Tag Archives: 11th ave

Born into the pandemic, Chophouse Row wine bar Light Sleeper is closing

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Light Sleeper was born with a mask on into the teeth of the pandemic and made the best of things with takeout and bottles to go

Honey, wake up, Chophouse Row’s “vins sans intrants” and “roast chicken, fries & pizza pies” hangout Light Sleeper is closing.

“Opening a spot as an independent operator is very personal. Lots of dreaming and sacrifice. Lots of fear and joy. The costs to do this in Seattle are insane… some can pull it off, others can’t,” sommelier owner Ezra Wick said in the announcement that wine-focused restaurant is set to close in February after six years inside 11th Ave’s Chophouse Row.

“I started my career in restaurants on Pike/Pine, cooking breakfast at the Puss Puss Café over 30 years ago. I’ve been pouring wine on this block for 16 years, Osteria La Spiga, Bar Ferdinand, Sitka and Spruce – I met and fell in love with my wife on this block. Shit, I was born seven blocks away. It’s personal.” Continue reading →

Holiday Special market will benefit Capitol Hill’s On the Block

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15th Ave E and 11th Ave are giving each other a boost of holiday spirit this weekend as 15th’s Quality Flea Center hosts a holiday market in support of the On the Block group that produces the 11th Ave street fair series.

The On the Block Holiday Special takes place Sunday:

Sunday, December 21 – 12 to 6 pm
Quality Flea Center – 416 15th Ave E

The Holiday Special is a free, family-friendly event that will feature 60+ vendors, soul food, hot cocoa station, Santa photos, raffle, games, giveaways, a coloring station, soul food by Jerm Dee, DJS Razberry Baretta and Supreme La Rock, and more.

OtB says Sunday’s event will raise funds for its “Second Saturday”s 11th Ave street fairs as well as its venues including the newly opened all-ages arts venue 11 : 11 on, you guessed it, 11th Ave. You can buy a $33 “Cocoa Station/Soul Food plate package” to help.


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Eleven : Eleven — Capitol Hill’s new ‘little campus of autonomous art studios and artists’ work’

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On 11th Ave between Pike and Pine, a new chapter of art and creation with a familiar cast of characters has opened. Eleven : Eleven represents the culmination of years of work by Blue Cone Studios and Forever Safe Spaces: a presentation gallery that its creators say gives the community a venue to showcase art without the limits that have blocked and separated artists in the past.

For Carolyn Hitt, founder of Blue Cone Studios, the need for a space like this on Capitol Hill has been clear for a decade.

“I’ve always known that we needed a presentation space. I’ve always known that we needed to make this little campus of autonomous art studios and artists’ work,” Hitt explains. “We’ve had three incubation spaces, and finally, we have a presentation space.”

The timing felt serendipitous. Hitt recalls discussing the possibility of opening a venue with Julie C, a co-founder and organizer for 11th Ave’s On The Block weekend art and market series, just weeks before the space became available. “Julie and I, prior to us realizing that this was available, and then having the audacity to think that we could do it… we were like, you know what? When it’s our turn, it’s gonna be right.”

What makes Eleven : Eleven important isn’t just that it’s a gallery, Seattle has those, it’s that it is designed to be genuinely accessible. The founders chose to create an all-ages venue in the middle of Pike/Pine, not a bar relying on alcohol sales.

“To have a space that is not a bar, to be able to offer the community all ages venue that it so very much deserves,” Hitt says, adding with conviction: “I say, You lack imagination, because I’m pretty sure we were gonna sort this out.” Continue reading →

Hugo House announces new permanent executive director — and says the book almost closed on the Capitol Hill literary arts center in 2024

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Pepe Montero will become the permanent executive director (Image: Hugo House)

Capitol Hill literary arts center Hugo House announced a new leader this week. The 11th Ave nonprofit announced Pepe Montero has accepted the position of permanent executive director.

The appointment marks the culmination of what it says has been an eighteen-month recovery period for the Capitol Hill literary center, which narrowly avoided permanent closure in early 2024.

“The path to this announcement began during one of the most difficult chapters in Hugo House’s history,” the announcement reads. “We found ourselves with a mostly new board and a completely overwhelming question: who could we get to run the place?”

The transition from interim to permanent leadership comes after a challenging period for the arts organization. CHS reported here in early 2024 as its then-director resigned amid ongoing challenges.

Hugo House was founded in 1996 and had been well-positioned among Capitol Hill and the city’s strongest arts nonprofits. In 2018, it opened its new 9,600-square-foot writing center on the ground floor of the new mixed-use apartment building developed on the corner Hugo House has called home since the late 1990s. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Queer/Bar is turning into the Christmas Dive Bar for the holidays

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The Christmas Dive Bar past

11th Ave is set to once again be Capitol Hill’s North Pole but this time the Christmas Dive Bar is taking over Queer/Bar.

“These past few months have been tough for queer bars and nightclubs across the city and country—this has been true for us as well,” the 1th Ave gay bar and drag venue’s management said in Monday’s announcement of the temporary switch. “We are investing all our efforts into this pop-up as a new way to sustain our programming throughout the year. Eight weeks of Christmas will help us pave the way for 44 weeks of Queer/Bar experiences in 2026.”

