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(Image: a stir)
After a decade as a dedicated E Pike cider house, Capitol Cider is reinventing itself as a restaurant and bar with a new focus beyond fermented crushed apples — and a new name.
Welcome to Capitol Hill, a stir. Since you’re new here, we’ll indulge the whole disregard of title capitalization thing — for now.
The new concept is debuting this week under longtime owner Julie Tall and new executive chef Ton Yazici. The kitchen remains gluten and nut-free:
Capitol Cider is now a stir. We offer Northwest cuisine with Northern Mediterranean influences – think Spanish, French, Italy, Greek and Turkish. In addition to our entirely gluten-free and nut-free kitchen (by Executive Chef Ton Yazici and Sous Chef Ben Jones), we offer local Washington wines as well as a selection of Mediterranean wines (curated by winemaker Rich Burton), plus our usual over 170 ciders and beer and full bar, as always led by our cider and bar master, Jon Chambers.
Yazici is also the co-founder of Seattle’s Locus Wines and is listed as part of a stir’s ownership with Tall.
In addition to allowing Capitol Cider to better branch out beyond apples, the new concept will also be a vehicle for Yazici’s grape-y bottles.
(Image: a stir)
The change will be welcome from Tall who stepped into ownership in 2014 and found herself adjusting quickly to the hospitality business. Capitol Cider had debuted on E Pike in June 2013 as an ambitious 4,000 square-foot, two-level cider bar and a “gluten-free menu with recipes naturally designed to exclude gluten ingredients” in the space of a former art gallery.
Capitol Cider in 2013
Tall taking over the family business a year later helped stabilize Capitol Cider and keep it pouring through the years, COVID-19, and the pandemic recovery.
The space has had her design fingerprints all over it and was hung with original oil paintings created by students at Capitol Hill’s Gage Academy of Art where she chaired the board. The new look is lighter and the gallery feel has been left behind.
The venue has also gained a sweet-tooth neighbor in the Capitol Hill location of the Cinnaholic franchise, while more treats are coming to the corner of the block where COMEBUYTEA and its capitalization gone wild are planned to take over the former Starbucks and Tully’s shop.
(Image: a stir)
Meanwhile, the pandemic recovery has a few examples of popular Capitol Hill joints using the downtime to choose new paths and do a little remodeling. One example is 15th Ave E’s Coastal Kitchen reinventing itself as an ” elevated Pacific Northwest” joint.
Like Coastal, Capitol Cider also got a good scrubbing and a “glow up” as it became a stir, the new team says. After 10 years in the sticky business of cider, now it is a stir’s turn to pop the cork and start anew.
a stir Restaurant and Bar is located at 818 E Pike. Learn more, for now, at capitolcider.com.
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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤
What a stupid name, that is bound to cause confusion for potential customers.
I won’t call it stupid but it doesn’t seem to have been thought through very well. Shorten it to “Stir” (properly capitalized) and it’s fine.
Aw, change happens but this one’s a little sad for me. I loved the gallery wall & vibe in general before! The new look is just so…bland. You could have told me that photo was taken in pretty much any other “upscale” cap hill restaurant & I’d have believed you.
The menu doesn’t stir me up but to each their own
I’ll miss all the paintings on the wall, but so glad the menu will still be gluten free! One of our favorite go-to GF places!
bring back the paintings! Was my favorite part of the atmosphere – sad to see them go for generic and boring vibes.
The generic boring vibes are what New Seattle loves though. Unfortunately. They have eradicated culture in this town to satisfy idiotic Amazon types.
I visited during the soft opening and I can’t say I was impressed. In my opinion, the best parts of Capitol Cider were the vibe and the name. I loved the gallery wall and the cozy atmosphere, and we went from a unique and memorable name that was relevant to the neighborhood to something that’s both awkward and boring, with a new generic look and feel.
The one thing I thought could use improvement was the food since it was a little pricey for the quality, but the quality was the same for an even higher price tag.
$26 for a tiny plate of mushroom risotto with no sides? $23 for mediocre fish and chips? Hmm…
did as boring as the rebrand. perfect for the boring wine brand. perfect, if you think about it