
Wild Cherry from the folks at Bellevue’s Forum Social House is in the works beneath the Market (Image: Forum Social House)
Five years after its sale to a national shopping center developer and emerging from the pandemic. Capitol Hill’s Melrose Market is hitting a second stride with a mix of new tenants that will include a new restaurant in the old Sitka and Spruce space and a basement level Wild Cherry Nightclub.
A local success story will fill the former Sitka and Spruce. Harry’s Good Times, a project from Julian Hagood and the Harry’s Fine Food folks, is taking shape in the back of Melrose Market’s main level with plans for a new concept from the crew that reshaped a Bellevue Ave cornershop into Harry’s Fine Foods, the 2016-born center of a family of food and drink and hospitality businesses on Capitol Hill and across the city.
Hagood has continued Harry’s reputation for catering and events and also grown the family to include Harry’s Beach House in West Seattle and a neighboring bed and breakfast on Capitol Hill.
The new Harry’s Good Times project will represent a new opportunity to grow inside Melrose Market’s mix of veteran tenants like Glasswing, Rain Shadow Meats and the Taylor Shellfish shop and recent additions with the Levantine flavors and natural wines from Cantina Sauvage and Cafe Suliman from Sitka and Spruce veterans Ahmed Sulimanย andย Marc Papineau.
Sitka and Spruce shuttered in 2019 after a decade of business as respected chef and restaurateur Matt Dillon said it was exorbitant rents and costs like “triple net” that did the restaurant in — not the city’s march to a $15 minimum wage.
2024 looks to be stronger times. Below the coming soon Harry’s Good Times, the Market’s lower level is also being prepared for a new venture. The Wild Cherry Nightclub is being shaped by Roger RoRo Eng.
Be prepared for a different kind of Capitol Hill party place. The nightlife entrepreneur is the power behind Forum Social House, an activities and club space in Bellevue’s Lincoln Square mall with everything from DJs to mini golf and laser tag.
Capitol Hill’s social club mix will get another injection of activity-focused night (and day) life with the plans for Henry’s Gym — no relation to Harry’s Good Times — on Boylston that include a three-story new-era fitness facility complete with the latest workout equipment and a bar.
Henry’s Gym and Wild Cherry will join a new generation of Capitol Hill nightclubs including Latin and international-focused Cultura Seattle and R Place replacement Massive which both debuted late last year.
Melrose’s lower levels have been a mixed bag with event space concepts coming and going. Nightlife spot Still Liquor has grown beyond its original “Americana” speakeasy concept into a popular hip hop and R&B club presenting Wild Cherry with a busy nightlife neighbor. The block’s other nightlife venue has remained shuttered since Mint Lounge was boarded-up a year ago after a series of shootings and gun violence incidents outside the club.
While Lincoln Square was developed by local firm Kemper Freeman, the Wild Cherry folks seem to know how to deal with the big guys. CHS reported here in 2019 as Regency Centers,ย the same real estate investment trust that owns theย Broadway Market shopping center, acquired Melrose Market for $15.5 million.
Melrose Market debuted more than a decade ago with a focus on smaller commercial and food and drink spaces that could play host to local and neighborhood businesses. Acquired in a $3 million deal by prolific Capitol Hill developersย Liz Dunnย andย Scott Shapiro, the auto row-era building was transformed into an open market place with shops and restaurants for a 2010 debut centered around anchor tenant Sitka and Spruce after Dillon agreed to relocate his critically acclaimed restaurant from Eastlake.
Fourteen years, a major acquisition, and a pandemic later, it is still presenting new opportunities to the neighborhood.
No opening dates have been announced for the new projects. Learn more at melrosemarketseattle.com.
UPDATE 4/17/2024: It looks like the Wild Cherry project might have a new name — Vice Seattle:
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
๐๐ฃ๐ผ๐ท๐ฑ๐ณ๐พ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐ปย
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 ๐ย