(Image: Rocket Taco)
Like a SpaceX capsule linking up with the ISS, Capitol Hill’s Rocket Taco completed a complicate maneuver this week, switching 19th Ave E corners and beginning a new mission in a much newer, easier to manage space.
Customers of the 19th Ave E casual Mexican joint who may not have heard about the plans might be surprised by the new location and the speed of reentry as the restaurant was able to move and reopen this week.
CHS reported here in January on the change for the seven-year-old sibling to the Whidbey Island original. Owner Steve Rosen said Rocket Taco could not pass up the opportunity to operate in a newer space with a modern kitchen and expansive patio. Rocket Taco’s new restaurant home was first designed for Linda Derschang and her Tallulah’s venture.
“Right now we aren’t planning anything new, but we are definitely excited about serving margaritas on that beautiful patio,” Rosen told CHS earlier this year. “It’s such a beautiful outdoor space.”
Rocket Taco originally was ready to welcome a new food and drink neighbor across E Mercer but an ambitious effort that had been lined up for the shuttered space fell through. The restaurant was most recently home to Bounty Kitchen which closed in 2023 after limping through the pandemic, and was undergoing an overhaul for a major new project from an investment group and former Willows Inn chef Nick Green. Green and the investors behind the Emilia project have not responded to questions about the decision to pull back on the project.
Rocket Taco’s move leaves an iconic — but challenged — Capitol Hill restaurant space empty and darkened. We’ll be watching for what comes next for the 100-year-old restaurant space where the Kingfish Cafe once ruled.
Rocket Taco is now open at 550 19th Ave E. Learn more at rocket-taco.com.
$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 🖤
I took my daughter to Rocket Taco last night and was surprised that the new space was already open. It’s beautifully done with a better layout than the old location. They were packed with families and absolutely buzzing in a way I haven’t seen since before the pandemic. It’s exactly what the neighborhood needs. Congrats to the owners and I can’t wait to go back!