The Capitol Lounge has been quiet since closing in the summer of 2020 (Image: Capitol Lounge)

A lesser player in the Pike/Pine club scene is making plans to go back into action after a long pandemic closure.

According to filings with the state that show the business has already received its tobacco retailing license, Capitol Lounge is being prepared for a reopening as a new era Seattle hookah lounge. Its alcohol permit to operate as a nightclub was filed earlier this month. “The Capitol Hookah Lounge” as well as “The Capital Hookah Lounge” are listed as “Registered Trade Names” in the state filings.

Rainier Ave King Philly Cheesteaks owner Teddy Leake formed a new company to take over the E Pike lounge in August, according to state corporation filings.

Leake has not responded to our inquiry about the Capitol Hill project.

More than a decade ago, clubs like the short lived Cobra Lounge in a converted Capitol Hill paint store tested restrictions that banned indoor smoking at businesses. In 2015, Seattle cracked down on illegally operating hookah lounges that continued to allow indoor smoking despite the state ban.

Today, Capitol Lounge would not be able to allow its patrons to smoke or vape inside but appears to have a plan mixing the venue’s nightclub setup with a new tobacco retailing spin.

It will also reactivate the center of a core Pike/Pine nightlife block neighboring venues and businesses including the Comet Tavern. Three people were injured on the block early Saturday morning in a drive-by shooting.

Last year, CHS reported on filings showing plans for a possible Comet expansion as it appeared the Capitol Lounge might be permanently closed after shuttering early in 2020’s pandemic restrictions. The lounge had debuted in March 2017 under ownership including Seattle’s Japanese hot dog king Shinsuke Nikaido who opened the club in the former home of the Lobby Bar to neighbor his Ikina Sushi joint. Ikina is now gone — replaced by Casablanca Express from another Pike/Pine hot dog entrepreneur — and the Capitol Lounge space is under Leake’s new ownership.

Meanwhile, despite all of the hub bub at street level, the 1909-built Bluff Building continues above with boarded off upper stories. The historical building remains under its longtime family ownership and continues to make a home for its collection of bars and venues even as plywood blocks off the upper floors of the buildings. The city’s Department of Construction and Inspections tells CHS there are no active complaints or restrictions on the building and referred us to ownership to learn more about the status of the auto row-era structure. We have not heard back.

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