Author Archives: Lena Friedman -- CHS Intern

About Lena Friedman -- CHS Intern

Lena Friedman was born and raised in Capitol Hill and studies psychology at Whitman College. She covers news for Whitman’s student paper, The Wire, during the school year and enjoys singing a cappella, running a food instagram @sweetnseattle and reading memoirs during her free time. Find her on Twitter @LenaSFriedman or email her at [email protected].

Natural wine shop Glinda will replace Juicebox Cafe on 12th Ave

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A new natural wine spot is coming to 12th Ave from the creators of Juicebox Cafe and South Park’s Left Bank wine bar. The new project will bring an end to farmers market-born Juicebox’s 12th Ave cafe.

Glinda wine shop is set to debut in the former home of Juicebox at 1517 12th Ave in October with bottle service and delivery, according to the shop’s Instagram page.

“It’s our intention to carry forward the values that @juicebox_cafe manifested in this space. If these walls could talk they would tell a story of love, passion, and dedication to craft that we wholeheartedly intend to carry on,” Left Bank announced. “When it is safe to do so, we hope to continue as a safe place for community to gather.” Continue reading →

Union Coffee, under new ownership and out to curb the narrative in the Central District

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Sky Iraheta (left), Geetu Vailoor (center) and Felix Kim Trần (right) (Image: Union Coffee)

At the height of spring COVID-19 uncertainty, one thing was certain for coffee connoisseur Geetu Vailoor: she was about to become the owner of a specialty coffee shop.

“I know the narrative around the Central District is that it has been quite gentrified, and when I think about speciality coffee and coffee shops in general they tend to be a sign of gentrification,” Vailoor said. “I’d like to curb that narrative and rewrite that because I think that coffee is for everyone.”

Four-year-old Union Coffee, located just a block east of 23rd and Union, has a new owner — and also a new outdoor patio to add to its takeout offerings along with wine bottleservice added to the coffee and pastry menu. You can add the new mission to the list.

Vailoor took over the business just a few days after state coronavirus restrictions barred in-store seating at the end of March. She initially got in touch with Union Coffee’s founder Zack Reinig, spouse of Molly Moon Neitzel of Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, during her days as a wholesale manager at Boon Boona Coffee in Renton. After learning he was looking to sell Union Coffee, Vailoor decided to take her years of coffee experience to the next level as the business’s new owner. Continue reading →

Toppled Confederate monument in Capitol Hill’s Lake View Cemetery won’t be restored

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It’s gone for good (Image: CHS)

In a victory for those who have been calling for its removal for years, the toppled United Confederate Veterans Memorial sitting in Capitol Hill’s Lake View Cemetery won’t be restored as the structure is past repair, a cemetery representative tells CHS.

The controversial memorial to Confederate soldiers of the Civil War was vandalized and pulled down over the Fourth of July weekend. With the rubble now removed, all that remains of its nearly century-long existence are a series of orange cones and red tape.

“There’s no process to restore it. It’s gone,” the representative said. “The vandals came in and they just ruined it but we were in the process of getting rid of it anyway.” Continue reading →

‘A lot of opportunity from a human services standpoint’ — Amid continued sweeps, Seattle Parks moves forward with planning for Cal Anderson changes

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It is either the City of Seattle’s most brilliant or most terrible ever idea. After months at the center of protest on Capitol Hill and a late summer dedicated to homelessness activism — and heavy-handed police sweeps, Cal Anderson Park’s planning process for new features and upgrades is continuing even as the city’s civil rights history unfolds around it.

After yet another police sweep of campers and activists from Cal Anderson and the hiring of private security to keep people out of the “temporarily closed” park where sunbathers, frisbee catching dogs, and tents still proliferate, Seattle Park and Recreation says it is adding safety and security, and human services components to plans for the 2020 Cal Anderson Park project. The community feedback process around the project is now moving into its second phase of planning with two public Zoom meetings happening this week on September 9th and 10th.

“There’s a lot of different issues going on in the park right now,” Andy Sheffer of Seattle Parks said. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity from a human services standpoint to better serve the overall community that uses the park.” Continue reading →

Make Americana Great Again: Broadway restaurant bounces back after ‘permanent’ closure

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Chef Jeffrey Wilson, founder of Americana, announced just a few weeks ago that he was permanently closing the popular brunch spot amid the COVID-19 crisis. But the Broadway Alley restaurant is unexpectedly back up and running, now in the hands of another longtime Americana cook.

Chef Jose Mendoza Gallegos has taken over the restaurant along with his family, and they plan to keep much of the menu and space the same. Mendoza Gallegos has much experience behind the scenes at Americana, working the kitchen for over twenty years back to the earliest iterations of the restaurant.

