(Image: Blotto)
(Image: Blotto)
Blotto is throwing Capitol Hill’s saddest pizza party this week. The 12th Ave pie shop that has grown a following with near perfect sourdough crusts and limited availability is shutting down after three years of business.
“This coming week will be the last week of service at Blotto,” the announcement reads. “This same week 3 years ago we took the plunge and started work on the restaurant that’s been our second (or maybe our first) home ever since.”
The pizza people behind Blotto’s say the property’s owners are in the process of selling the building and apparently the prospect of new landlords and new plans for the corner of 12th and Denny don’t line up. “We decided we’re excited for a new chapter outside the restaurant,” the Blotto crew diplomatically says.
CHS reported here in 2021 as Blotto prepared to move off the Broadway pop-up circuit into permanent digs on 12th Ave where Chungee’s had closed after a decade of business.
Chungee’s owners Wen Long and Tom Farrell told CHS at the time that they had tried and failed to secure a new, long-term lease as their first 10-year agreement was drawing to a close but the building’s owners, a trust for the Bischofberger Violins family, would only agree to a month to month deal.
Blotto moved in and by the summer of 2021, pizza partners Cal Hoffman, Jordan Koplowitz, and Christy Wyble were in full motion offering four pies at a time — a cheese, a marinara, and two seasonal specials that changed every two weeks or so as ingredients become available.
Blotto was born two years earlier as the pizza pop-up project put wholesale Greek bakery Paximadi’s Broadway commercial space to work refining recipes for 14-inch pizzas with crusts that are thin and crispy with rims of puffy, chewy dough.
This week, Blotto is ready to say goodbye but not before giving regulars and anybody who hasn’t yet been able to try their sought-after creations a taste:
SO here’s the deal – we’re doing SLICES ONLY all week long to get pizza in as many of y’all’s faces as possible. If you’ve ever been to Blotto, we want to see you in the restaurant next week. It’s gonna be a party, and you’re invited
“It’s been an incredible 3 years, and we’re so thankful for the love and support you’ve all given us,” the Blotto folks say. “While our tables may be emptying for the last time, our hearts have never been so full.”
As for the 1906-era restaurant and apartment building Blotto has called home, its next chapter is still taking shape. King County records don’t show any transactions — yet — at the address and there are no new construction or development permits on record at the city.
Blotto is located at 1830 12th Ave. You can learn more at blottoseattle.com.
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I miss Chungees. It was a true neighborhood watering hole.
I’ll get a slice at Blotto before they close to say I tried it. To me at least it was never open enough and waiting an hour or calling in and waiting an hour for a pizza never appealed to me. I wish they had been doing slices the entire time.
My sentiments, word for word.
Also, did the Blotto owners ever explain why they are only open like, 14 hours a week? It always struck me as bizarre and just, well, lazy.
Why would they need to explain their business hours? Maybe they have responsibilities outside of work. Maybe the hours they were open provided them the right balance of income and personal time. Whatever their reasons, it’s none of anyone’s business but the owners of Blotto.
What I’d like to understand is why you think it’s “lazy” that a business can set it’s own hours, be “…open like, 14 hours a week,” all while being successful? Isn’t that the American dream? Open your own business, work your own schedule, be your own boss. All while still being able to support one’s preferred lifestyle. How is that lazy?
They don’t need to explain anything, but:
1) They are clearly unusual business hours. I am not going to argue this with you, because they just are. You can compare them to countless other business on the Hill if you don’t believe me.
2) Restaurants have high fixed operating costs. Keeping a restaurant open for only a few hours on only a few days a week does little to defray these costs.
3) Ergo, it invites the question, “Why is this restaurant only open for a few hours a day?” It seems worse for the customer and worse for health of the business.
Let’s not forget, this is an article about why the restaurant is closing down. Maybe if they had sold more pizzas they wouldn’t need to close down. And maybe if they were open more than a few hours a week, they would have had opportunity to sell more pizzas.
They also took frequent two week breaks including just the other week prior to the start of the holiday season.
At least one of the owners is “independently wealthy”. That answers a lot of your questions. When they first went in I looked at some of the backgrounds as I was perplexed how a restaurant only open 16 hours a week could work given how expensive it is to run one here.
All that said, the pizza is supposed to be good and imma grab my slice. If it sucks I’ll come here and post it.
Your comments make it SEEM like you need them to explain themselves.
1) So what? There may be a reason for this but – again – it’s none of the dining public’s business why their hours are the way they are.
2) Do you know EXACTLY what Blotto’s operating costs are? What kind of sales they need to make over a given number of days to thrive and stay in business?
3) How is it worse for the customer? As you pointed out, there are “countless” other businesses on “the Hill” that the customer can go to. Nobody is forcing you or anyone to try and buy a meal from a restaurant on a day they decide to be closed.
This isn’t really a post about WHY they are shutting down. Just that they are. Since you are so curious though, I recommend you read the Seattle Times article where they interview the owners of Blotto – https://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/acclaimed-capitol-hill-pizzeria-will-close-doors-for-good-this-weekend/. Some quotes for you:
“Blotto co-owners Jordan Koplowitz and Cal Hoffmann … entertained the possibility of keeping their popular pizzeria open until the property actually sold.”
“But the business partners figured the end of the year was as good a time as any to end what has been one of the most successful Seattle restaurant runs of the last few years.”
I don’t get the sense that their operating hours/expenses had anything to do with their decision to close.
Chungees will always have a special place in my heart. If the new owners were seeking to replicate that neighborhood vibe, being open randomly for like 10 hours a month seemed a bit, well, too pretentious for me to fill that gap.
I got to enjoy Blotto before they had lines down the block.
I enjoyed the food I had there but even though I live next to them, it wasn’t worth waiting in line and/or calling an order in only to be told by a voicemail to just walk in.
That being said, I would rather have Chungees back. Blotto was fun but as others said, their schedule was a huge turn off.
I hope something new, more accessible, ends up in that space.
100% this.
The wealthy owners had a fun little passion project and got to entertain themselves for a few years, and we got a restaurant that was prohibitively difficult to eat at even if you wanted to.
That’s two businesses screwed over there by greedy landlords on top of countless others elsewhere. Just saw Chungees in the CHS history and now this ugh.
Wait a minute – the landlord is selling there asset and they’re greedy for it? Then what is Blotto for closing their business? There’s not even a construction permit filed. It’s literally the same thing. Blotto could move if they wanted to stay in business.
What’s greedy is when people work to restrict the construction of new housing. We talk about being all inclusive here till it comes to brass tacks and we need more housing for new people.
I hope someone demolishes that shitty building and builds a hundred apartments in its place.
So, your a greedy landlord if you decide to sell YOUR building. Thanks for straightening that out for me.
Sawant is gone and she’s never coming back. You can stop banging your spoon on your highchair about greedy landlords.