Work is underway to redecorate and welcome the first holiday bar customers this month. The Christmas Dive Bar has also announced a “How the Queens Stole Christmas” drag brunch and matinee series slated to run in the bar on weekends “through the holiday season.” Continue reading →

On the Block crew bringing Eleven : Eleven all-ages art and ‘cultural small business incubator’ space to 11th Ave

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(Images: Eleven : Eleven)

(Image: On the Block)

There will soon be a new space for everyone on 11th Ave.

All-ages venue Eleven : Eleven is now under construction in a former nightclub space.

Eleven : Eleven is backed by the group of artists and business owners who have fostered the On the Block series of 11th Ave street fairs led by Carolyn Hitt of Blue Cone Studios, artist and organizer Julie Chang Schulman, Rialto “Rio” Estolas of Throwbacks Northwest, and Diana Adams whose Vermillion art bar will have a new neighbor in the all-ages venue.

The group calls the new project “A Place for Impossible Things” and says it will be shaped as “a creative & cultural small business incubator, sober-curious gathering space.”

The new venue at 1512 11th Ave will open for an early preview Thursday night as part of this month’s Capitol Hill Art Walk. Continue reading →

After damaging fire, Post Options has temporary new home in Capitol Hill’s ‘Christmas Dive Bar’

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Comesongsri is making things work on 11th Ave (Image: CHS)

Thanks to the kindness and support of surrounding businesses and loyal customers, Post Options is serving Capitol Hill again from a new temporary location. Meanwhile, neighboring bar Unicorn is preparing to reopen after an overhaul and repairs.

Veti Comesongsri and Nongnuch Paungpornsri are expressing their gratitude this week following the July 30th electrical fire that caused more than $175,000 in damage to the 12th and Pike buildings the neighborhood business center and the circus-themed bar call home. Owners of The Woods on 11th Ave have opened the nightclub space for Post Options to continue serving customers while the long path to reopening the E Pike business center take shape.

Comesongsri says Post Options is only able to provide mail and package delivery for existing mailbox customers in the new temporary location where Pike/Pine’s annual Christmas Dive Bar pops up during the holidays. Continue reading →

Ten years of Chophouse Row, ‘a nice little critical mass of stuff for people who live on Capitol Hill’

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(Image: Chophouse Row)

Dunn (Image: Downtown Seattle Association)

By Matt Dowell

It’s ten years for Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row on 11th Ave, but Liz Dunn of Dunn & Hobbes is quick to say that she and her team have been on the block longer than that.

“We’ve actually been here for 25 years,” she reminded us. “So it’s the ten year anniversary of just this last building that we added — but this whole complex I’ve owned for 25 years.”

Dunn purchased a cluster of buildings inside the 11th/Pike/12th horseshoe in 1999, then the beautiful brick building on the northwest corner of the block in 2014. They were redeveloped one by one over the years before the current form’s culmination debuted in 2015.

That’s when the Chophouse building on 11th Ave was added on top of an existing auto row-era structure. Office space was built inside that is now dedicated to coworking, the alleyway and courtyard inside the horseshoe opened, and multiple food and drink and retail spaces joined in. Chophouse Row was born. It followed Melrose Market’s footsteps — another successful Dunn & Hobbes redevelopment project that brought many small businesses into a single, shared, and life-filled space.

Dunn says that the cliche is true. In these developments, “the total is greater than the sum of the parts.” Continue reading →

Hey, roomie — The Spot is moving in with a Capitol Hill salon to create a new cafe and music hangout on the backside of Pike/Pine

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The Spot in its West Seattle days (Image: The Spot)

There will be a new set of Capitol Hill roommates on 11th Ave heading into the summer. Cafe and wine bar The Spot is moving in with salon Essensuals of London.

Hopefully they enjoy each other’s music.

“It’s a pretty cool concept,” The Spot’s Philip Sudore tells CHS. “The space is beautiful — big, open, high ceilings. We’re taking over one side of the building.”

A new life for The Spot at 11th and Union on the backside of Pike/Pine comes months after the West Seattle hangout shuttered on Avalon Way where it gutted out the height of the pandemic but ultimately couldn’t hold on.

The Spot’s rebirth on Capitol Hill will represent a streamlined version of Suerore’s little bit of everything cafe, bar, and music hangout. Sudore is jettisoning The Spot’s restaurant aspirations with the new start. Continue reading →

QPF 2025: Time to start making your Pike/Pine music festival plans

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Arrietty the Elf at QPF 2024 (Image: Queer/Pride Festival)

With Seattle’s short-lived false spring drizzled away, let’s think of warmer summer days — and a neighborhood push to grow an annual Pride event into one of those music festivals whose lineup drop you look forward to during the Pacific Northwest’s dreariest days.

The Queer/Bar family of businesses is planning another year of growth for the three-day Queer/Pride Festival with 2025 headliners Tinashe, Lil’ Kim, Rebecca Black, Countess Luann, and Heidi Montag. The festival takes place on 11th Ave on Friday, June 27th through Sunday, June 29th. Continue reading →