“He’s dedicated so much time to working at Americana for so many years,” his daughter Cynthia Mendoza Alvarez said. “He just thought it was a waste for Jeffrey to just close it down.” Continue reading →

Plans moving forward for eight stories of affordable housing, homeless youth ‘education and employment academy’ at Broadway and Pine

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(Image: Community Roots Housing)

Homelessness activists continue their efforts to occupy and transform the Cal Anderson Shelterhouse into a facility to provide services and resources to the area’s underhoused community. The need is clear. Just a block away at the corner of Broadway and Pine, a major project is moving forward to redevelop the historic Booth Building and a neighboring auto row-era structure into roughly 100 units of low-income housing and an “education and employment academy” for homeless young people.

“We really felt like it was a stand to say this corner is a place of learning and hope and justice for young people who have often been very much left behind by the progress that this city has seen over the last two decades,” YouthCare spokesperson Jody Waits said.

YouthCare is partnering with Community Roots Housing on the project for an expected 2022 start and 2024 opening. The final construction details and price tag of the project are still on the table, according to Waits, although the nonprofit is expecting to serve 250 to 300 individuals ages 18 to 24 per year at the training academy. Continue reading →

Facing a quiet Pike Place Market, Piroshky Piroshky pops up at Capitol Hill’s Russian Community Center

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Seattle’s Piroshky Piroshky, with its centerpiece location in the heart of Pike Place Market quieted by the nearly tourist-less COVID-19 economy, is making a push into the city’s neighborhoods and has found a friendly temporary home on Capitol Hill. The Russian bakery is in its second weekend of a pop-up outside 19th Ave’s Russian Community Center.

Owner Olga Sagan says the move into neighborhoods and outer areas like Magnolia and Bainbridge Island has been imperative to stay afloat, with business in their Pike Place Market shop down by 70% compared to last year and 90% down at their other two locations.

“We try to stay positive and reinvest into business and keep employees and not give up as much,” she said. “But now that it’s been six months, we are really realizing that downtown is not reviving.”

This is where the partnership with the Russian Community Center came into play. Sagan says it had actually been a dream of Piroshky Piroshky to open a location there prior to COVID-19. As the virus took shape, she was able to reach an agreement to support the events-based center and open the pop-up out front. Continue reading →

Cornelly set to open early fall, bringing handmade pasta and ‘naturally leavened’ pizza to Capitol Hill

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(Image: Cornelly)

Comforting pizza and pasta flavors are coming to the Hill this fall as new restaurant Cornelly finishes a buildout of its Summit and Mercer space and prepares for a takeout-centered opening.

Flanked by coronavirus-related delays, first-time restaurant owners Brett Phillips and Sam Carroll have spent the past five months perfecting the recipes and aesthetics of their new eatery that will join a surprisingly robust block of Capitol Hill food and drink home to Top Pot Doughnuts, the Summit Pub, Single Shot, and Sol Liquor Lounge.

“We wanted to do a neighborhood pizza and pasta place where we focus on doing naturally leavened pizza dough, handmade pastas, extruded pastas, and then really hyper seasonal vegetable plates,” Phillips said. Continue reading →

An investment in the eventual return of Capitol Hill sit-down dining, Artusi ‘facelift’ underway

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(Image: @artusibar)

Despite the uncertainty ahead in the economy and in Capitol Hill food and drink, 14th Ave Italian aperitivo bar Artusi is making a big investment in the future of full service dining.

14th and Pine’s Artusi has broken ground on a renovation project overhauling its former layout. Expected to take about three weeks, the remodel is centered around shrinking the size of the interior bar along with installing new lighting.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword because it’s like when would we ever have the time to do this,” Artusi general manager Angela Lopez said..

As COVID-19 safety measures continue to restrict dining-in capacity, Lopez says it ended up being a relatively good time to move forward with the renovation plan that has been in the works for a few years now. Continue reading →

Some locked, some gone — the status of Capitol Hill mailboxes

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Thanks to @RyanDavidTansey for helping in the mailbox headcount

As worry over locked and missing mailboxes spreads across the internet ahead of the November presidential election, the paranoia has run even more deeply through Capitol Hill after weeks of protest in the neighborhood stirring the anti-establishment vibe and a greater distrust of authority.

“The removal of USPS Mailboxes is trending nationally. Is there an explanation why mailboxes are disappearing on Capitol Hill? Are they leaving? The box on 15th E & E Republican is gone,” one of several recent notes to CHS reads.

A United States Postal Service spokesperson confirmed to CHS that some mailboxes have been locked or removed from Pike/Pine and Broadway due to security concerns in the area.

“It’s nothing new, we do this with other civil unrest and sometimes we’ll do it for parades,” USPS spokesperson David Rupert said, adding that “we’ll evaluate their replacement in the future.” Continue reading →