(Image: HoneyHole)
At what point is a temporary closure no longer temporary?
The expansion of Capitol Hill’s much loved HoneyHole toasted sandwich joint onto E Jefferson has apparently gone cold. The location just off 12th Ave across from Seattle U’s Championship Field has been closed since at least late January.
A sign went up around that last week of January announcing the temporary closure. Weeks have passed and the space remains dark.
Calls to ownership haven’t been returned and messages to the HoneyHole social media accounts have so far gone unanswered. A check of the city permit paperwork, meanwhile, reveals no clues about any work planned or underway at the location and court records also don’t indicate anything amiss.
The E Jefferson HoneyHole debuted in the summer of 2021 in a large takeout and catering business-friendly restaurant space formerly home to an Eric Banh food and drink venture. Earlier that year, CHS reported on the sale of HoneyHole to wife and husband new owners Kristin and Patrick Rye.
For now, HoneyHole remains on the CHS “temporarily closed” roster but we’re hoping to find out more soon. Hopefully there will be some good news for the 4,000-square-foot restaurant space and the longtime Capitol Hill sandwich provider.
UPDATE: As noted in the comments, the property has been lined up for redevelopment since 2021 when plans were approved for a five-story, 60-unit apartment building with street level commercial space and underground parking for around 20 vehicles. But no further permit updates have been filed since that summer 2021 approval.
The dreaded “paper sign” went up in January
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The entire undertaking here has felt ramshackle at best. Early on I attributed it to pandemic woes, but it never seemed to improve.
They didn’t seem to have the basic elements of running a restaurant down. No clear indications of where to order, or if there was table service. The menus were shoddily printouts of the takeout ordering interface from someone’s PC browser. The hours always seemed to fluctuate.
Food was still good, staff was friendly, just seemed like there was no one steering the ship.
Seattle in progress shows a new development planned for this space.
1305 E JEFFERSON ST – Seattle in Progress
Shocked that people werent racing out for $15 deli sandwiches.
I was thinking the same, their prices might be too high for that area even if they’re viable at the original location.
Prices are too high for Pike but that can be said about many other things too lol
$15 is nothing these days if people are gonna be making $16.50/hr minimum wage. Before even considering rent, utilities, insurance, equipment rentals, supplies, or any of the other myriad expenses, a well run restaurant will probably get about $11 from that $15 sale after the cost of ingredients is pulled out, and that $16.50 an hour wage is really about $22/hr after all the FUTA/FICA taxes are added on. You can’t get anyone to work in a kitchen these days for anything short of $25/hr (~$33/hr after taxes), so just to cover an hour of labor alone for a crew of 2 in a kitchen and 2 on the floor (a tiny operation), you’ve got to sell 10 sandwiches. After you do that every hour, you can start to think about paying down the tens of thousands of dollars you need to pay each month to keep the doors open. Best to get prepared for $20 deli sandwiches if you want people to be paid what they want these days.
I really miss this location. For take out it’s literally impossible to park anywhere near the Pike st. location.
But I can understand not wanting to run a second spot without bar customers.
I feel like they’re a little too far from the college crowds. If they could move down toward 12th and Columbia a bit and cut prices a little–or even take over the food service for the chieftain they would have a winning recipe.
Yea it was not a good place. Food was good, yet the staff were rude and were not helpful. As a matter of fact went out of there way to be rude!!! Good riddance.. the other location is fantastic. Yes I complained after getting the same bad service twice. There will never be a third.
related….does anyone know what is happening with pel mini on 12th in the 12th ave arts building? that establishment has appreared dark for months now upon walkbys and cursory peeks by yours truly. thanks!