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(Image: Machiavelli)
(Image: Machiavelli)
You had better find new Capitol Hill favorites. The legends are fading away.
Ristorante Machiavelli announced Thursday it is closing after 36 years of serving Capitol Hill. It will open for one last night of service before saying goodbye. A sibling Machiavelli will live on in Edmonds.
“Please understand that this was one of the most difficult decisions of my life,” said owner Suzette Jarding who purchased the restaurant where she used to work and continued its legacy on Capitol Hill for more than two decades. “I have poured my heart and soul into this restaurant for over 25 years. I met my husband while I was a bartender and even shared our first kiss across the bar). I am as heartbroken about this as you are.”
“The joy that this little corner of Melrose and Pine has brought to myself, my family and my Machiavelli family will never fade, and neither will my memories with all of you,” Jarding writes. “You gave us comfort and hope no matter what was happening. We were in it together, like a small town in a tiny restaurant.”
In a message posted to social media, Machiavelli said it had been operating without a lease and that negotiations with the property’s owner had been “a very difficult negotiation process.”
The E Pine restaurant said issues around nearby construction had also cut into business.
“We’ve also had our share of challenges with our wonderful, but ever-changing neighborhood,” the announcement reads. “Between the parking difficulties that affect our staff and guests (especially those who can no longer afford to live close by) and the construction and other issues, we’ve also seen a decrease in regulars and general foot traffic.”
CHS reported here in November on concerns — and opportunities — around the project to transform Pike and Pine into one-way streets below Bellevue Ave and the impact of major street construction projects on the neighborhood.
The Machiavelli closure will add to a sad February for some of Capitol Hill’s longest running restaurants. CHS reported here on the last weeks of business after 30 years for Coastal Kitchen on 15th Ave E. While the exit of Coastal will be tough to take for longtime fans, that shutdown comes as part of a property sale as the restaurant’s owners are selling the 15th Ave E property in a multimillion dollar deal to make way for new owners and a new restaurant concept.
(Image: Machiavelli)
It’s not clear what will come next at the corner of Melrose and Pine where Machiavelli has lived a long and romantic life on Capitol Hill.
CHS reported way back in 2013 on longtime Machiavelli employee Jarding’s purchase of the E Pine Italian favorite from its founders Tom and Linda McElroy.
In 2022, CHS checked in with Jarding after the 110-year-old auto row-era building home to Machiavelli and a collection of small businesses located on Pine at Melrose was purchased by San Francisco-based real estate company Prado Group for $5 million.
The new property owners have meant a new mix of tenants on the block. Seattle burger chain Lil Woody’s has maintained its flagship joint in the building even as it has expanded to exotic locales like Ballard and Shibuya while the Mint Lounge shuttered to start 2023 amid repeated gun violence issues around the club. It remains empty. The block will also see a major change when Portland’s Voodoo Doughnut opens its first Seattle shop there later this year.
While Jarding put on a brave face about the new landlords, her business was struggling. Machiavelli’s ownership says that part of its reason for closing has been staffing shortages coming out of the pandemic and being challenged with “maintaining a consistent and solid staff in the kitchen (as have many Seattle restaurants).”
The closure announcement comes after a week the restaurant has remained shuttered due to staffing issues, Machiavelli said.
Now, the restaurant family at Machiavelli says it will open the restaurant for one last meal on Thursday, February 15th from 3 to 10 PM.
“Though we’re currently closed, we are going to open for one last night on Capitol Hill: we’d love to see you, our family, for our final evening of service, giving us all one last opportunity to share food, drinks and memories,” the announcement reads. “Your favorite bartenders and servers will be there as well as everyone else who has called this place a second home for over 35 years.”
Machiavelli is located at 1201 Pine. You can learn more at ristorantemachiavelli.com. The full announcement of the closure is below:
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
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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.
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What a bummer. They will be sorely missed.
We need the guy who ran for governor of NY saying “The rent is too damn high!”
What a shame, that’s another lost Italian joint with Romio’s also shuttering nearby. Always was packed even very recently with waits for a table so it must be more than just traffic.
What are the odds it will become Capitol Hill’s 48th fried chicken joint :rolls eyes:
Romio’s was not an Italian restaurant. It was garbage. I live half a block from it and hope we get a decent replacement eatery or a good dive bar in its place.
This place was an institution. It always felt like family and will be sorely missed on the Hill.
My heart is broken, about the closure of Machiavelli. The small dinner I took my beloved Jian to, at Machiavelli, 2008, was the day we realized we had deep feelings for each other. Sad to lose the spot. Was such a lovely night.
sad as hell. new landlords raised rent by 5 figures. goodbye beloved local spot on every “must go to” list, hello some chain or a place with $100 entrees. this would have made an excellent coffee shop too but no one can afford the new rent. tragedy.
