(Image: Rey Amargo)
With more than 80 years of chocolate history in Mexico, Rey Amargo’s cafe experiment on E Pike lasted just over four.
The Jalisco-born company closed its Capitol Hill shop for good over the weekend, the latest in an ongoing wave of shutdowns in this core area of Pike/Pine over the past year.
“Four years in the timeline of this great city may go by unnoticed in the eyes of the neighborhood, but for us, they represent a deeply meaningful chapter in our story,” a letter announcing the closure posted in the cafe’s window read. “A chapter filled with effort, learning, and above all, joy.”
In 2021 when it opened, the drinking chocolate and bars, stone ground chocolates, and chocolate covered fruit and coffee beans cafe looked primed to be the start of a new chain of Rey Amargos across the country, growing from the original shops in Mexico.
The brews were designed to be delightfully bitter.
“Many years ago, we didn’t have milk. The Aztecs and Maya didn’t have sugar, so they mixed with water, cacao, and other spices,” Carlos Rios, grandson of the company’s founder told CHS about the three ingredient drinking creations.
The closure was announced with the dreaded “letter in the window” — thanks to reader David for the picture
Rey Amargo’s US debut was also delayed and dented by COVID-19 and the pandemic shifts around Pike/Pine.
Its exit leaves music-centered, plant-based bar Life on Mars in search of a new neighbor. The 2019-born vinyl and vegan joint hasn’t had it easy but so far has kept the good times spinning at the corner of Pike and Harvard through the pandemic years and into Pike/Pine’s brave new era.
Life on Mars also recently lost another key food and drink neighbor on the block when celebrity chef Shota Nakajima pulled the plug on his karaage chicken joint Taku and bid farewell (for now) to Seattle. A Seattle restaurateur is moving forward with a new project in that space — details soon.
The street’s largest commercial real estate hole remains unfilled. A block west of the now shuttered Rey Amargo, the 8,000-square-foot grocery that Amazon bailed on a year ago this month remains empty.
Meanwhile, new concepts continue to give E Pike a spin. CHS reported here in March on the arrival of SOMA Kombucha’s self-serve taproom on the street. The latest in a ripple of “un-staffed” concepts emerging in Seattle, the Portland-born SOMA uses an app and QR codes to provide customers access to its kombucha taps plus CBD tinctures and, if you’re into it, red light photobiomodulation therapy.
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man didnt even know this place existed! would’ve loved to try it out – hope their owners find happiness in their next endeavor
my first thought
Same
I love their cardamom hot chocolate and always keep a bag of it in the house during the winter. I hope it will still be available online in the US, although I expect the tariffs will not help.
Oh man, such a cool family story and the chocolate was always so good! I was looking forward to their summer drinks, I hope we can still get some of their stuff online 🤞
This was disappointing to hear, I loved this place.
Such a bummer, they had so many different kinds of hot chocolate and they were all delcious!
Very disappointed to read this. The chocolate drinks at Rey Amargo were wonderful. Everybody working there was a joy to be around. Maybe… they could persuade themselves to only pause and reopen elsewhere. Please.
Oh. I just went with my daughter there for the first time a few days ago, after putting it off for a couple of years for no reason in particular. Once there, I was actually looking forward to making it a regular visit.
Crap. Well, they’re still being sold on Amazon. I’ll just have to continue making my mochas at home.
A tip: if you’re a fan of their cardamom one, try making their regular variety with freshly ground cardamom right out of a pod, it’ll kick you in the teeth in the best way possible.
I was a big fan of their hot chocolate, even as I couldn’t justify it as a frequent part of my diet. I always felt they got the worst luck with when they ended up opening. Echo others in being sad to see them leave.