Monthly Archives: February 2024

Taking a big leap and leaving Capitol Hill, Teriyaki & Wok announces final day of business on Broadway

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(Image: Teriyaki & Wok)

(Image: Teriyaki & Wok)

Teriyaki & Wok, an “unassuming” staple of Broadway food and drink for more than 14 years, announced that Thursday will be its final day of business. Its owners are selling and making way for a new restaurant to fill the space Teriyaki & Wok made into its home out of an old Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop:

After 14 memorable years of serving the Capitol Hill community, Teriyaki & Wok, located at 324 Broadway East at the southeast corner of Broadway E and Harrison, is announcing its final day of operation and the sale of the business on this significant Leap Year day.

Our chef Jung and the “Chief Engagement Officer” Jamie along with our long term, exceptional dedicated crew behind the scene have fostered a family-like atmosphere within the Capitol Hill community. “For the past 14 years, it has been my family’s pleasure to serve our Capitol Hill guests, so many of you have become like family and friends,” says Jamie.

Taken over in 2010 by Jeom and Jung Jae Hur along with Jeom’s sister Jamie Yeo, Teriyaki & Wok was a no frills addition to Seattle’s teriyaki addition that thrived in the right place at the right time. Continue reading →

A sixth story and a prized European hornbeam tree — Neighbors have their say on extra height for 15th Ave QFC redevelopment project

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There are more powerful actions they can take but neighbors opposing a proposed sixth floor on the mixed-use development being planned for the old QFC block of Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave E got their say Wednesday night. Several neighbors supporting the plan and increased housing options on the busy commercial street on the edge of Capitol HIll’s single family-style house core also spoke up.

Around thirty residents voiced their opinions on the proposed mixed-use development as planners from the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection took notes and coordinated the brisk Wednesday evening meeting.

While many criticized the idea of a six-story building rising above 15th Ave E, there were also plenty of attendees during the virtual meeting who expressed support for increasing housing density amid the city’s ongoing housing and affordability crisis.

“I live less than a mile from this proposed project. I think this is a great project. It should be approved as proposed,” said one. “This project is located in, and will add to an already existing business area.”

Capitol Hill developer Hunters Capital — whose mixed-use development up the street replacing the old Hilltop Service Station will wrap up construction later this year — is requesting a departure from area zoning for its QFC project to allow an extra sixth story of height. Continue reading →

Have you heard the one about when Fox News tried to cancel Capitol Hill Comedy/Bar?

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(Image: Capitol Hill Comedy/Bar)

The free market has spoken. You may have heard from Fox News that Capitol Hill Comedy/Bar “canceled” a few professional comics. Luckily, anybody interested can still catch the acts… in Tacoma. It’s the American way.

“We stood up for the values of the neighborhood and we stood up for our neighbors,” Dane Hesseldahl tells CHS about the decision by Comedy/Bar to cancel a handful of scheduled 2024 acts.

The decision to drop the comics from the club’s calendar came as the Broadway venue had second thoughts about the scheduled comics and material that leans heavily on material crafted to provoke and skewer all things woke and progressive.

The decision to make getting “canceled” public by posting the email from Comedy/Bar’ about the decision was the comics’. Continue reading →

20 years of Neumos, the musical center of the Pike/Pine universe

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The future: a mixed-use Neumos, of course (Image: CHS)

Neumos asked for AI visions of its next 20 years so up top is CHS’s take on the corner during Capitol Hill Block Party 2044.

There is no telling what the next 20 or 30 years will bring at the southwest corner of 10th and Pike. CHS can tell you what the past 30 brought: music, drinks and good times.

The first decade of those good times? That was Moe’s Mo’Roc’N Café and an assortment of clubs that lived hard and died young. But those last 20? Those are all thanks to Neumos, the outgrowth of Moe’s that has gone on to be a center of the neighborhood’s entertainment community with a place among Capitol Hill legends like Neighbours, Century Ballroom, The Cuff, Wildrose, and Linda’s.

The live music club celebrates its 2004 birth Wednesday with a free night of music and performance. The free tickets were still available when we started writing this. They might be snapped up before you are done reading.

Asheville’s Wednesday band on the Neumos stage (Image: Neumos)

“We saw all these people walking down the hill for shows … we thought ‘why not have something here,’” Moe’s founder Jerry Everard told CHS about the original inspiration to transform an old Salvation Army on the corner into a new hangout 30 years ago. Continue reading →

‘In Recess’ — Arrests after protest disrupts Seattle City Council

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The Seattle City Council stopped its proceedings multiple times and six people were arrested Tuesday after public comment was limited during a demonstration at City Hall calling for support for a group of asylum seekers that has been bounced around the region as housing options have fallen through.

