Aly Anderson of Pinoyshki Bakery and Cafe
As 2025 begins with a rush of closures and argument over the expiration of Seattle’s minimum wage tip credit for small businesses, the flurry of recent shutdowns — The Jilted Siren, Rapport, Plum, Jackson’s Catfish Corner — can also be seen in a larger context. Every year, CHS looks back at the year that was to tally the new openings and sad closures in Capitol Hill area food and drink. Looking at this current burst of shutdowns in that context reveals the natural ups and downs of an industry with a notorious 80% fail rate. Every opening is a celebration. Every closure is a sad goodbye. The ones that last become beloved parts of their community. Here is a look back at 2024 in Capitol Hill food and drink.
Gulliotine
HAPPY HELLOS
- Voodoo Doughnuts arrived on Capitol Hill with its first Seattle store and “21-hour” a day service
- Straight out of Seabrook, Koko’s debuted on the backside of Pike/Pine
- Cheers! Hong Kong created a new Hong Kong-style bar on Broadway where everybody knows Sen Mao’s name
- Guillotine, a Broadway cocktail joint from a duo of veteran Capitol Hill bartenders, settled in to the neighborhood’s main drag
- Also on Broadway, Capitale Pizzeria brought global pies to the street
- Bad Chancla added its thing to E Olive Way below The Reef
- Anbai began growing bento by bento from the Chophouse Row counter
- Bonito Café y Mercadito debuted with a Sabado gigante on E Olive Way
- Cool story: Kajiken added brothless ramen to 11th Ave across from Cal Anderson in the Hugo House building
- COMEBUYTEA introduced its steamy craft take on boba to Broadway and Pike
- Hyson Boba added organic, authentic, and local boba offerings to E Madison
- Bober Tea and Mochi Dough added its Voodoo-free pink hues to Broadway
- FOB Poke Bar debuted its ‘build your own bowl’ sibling Old Street Malatang on Broadway
- Seasmith cafe finally debuted after years of anticipation — and red tape — above Capitol Hill Station
- Ramie started taking Capitol Hill Vietnamese in new directions on 14th Ave
- The Wash moved in on E Olive Way
- HoneyHole rumba-ed back to life on E Pike
-
Hana Yohannes of Shikorina Pastries
Shikorina Pastries also moved to the street from its Central District birthplace
- The Last Drop bottle shop and bar changed one of Capitol Hill’s favorite coffee spaces to a venue now dedicated to beer
- 206 Burger Company joined Broadway
- Pinoyshki Bakery and Cafe brought “piroshkis, desserts and filipino/EU food that would take you back to the meals your Lola and Baba used to make” to its new home on the backside of the massive Pike Motorworks development
- There is now a Paradise on Broadway. Naturally, it serves tacos and margaritas
- Stitch Cafe began knitting together crochet, coffee, and community on upper E Pine
- With the salad chutes of its “Infinite Kitchen” tech, Sweetgreen debuted at the corner off 11th and Pine
- Cheese Room began its run trying to replace a legend at the base of Capitol Hill
- Marjorie made a new start in the Central District
- Chandelier Lounge lit up Broadway
SAD GOODBYES
- Machiavelli served its final dish on Capitol Hill
- Coastal Kitchen closed after 30 years of business on 15th Ave E
- Omega Ouzeri’s closure on 14th Ave ended a 40 year connection to Capitol Hill food and drink for the Soukakos family
- Olmstead held a goodbye garage sale as it closed the doors on its run in the former Broadway Grill space
- Barrio, an early player in the Pike/Pine food and drink boom, closed after 16 years on 12th Ave
- Mezcaleria Oaxaca closed down its Pike/Pine complex after a decade of business
- Oma Bap ended its Korean food, Hugo House, and CHOP-stuffed story on 11th Ave
- Cherry Street Coffee shuttered its location on E Pine in a tiff with a socialist
- Nékter Juice Bar bailed on Capitol Hill Station
Olmstead’s garage sale
- Tougo ended 17 years of coffee business in the Central District
- 8 Oz.’s burger bar dreams never got off the ground despite 12 years of business on Broadway
- Cafe Racer ended months of struggle and shuttered on 11th Ave
- D’Meliora gave up the ghost in the old Canterbury space on 15th Ave E
- Two Doors Down ended a decade of burgers on E Madison
- Fat Tomato left behind thousands in unpaid rent — and arguably some of the worst slices ever sold on Capitol Hill
- Chef Shota shut down his Capitol Hill pizza pop-up Kōbo
- Fuel pulled the plug on its tour of duty in the old Vivace Broadway coffee counter
- Queen Sheba ended its decades of Ethiopian dining in a 125-year-old house just off Broadway
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
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 🖤
Voodoo Doughnuts…🤮
Tourists and perhaps out of immediate area locals, likely uninformed of their horrible business atrocities known only inside of a hyper local bubble, seem to like them. I see the pink boxes on the link, often, now. I see people in their store. You need to make a sign and stand in front to proclaim your vapid disgust of presence. That will show ‘em.
Anthony Bourdain liked them, so they at least have that going for them.
Aren’t you forgetting Rapport under “Sad Goodbyes”?
it’s in the first paragraph.
I highly recommend Anbai. It brought me back to when I was an HS exchange student in Japan and eating lunch that left me satiated and energized throughout the afternoon but not bloated.
I wish the happy hello businesses well, hopefully they prosper.
At least a few of the departures aren’t so sad, bad food, bad service and no surprise they failed.