CHS included a few images from the final night of service at Ristorante Machiavelli in our report on the real estate deals and development behind the closure that will transform its block but we wanted to also provide a few views of the night focused only on the good times and hugs from the Thursday, February 15th event.
Below, you can find more images from Machiavelli’s last night so you can remember the neighborhood favorite and get ready for what will come next on the block. Continue reading
Investigators have identified the man found murdered in a 12th Ave alley as a 68-year-old man who lived unsheltered in the neighborhood.
Medical examiners say Paul Ewell died of “multiple sharp force injuries of the head” early on Saturday, February 10th. His body was discovered later that morning in the alley near 12th and Terrace by a passerby. Continue reading
One last night at Machiavelli
As diners paid their respect to Ristorante Machiavelli during one last night of service on Capitol Hill last week, the restaurant’s Melrose Market block just above downtown Seattle is undergoing a doughnut-centered makeover under San Francisco-based real estate company Prado Group that will transform its Pine facing edge after it acquired the property for $5 million in 2022.
A Voodoo Doughnut, the first Seattle location for the Portland-born company, is coming along with a near full-block turnover for the businesses that have called this stretch of Pine between Melrose and Minor home. The change is bringing and end for Machiavelli as well as its neighbors Pho 4 U and Lan Hand-Pulled Noodles.
For this small cluster of Capitol Hill businesses in the middle of real estate and development change, the situation around the ending leases have similar echoes of high costs and the fact that time has run out.
“Unfortunate, but amicable,” is how a Prado Group representative described the end of Machiavelli’s run after more than 35 years at the Capitol Hill corner. Continue reading
Mayor Bruce Harrell will deliver his 2024 State of the City speech “addressed to the City Council and the people of Seattle” Tuesday afternoon. The speech will mark Harrell’s second State of the City address.
Harrell’s office says the speech will outline his “One Seattle” vision and priorities for the year ahead. In 2023’s speech, Harrell launched the One Seattle campaign and “Space Needle thinking” amid optimism for a hoped for downtown revival stoked by the return of Amazon and more office workers to the city’s core. Those hopes have been slow to play out.
In conjunction with Tuesday’s 2024 speech, the Harrell administration has released a report detailing progress on the One Seattle initiatives and touting Harrell’s attendance at 285 “community engagement events” across the city.
The mayor continued his effective working relationship with the City Council, passing 187 bills, confirming 8 department directors, and approving the 2024 budget which included record investments in affordable housing, wage increases for human service providers, and support for diversified emergency response options to improve public safety.
“[A]bove all else, we worked to increase trust and restore confidence in local government’s ability to serve our residents,” Harrell says in the report’s introduction. Continue reading
(Image: Boca)
Andrea Casas-Beaux and Marco Casas-Beaux
The Capitol Hill-centered Boca family of restaurants including its Broadway steakhouse and its sibling Argentine bakery will pass with its founder.
CHS reported here on the death of founder Marco Casas-Beaux leaving Broadway’s Boca Restobar and Grill, the Boca Pizzeria and Bakery shuttered with plywood and in food and drink limbo.
According to legal documents posted on the Broadway building by lawyers for a Boca landlord, the restaurant owes more than $65,000 in unpaid rent as it has been forced to cease operations. Additional court records show thousands more in unpaid taxes to the state. Continue reading
Chopp
The group of legislators representing Capitol Hill in Olympia say their work in 2024 is focused on increasing the supply of affordable housing, strengthening public healthcare, and taking on an issue of civil rights that has caused outcry in the city’s queer-friendly queer communities.
Sen. Jamie Pedersen, Rep. Nicole Macri, and Rep. Frank Chopp gathered Saturday for the 2024 43rd District Town Hall at First Baptist Church to answer community questions and discuss the most important legislative issues they’re pursuing.
The current legislative session has reached the halfway point as the state’s lawmakers meet for only a 60-day period in even years under Washington’s two-year budget system.
Chopp has long-held a focus on addressing housing concerns and cited the Home and Hope Program, which acquired 30 major sites in King County that created 7,000 homes as an example of progress.
The Housing Trust Fund supports the financing of thousands of low-income housing units across the state. The Apple Health and Homes Program allows individuals who are experiencing chronic homelessness who also live with a medical condition to have housing as part of their medical treatment.
“70% percent of the chronically homeless have a serious medical condition, a mental illness, substance use disorder, a major physical disability,” Chopp said. Continue reading
(Image: @bunkyart)
Hundreds of donors have rallied around a Capitol Hill tattoo artist who must undergo medical procedures and surgeries after a nighttime assault earlier this month as she walked near Cal Anderson on the way to the light rail station.
Danielle “Bunky” Oyster detailed the apparently random Saturday, February 10th assault that left her with facial injuries in a fundraiser plea that has raised thousands to help the tattoo artist’s recovery. Oyster told KIRO the situation has become even more dangerous as she is now fighting a flesh-eating bacterial infection after the lacerations and stitches to her head. Continue reading
(Images: Ananya Mishra)
Meet the Capitol Hill Artist is an occasional series on CHS documenting the lives of the artists behind the neighborhood’s galleries and arts venues.
By Ananya Mishra
One of the interpretations of the multiverse theory is that there could be alternate timelines, or multiple universes, that exist in parallel. Carolyn Hitt, an integral part of the Capitol Hill artist community, thinks very deeply about this concept. It has shaped her perception of humanity and its connection to everything. Continue reading
Here are the top stories from this week in CHS history:
Hot Mama’s Pizza mourns passing of owner Krista Nelson — ‘the glue that held us all together’
QFC says will lay off 109 workers in Seattle hazard pay closures including 15th Ave E store
One struck and killed, driver to hospital in 10th Ave E crash
A chain that lasted 10 years on Capitol Hill, Panera Bread set to close on Broadway
After a bitter 2019, Caffe Vita’s new owner wants to give employees voice
With planned closure of Roy Street Coffee, Starbucks experiment on Capitol Hill will end — UPDATE
Yarce suspends Seattle City Council campaign, won’t challenge Sawant for District 3
CHS Pics | The new ‘selfie’-checkouts at the Broadway Market QFC
First look: Nacho Borracho brings margaritas and queso to Broadway bar rejuvenation
Capitol Hill gets its own web series from the minds of Wes Hurley and Waxie Moon
‘Visionary’ 11th/Pine office and preservation project ready to move forward
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Donald Glover
Horizon was giving away its remaining stock for free last weekend on 10th Ave (Image: CHS Facebook Group)
Let’s close this current chapter of neighborhood classics saying goodbye. Another of the longest running businesses on Capitol Hill closed quietly last weekend. It wasn’t a restaurant, cafe, or bar.
Horizon Books was proudly established on Capitol Hill 53 years ago making it contemporaneous with fellow class of 1971 business licensees Country Doctor Community Health Clinic, architect Roger Newell, and Vogue Coiffure Beauty Salon on our list of the oldest businesses in the area a few years back.
The bookseller that made its name on Capitol Hill long before Elliott Bay Book Company was transplanted to 10th ve quietly turned the page and liquidated its stock last weekend, handing out free books to anybody who stopped by its underground 10th Ave space home to “the largest and finest used books collections in Seattle.” Continue reading