But hooorrrray for Wing Stop right???
5 figures??!? If that’s true it’s utterly insane.
That’s too bad, anytime I wanted to go in it was full but I just must have come at the right times to assume they were still doing well. I’ll miss it.
This also isn’t the first time I’ve heard the people in charge of these buildings being highly difficult to work with, including people WANTING to rent a space and they either just not being responsive or trying to slip outrageous things into contracts so people back out.
That building screams “redevelop” and now they’ve got one less tenant to deal with.
Here’s wishing nobody wants to rent it and the LL loses money
I think it’s clear the LL doesn’t _want_ anyone renting it so they can be closer to a teardown/redevelop…
I agree with y’all saying they will most likely try to redevelop but they also sounded desperate to rent it empty spaces. Who knows what they’re doing.
What a moment of grace when visiting from NYC that we happened upon Machiavelli last August. It was our date night spot and I spotted it on my way to get my hair blown out at VAIN—where I used to work. Blessed Be! One last time and the first time I’d been back to Capitol Hill in 18 years. Best wishes to everyone.
This breaks my heart! I have loved dining there for so many years. The food was always great & reasonably priced. The service was always beyond compare.
Why do all the good Seattle restaurants keep closing? The Seattle food scene is gradually becoming more homogenous and low quality. We don’t need any more fried chicken and ramen places!!!!
For. Real.
The costs involved in running a full-service restaurant have gotten out of control. Basic food costs are up 20% since Covid, minimum wage has gone up 13% since 2019, and patrons have less money to spend on fancier places. They do have money for self-serve/quick-serve where you can grab dinner for less than $15/person. Hence more chicken places.
Where I come from (Singapore) we already had this divergence. We have the amazing food at the hawker centers which is affordable for all and we have fancy places, but not a lot of Machiavelli-style “nice but affordable” places.
It’s not the cost of food or the uptick in cost for labor. Those pale compared to the real culprit: The real reason, quite simply, is the life-destroying, ridiculous increases in rents and leases that hit restaurants on both sides: they have to pay exorbitant ransom just to open their doors if they don’t own the space and, they find it harder and harder to find folks who will work for the wages that they can pay (even with their increased compensations) because the potential workers rents and mortgages have soared as well. Put the blame where it belongs, fairly and squarely. It is pure greed from those who think that speculating on and profiting from land and all of its uses is an OK thing when it’s actually the work of the anti-Christ, if there is/was one.
PS- Singapore has the most aggressive real estate management scheme for its citizens of any capitalist society on the planet. This means your comparisons to Seattle are rendered pointless.😉
PPS- that fresh noodle place a few doors down? Refuses to admit it’s in Seattle, refuses to cater to the many non-dead-animal eaters here. So, I never go.
Please explain about the noodle shop… they have hot oil seared noodles, garlic broccoli, spicy garlic cucumbers?
There’s a delicious hand pulled noodle shop a few doors down, try that maybe 🤔
It seems like both bauhaus and Machiavelli were undone by being unable or unwilling to own their business premises. Without that it’s going to be tough to have the neighborhood rapidly gentrifies and be able to keep up with the demands of the landlord. After Italian for dinner, game of chess opposite on the sidewalk….
Huh? How do you imagine owners who serve Machiavelli’s quality of experience at the price they do to have $5M laying around? You sound either hugely entitled or clueless or both.
as are you – that’s not how buying commercial property space works. They didn’t have to buy the entire block.
They have been in that space for 20+ years, the whole street used to be empty spaces way back when and mostly undesirable. If you had a good business (which they did even then) you’d want to control all that unknowns – particularly as they were in a great location just off downtown.
My favorite restaurant, my heart is broken.
so sad about this. glad I was able to go in the fall when I had a friend visiting from out of town.
how early do you think people should line up to get a table for that last night event? 2pm? Noon?
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2022/08/business-as-usual-for-capitol-hill-italian-classic-ristorante-machiavelli-after-5m-land-deal-for-historic-building/
I guess that did not age well
Great sadness! They taught the beauty of my first Manhattan cocktail among the many delicious I had there in my twenties back in the 1990s.
This is indeed sad. The only restaurant in Seattle I can say I loved. The atmosphere and food were above all others in my opinion. Glad I just ate there a couple weeks ago.
I am so sad for them and our community. I love the cozy bar, the food and, most importantly, the staff.
Thank you for serving Seattle for so many years through so many ups and downs.
You are so cherished and will be missed.