(Image: Bateau)

Those hoping to track the demise of the Capitol Hill neighborhood by restaurant closings will continue to be confounded by Bateau.

Its rebirth will be part of a small burst of reopenings to start 2026.

Jeremy Price of the Sea Creatures restaurant group says the retooling that led to a shutdown of the E Union steakhouse earlier this year is about to pick up steam with plans to reopen the venue — and reinvigorate its corner on the backside of Pike/Pine — in February.

Price says Bateau is now “in the final phases” of its remodel with painting and new window treatments scheduled this week. New signage will also soon go up. Meanwhile, it is also retooling its business with an overhaul of its menu and its prices, and working out a new deal with unionized workers.

Bateau’s planned February debut is hoped to be part of a small wave of reopening activity on Capitol Hill. CHS reported here on plans for the new Roma Roma by-the-cut pizza joint to debut in January in the old Rachel’s Ginger Beer space at 12th and Pine. And the former Stateside space has a Blue Willow project from the Tyger Tyger restaurant family lined up. Meanwhile, CHS is watching for any signs of life on Melrose where Mamnoon closed earlier this year after 13 years of business.

The largest gaping hole in the area food and drink community? It might take a long time for the right puzzle piece to fill Capitol Hill’s shuttered Starbucks Roastery.

On E Union, the Bateau construction is more or less on schedule but Sea Creatures has also been busy preparing to open its latest three-pronged venture with the new Lowlander Brewery, Un Po Tipsy Pizzeria, and the My Oh My “European-inspired restaurant” set for a December debut in new development on Occidental Ave near the stadiums. To clear space on the decks to give each project full attention for its debut, the Bateau restart is being held off until February.

By then, the Capitol Hill closure will be close to eight months.

CHS reported in June on the surprising shutdown as the decade-old Renee Erickson-helmed complex of new era steakhouse Bateau its sibling Boat Bar, and the first location of General Porpoise doughnuts was shuttered for what the ownership group said would be a multi-month refresh more in line with current-era Capitol Hill food and drink economics.

The Bateau closure came as parent restaurant family Sea Creatures had been tightening its belt and streamlining its businesses and will bring the end of the Capitol Hill General Porpoise, Erickson’s first in what had grown into a small chain. The Capitol Hill shop neighboring Bateau and the bar will become a private dining room.

Sea Creatures said Bateau as it had been configured was operating at a loss for the past two years.

With the major Pioneer Square project and Bateau’s revamp on track for an early 2026 debut, any belt-tightening with the restaurant group now clearly appears to have been about the journeys ahead.

Its workers, meanwhile, are also preparing for those journeys, voting to organize earlier this year. A vote approving the formation of United Creatures of the Sea was tallied in February. Price said recent efforts for Sea Creatures employees to organize were not a factor in the changes at Bateau and that the company supports their right to organize.

On Capitol Hill, Price says Sea Creatures hopes the Bateau team will be part of the reopening.

“We continue to plan to invite all former Capitol Hill staff back. We hope that they will all be able to return,” Price said. “We are currently negotiating with their union on compensation, so pay and benefits is still up in the air. These negotiations are going well, but if nothing is agreed to by re-opening, we will resume the compensation plan we had in effect when we closed.”

Bateau is planned to reopen early next year at 1040 E Union. Learn more at restaurantbateau.com.

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