(Image: Piroshki on 3rd)

With reporting by Jadenne Radoc Cabahug, CHS intern

Seattle’s surprisingly robust Eastern European pastry scene will return to Capitol Hill as Piroshki at Pike Motorworks takes shape in 2023, years after Piroshki on Broadway made way for the Capitol Hill light rail station.

The new 2,300-square-foot bakery and cafe is being planned to begin construction on the E Pine wing of the massive preservation incentive-boosted development in the new year. It will finally put the development’s major E Pine commercial space into motion more than six years after the building opened. The E Pike side and internal courtyard is home to commercial tenants including the Redhook Brewlab, Taku, and a Salt and Straw ice cream shop.

Seattle’s piroshki family tree is complicated.

Most well known — in part, because of its popular shop in Pike Place Market is Piroshky Piroshky. Owner Olga Sagan brought her company’s pop-ups to 19th Ave E’s Russian Community Center during the summer of 2020’s pandemic shutdowns. Her shops have also become a popular subject for TV news coverage of ongoing public safety issues in Seattle’s downtown where Sagan operates a 3rd Ave location.

The new Capitol Hill piroshki project is not related to Piroshky Piroshky.

Instead, the new shop is a sister to 1994-born Piroshki on 3rd which has steered clear of the politics, continuing its traditions downtown and is now expanding to Capitol Hill. But there are other piroshki family connections. The dearly departed Piroshki on Broadway lives on with founder Alla Lyublin’s recipes in the form of Piroshki on Madison on First Hill. Piroshki on 3rd was also a Lyublin family business when it debuted 28 years ago.

Today, Aly Anderson runs Piroshki on 3rd after the chef took over the 3rd Ave shop in 2016 at the age of 23. Anderson says she started baking at age 7 when she asked her older sister how to make banana bread and has been baking ever since.

(Image: Piroshki on 3rd)

(Image: Piroshki on 3rd)

(Image: Piroshki on 3rd)

(Image: Piroshki on 3rd)

Anderson has also brought her family heritage to her piroshki business. Although its carte du jour is Eastern European cuisine, Piroshki on 3rd serves Filipino cuisine every Friday. This includes “Bulalo” beef oxtail soup, “Pork Sisig” sauteed pork belly, ears, and “Chicken Bicol Express” or chicken doused in spicy coconut cream sauce. Anderson also incorporated Filipino desserts like turon, a sweet banana covered in a spring roll with melted brown sugar on top.

Get some warm ass piroshki (Image: Piroshki on 3rd)

She has also created the “Pinoyshki”, with a garlic beef “asado” filling, a fusion of the piroshki with a Filipino cuisine. The pinoyshki gained the attention of national TV and was featured on an episode of Food Network’s “Tasty Traditions: Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”

As for her plans for Capitol Hill, Anderson declined to comment on the expansion at this early point in the process. But work on the new bakery and cafe is taking shape with designs from Atelier Drome to make additions or changes to the building and its usage for the new bakery in the long vacant commercial space.

Piroshki on 3rd serves fresh baked goods in store and customers can watch bakers roll, shape and bake piroshkies from morning to afternoon. The menu includes meat, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free options for piroshkies, a popular street food on the streets of Eastern European countries. The pastries at Piroshki on 3rd are baked to have a soft, pillowy, buttery and sweet dough outside with savory fillings in the traditional Eastern European way.

The menu also features babka, a buttery brioche bread with chocolate filling, vegan sticky buns, traditional (vegetarian) borscht soup, cakes, desserts, salads and more. The shop also does wedding cakes and catering for events.

Piroshki at Pike Motorworks is planned to open in 2023 at 715 E Pine. You can learn more at piroshkion3rd.com.

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