“Officers were called to Seattle City Council Chambers at about 2:55 p.m., as people filled the room and continued to interfere with the session,” SPD reported in a brief on the Tuesday arrests. “Those who were part of the disruption were told to leave the chambers, but they refused and were told they would be arrested if they continued.”

Police say the protesters were arrested for criminal trespass with one man also facing charges of obstruction.

With shouts growing as the time allotted for public comment ended, the protest and disruptions left the council and its six first-time members as well as council president Sara Nelson scattered with some calling for police to intervene. Continue reading →

This Capitol Hill burger bar won’t stay empty long — 206 Burger Company is moving in

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(Image: 206 Burger)

(Image: 206 Burger)

By Juan Jocom

Capitol Hill restaurant spaces left empty by recent closures of neighborhood favorites won’t stay quiet long. For some, they will barely skip a beat. The latest example? There is a new burger joint ready to belly up to the burger bar left empty by the departure of 8 Oz. from the northwest corner of Broadway and Union.

First Hill-born 206 Burger is moving in marking its fourth burger joint in Seattle.

Suren Shrestha’s dream of expanding his Seattle burger empire is continuing with the opening on Capitol Hill. As an immigrant from Nepal, Shrestha’s journey from being a dishwasher to a business owner is quite a climb.

“It feels great, It’s my American dream. I came to this country with nothing.I came as a student with $1,300 in my pocket. I’m just proud of myself, you know,” said Shrestha. Continue reading →

A debate over Seattle’s ‘Technology Assisted Crime Prevention Pilot’ plan at the District 3 public safety meeting

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Report: ShotSpotter wastes officers time, provides little help in court, targets overpoliced communities — syracuse.com

Last week’s D3 meeting (Image: CHS)

Tuesday brings the final day of public comment on a roster of “Technology Assisted Crime Prevention Pilot Technologies” being pushed toward deployment in Seattle by Mayor Bruce Harrell and proponents of boosting the city’s struggling police department with better surveillance and intelligence systems.

The proposal would create a plan “a new public safety program that will combine a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) System with an Acoustic Gunshot Location System (AGLS) integrated with Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) software together in one view,” the administration says. Last year, the Seattle City Council approved Harrell’s request for $1.5 million in the 2024 budget to test acoustic gunshot detection systems like ShotSpotter.

Supporters say the new surveillance system would help boost the department’s ability to quickly respond to gun violence and knock down the city’s record pace of homicides. But examples of real world deployments show the tech doesn’t necessarily work as advertised and can actually hinder police response.

With a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday night and online feedback also being gathered for the meeting, District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth heard more from constituents at the latest in her office’s monthly public safety meetings held last week.

In the meeting held at North Capitol Hill’s Seattle Prep, there was a stark divide on the hopes around ShotSpotter. Continue reading →

Reminder: Wednesday night land use meeting for proposed six-story 15th Ave E QFC redevelopment

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Wednesday, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections will hold its public meeting on the land use application for the mixed-use development being planned to rise on the site of the former 15th Ave E QFC.

Capitol Hill developer Hunters Capital is requesting a departure from area zoning to allow an extra sixth story of height. Continue reading →

COMEBUYTEA’s craft take on boba steams up the Capitol Hill tea scene

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(Image: COMEBUYTEA)

(Image: COMEBUYTEA)

Like the Starbucks Roastery a few blocks away continues to draw crowds of visitors dotted by the occasional Capitol Hill local, it seems like the new COMEBUYTEA at the corner of Pike and Broadway might be busy forever.

The first Seattle location of the Taiwanese chain debuted earlier this month with lines around the block waiting for COMEBUYTEA’s take on tea focused around craft and its steam-billowing “TEAPRESSO Machine” that completes “the 5-step Kungfu brewing method” in “a 60 second comprehensive brew” that produces “a perfectly balanced tea every time.” Continue reading →

For Capitol Hill Democrats, the 2024 primary question could be Biden vs. ‘Uncommitted’

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Ballots are being collected in the 2024 Washington presidential primary and Democratic voters on Capitol Hill are facing a much different choice than they did in 2020.

The 2024 March 12th primary vote is even less about which candidate should lead the party this time around. In 2020, when Washington’s March primary played out, there was still some semblance of hope for Bernie Sanders supporters as thousands rallied at the Tacoma Dome and Democratic hopefuls swung through the Pacific Northwest just as the COVID-19 crisis was about to envelope the nation.

2024’s primary will bring no rallies to Seattle — only a question of incumbent Joe Biden, a handful of fringe challengers, or the Democratic establishment’s potentially most daunting opponent this year — “Uncommitted.” Continue reading →