When all was said and done, 2022 brought 28 new places for food and drink around Capitol Hill and the Central District. Why do they matter? For one, food and drink businesses can provide useful jobs and relatively interesting and creative employment. For two, these spaces can be extensions of our neighborhoods and communities and places to gather and enjoy company or solitude outside our homes. For three, they can be brilliantly creative and delicious. Below, you’ll find 17 — and a few more — places to look forward to around Capitol Hill and the Central District in 2023.

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  (Image: The French Guys)

  The French Guys: Seattle’s “first mobile French bakery” is building out its first fixed-place cafe in the old Joe Bar. The plans call for fresh-baked breads, buttery pastries, and the class and comfort of a French cafe — plus a good scrub and overhaul of the much-loved Joe Bar space. There is no opening date announced yet.

• E Olive Way juice and wine bar: The closure of the ten-year-old watering hole Speckled and Drake late last year will make way for a new juice bar serving healthy food, natural wine, and mercantile. More soon.
• New Southpaw project: The Lark food and drink family has plans for a new project to open this month on 12th Ave after quietly shuttering its contribution to the great Capitol Hill pizza boom of 2016. Chef John Sundstrom’s Southpaw Pizza is gone. There are no details on what Sundstrom has up his sleeves for the space once home to the original Lark but we’re told to expect a new pizza restaurant in the location “sometime in January.”
  

  (Image: Glo’s)

• Glo’s Diner and Seasmith at Capitol Hill Station: 2023 will bring a new start in a spacious new home for Capitol Hill brunch favorite Glo’s. Meanwhile, Seasmith, a new cafe from Burien Press and Moonshot Coffee owner Matt Wendland is also set to open above Capitol Hill’s busy light rail station. For Glo’s the new diner on the eastern side of the AIDS Memorial Pathway plaza will give the restaurant a new start after 35 years on E Olive Way. Just off Broadway, the new 2,900-square-foot space is nearly three and a half times larger than the original with space for eggs benedict and an expanded espresso program as well as “breakfast cocktails.” Seasmith, meanwhile, will be an “all day” cafe in the station development’s southern end with a corner spot facing the intersection of Broadway and E Barbara Bailey Way. Neither project has announced an opening date yet but Glo’s should open earlier in the year as the business has wrapped up its efforts on E Olive Way and the buildout of the new diner has been ongoing for months.
• Old Glo’s teriyaki joint: Few details right now but CHS has been told a new teriyaki restaurant is taking shape with a new kitchen in the old Glo’s place on E Olive Way.
• Blossom: A Seattle expansion of the Renton vegetarian restaurant is reportedly coming to the base of Capitol Hill in the Pivot development.
• Ki Nam: A new Vietnamese joint is lined up to join the Harvard Market shopping center’s E Pike streetfront.
  

  (Image: Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro)

• Boujie Bar, Neighbor Lady, Jerk Shack, and Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro at Midtown Square: CHS reported on the plans to bring back the spirit of Helen Coleman in the form of Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro in the Central District’s Midtown Square development at 23rd and Union. The project planned to open by spring will join arts venue Arté Noir and a mix of neighborhood and BIPOC-owned businesses including a second location of the Jerk Shack Caribbean restaurant on the edge of the development’s internal plaza. A new home for neighborhood bar The Neighbor Lady should also open in the development later this year. Now we have early word there is another food and drink venue to look forward to in the mix. Marjorie’s Donna Moodie is putting together a new project called Boujie Bar to join the community around 23rd and Union.
• Sound and Fog: Mark this as something to look forward to — but maybe not on Capitol Hill. Sound and Fog was lined up to open a new cafe in new housing development at Harvard and Denny. CHS reported on the coffee, beer, and wine bar’s plans here. But with the YWCA’s purchase of the development to add much needed affordable housing to the neighborhood, Sound and Fog and the new owner agreed “a second café that also served cocktails” was no longer a good fit for the corner. Sound and Fog’s search for an expansion neighborhood continues.
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  (Image: Piroshki on 3rd)

  Piroshki on Pine: As one Seattle piroshki chain sets its sights on the Bay Area, another with Broadway roots is bringing a new Atelier Drome-designed bakery and cafe to Capitol Hill. Aly Anderson of Piroshki on 3rd is expanding to E Pine with a project set to fill in the final empty commercial space in the Pike Motorworks development. The new cafe will feature fresh baked goods as customers watch bakers roll, shape and bake piroshkies. The menu includes meat, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free options for piroshkies, a popular street food of Eastern European countries. Anderson has also brought her family heritage to her piroshki business — Piroshki on 3rd serves Filipino cuisine every Friday. The only question for the Capitol Hill project is the name. The new Piroshki on 3rd sibling definitely won’t be called Piroshki at Pike Motorworks, CHS has been told.

• Tamarind Tree: Just down the Hill from the coming piroshki joint, Little Saigon’s Tamarind Tree has big plans for the old R Place building. The overhaul is a big enough project that a 2023 opening of the planned Tamarind expansion to Capitol Hill might not be in the cards. In the meantime, there are plans to keep the corner lively as The Teal Building arts venue.
• Mt. Joy: Prolific Seattle restaurateur Ethan Stowell is planning to open one of — if not the — first location of his Mt. Joy “1,000” location chicken sandwich chain at 11th and Pine.
• O Maki Rolls + Teriyaki: These folks might already be open. Watch for counter service and takeout from the Greenwood born sushi and teriyaki provider from its new North Capitol Hill location.
• Sakana Sushi: Construction permitting was still underway this fall for a buildout of this new sushi project from chef Paul Kim at the corner of 15th and Madison in the old Healeo and Intrigue Chocolate space.
• Kedai Makan: We’re counting this one. Set to open this weekend, the rebirth of the Bellevue Ave Malaysian favorite under new ownership will hopefully be a big hit at 15th and Pine.
• Meliora: The project replacing the Canterbury on 15th Ave E continues to move forward with a slow buildout. Meliora will be part of the Rasai restaurant family, born from the Fremont “progressive Indian” joint that celebrated a grand opening in spring 2021 on N 36th St. under longtime Seattle restaurant veterans. The Singh family behind Rasai will be putting the Canterbury’s full refurbishment of its infrastructure in its 2014 overhaul to new use with an “exclusive” approach to a modern European menu, CHS was told last spring.

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