Employees are informing customers that Broadway’s iconic Espresso Vivace Sidewalk Bar will serve its last pulls Sunday.

Vivace co-founder David Schomer marked the 35th anniversary of Vivace last week with appearances behind the bar at the company’s Capitol Hill and South Lake Union locations. He has not confirmed the plans to close the walk-up counter but customers have reported baristas are spreading the word.

The bar already got the full Vanishing Seattle treatment Thursday night.

From its genesis as a Broadway coffee cart to today’s two cafes, a sidewalk stand, and a roasting facility, Vivace has established a reputation for technical excellence in coffee preparation and is considered to be part of vanguard of the artisan espresso revolution.

The sidewalk stand was a connection to Vivace’s beginnings with an open-air coffee bar serving a winding sidewalk line of customers. There was a time when you could depend on it for the earliest opening among Capitol Hill caffeine sources.

Part of Broadway’s Casa del Rey apartments property, city and county records show no recent commercial permit violations or sales activity for the walk-up bar’s address. We’ll add more about the why and the timing when we hear back from Schomer and Vivace about the change. For now, make your plans to stop by, get in line, and say goodbye before Sunday is past.

UPDATE: Schomer tells CHS that, basically, the Vivace couldn’t compete with its own cafe.

“The Brix location has a sweeping curved bar topped with Caffe Forest Brown soapstone, full pastry selection, a quiet room for meetings and a children’s corner wrapped in glowing yellow walls,” Schomer writes. “We cannot compete with ourselves!”

The walk-up closure, he says, isn’t related to Vivace’s 35th anniversary or the end of a lease. In the end, staffing is what brought down the legendary coffee spot.

“Everyone has staff shortages now and we’ve had to close 321 on a regular basis (every Monday and Tuesday) and on an emergency basis when we didn’t have enough people to operate the business,” the Vivace owner writes. “In addition heat days and smoke days in summer we would close it for the safety of our staff.”

But to really wrap your head around the situation, you need to go back to when Schomer and Vivace were uprooted from the E Denny location to make way for Capitol Hill Station.

“To understand why we are forced to close our beloved sidewalk bar at 321 Broadway Ave E. we need to go back to the Sound Transit seizure of our flagship bar, The Roasteria Vivace located at 901 E Denny Way,” Schomer tells CHS. “We were presented with a rare opportunity to purchase a spot at the new Brix Condominiums at 532 Broadway Ave E, only two blocks from the stand. In a classical business analysis, the location was too close to our 321 spot but with our back to the wall we moved ahead with the BRIX location.”

The coffee legend says the bar’s business hummed along — until the pandemic.

“For years the arrangement worked. The sidewalk bar had enough business to remain open so close to our new flagship bar,” Schomer writes. “However, through a combination of factors, coming out of the pandemic, the customers have chosen the Brix bar 10 to 1 over the sidewalk bar.”

The Espresso Vivace Sidewalk Bar is located at 321 Broadway E. Learn more at espressovivace.com.

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.