sandwich chain wants to become.

Founded in 2007, Sweetgreen has opened more than 150 restaurants around the juiced-up salad bar concept and a mission of “scratch” ingredients, a “strong food ethos and investment in local communities,” and social and environmental campaigns. It is also pushing forward on efforts to automate food preparation and service, gobbling up startup Spyce and its two Boston-area automated restaurants. In late 2021, the company launched a public offering and is now publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It has been an up and down ride fo the stock including this summer when shares tanked over concerns about slowing growth and layoffs. The Culver City, California company also had to roll back comments from CEO Jonathan Neman criticizing Americans for being too fat and calling for “health mandates” to help end the COVID-19 crisis.

Still, analysts reported, in the quarter ended in June, Sweetgreen’s net sales rose 45% to $124.9 million with same-store sales climbing 16%, boosted by 6% menu price hikes.

We are probably a long way off from any Mt. Joy initial public offering. Stowell has said the goal is to open the first restaurant in Seattle sometime in 2023. Learn more at mtjoy.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 🖤