(Image: Wunderground Cafe)
A founder of one of Capitol Hill’s most enduringly popular cafes has returned from retirement to help create “the coffeehouse of the future” with an overhaul of E Pike adaptogenic mushroom coffee joint the Wunderground Cafe. They’re celebrating Saturday with a Pride rave.
Ericka Burke says she is joining Wunderground founder and CEO Jody Hall to give the four-year-old E Pike cafe and adaptogenic mushroom startup’s showcase cafe a fresh start, “offering food and beverage to nourish and flourish.”
CHS reported here on the fall 2021 debut of Wunderground, a grain bowl, bone broth, and mushroom coffee hangout in the space formerly home to Hall’s E Pike Cupcake Royale location and a center for the startup coffee company and its fusion of “health benefits” from mushrooms like Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps with the daily ritual and the “antioxidant properties” of coffee.
A small Cupcake Royale counter shop is now across the street as Hall has downsized her cupcake business and focused on the growth of Wunderground.
Burke, meanwhile, has been a busy figure in the Capitol Hill food scene, recognized for her ventures in the restaurant and cafe industry. Among her projects was Chop Shop, which opened in July 2015 within the Chophouse Row development on the other side of the block from where Wunderground is today. That project faced significant hurdles and closed unexpectedly in August 2016, just a year after its launch. Burke attributed the closure to critical underfunding from the outset and the detrimental impact of ongoing construction on 11th Ave, which severely hampered visibility and foot traffic, particularly during daytime hours.
Beyond Chop Shop, Burke’s Capitol Hill ventures included a brief partnership with Linda Derschang in starting Oddfellows in 2008, and the opening of Canal Market in Portage Bay in 2015, which also saw an abrupt closure.
Her most enduring establishment is the Volunteer Park Cafe, the North Capitol Hill landmark she co-founded with baker Heather Earnhardt. After the closure of Chop Shop, Burke refocused on Volunteer Park Cafe before she eventually sold the business in 2020, concluding her 13-year involvement with the much-loved neighborhood spot.
Now the focus is on Wunderground Cafe’s future. The company’s “Pride Rave” celebration should be a daytime good time but don’t expect anything too psychedelic — Capitol Hill-grown magic mushrooms are still illegal in Seattle.
Wunderground Cafe is located at 1111 E Pike. Learn more at wundergroundcoffee.com.
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