Reborn and revived on Capitol Hill, Kedai Makan readying Belltown expansion

Sayap Ayam Pedas wings and a coconut shake, please (Image: Kedai Makan)

First, Kedai Makan came back from restaurant limbo with a new life at 15th and Pine. Now, it is getting ready to expand to Belltown.

The Capitol Hill Malaysian favorite says it is working on the new 1st Ave location and ready to expand from the E Pine corner where it reopened last year under after founders Kevin Burzell and Alysson Wilson decided they were ready to step away.

At 15th and Pine, the new Kedai Makan is continuing the traditions started at the original Bellevue Ave location and the many farmers markets where the Kedai Makan approach to Malaysian flavors were perfected. It has been a happy transition for the collaboration from Khampaeng “KP” Panyathong with Joe and Lucy Ye of Hangry Panda who originally came together to form the short-lived Money Frog concept.

Kedai Makan now moves forward under the Hagnry Panda ownership.

The old Bellevue Kedai Makan spot is now home to the Jilted Siren lounge.

Permit records show work is underway to make upgrades for the 1st Ave location where “Asian fusion” restaurant Lai Rai closed last summer.

Kedai Makan says only that the new location will open “soon.”

Kedai Makan is located at 1449 E Pine. Learn more at kedaimakansea.com.

 

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Multiple dumpster fires set overnight on Capitol Hill

Picture shared with CHS from a witness to one 15th Ave response

Seattle Fire responded to a series of fires set across Capitol Hill overnight.

According to emergency radio updates, crews handled multiple fires set to dumpsters and recycling receptacles including a large fire that broke out near a building in the 1600 block of 15th Ave early Tuesday morning. SFD also responded to another significant 15th Ave dumpster fire and smaller trash fires including one reported near 12th and Pine. Continue reading

Design review: Developers want QFC block project to make room for 10 businesses, 170 apartments, 1 ‘tier 2’ tree — and they want to rise 6 stories on 15th Ave E to do it — UPDATE

(Images: Runberg Architecture Group)

The Capitol Hill developers behind the project to transform the old QFC block of 15th Ave E into new apartments, businesses, and plaza space want the new building to give the neighborhood a vibrant streetscape with a mix of trees old and new, small retail spaces to add to the street’s eclectic mix, and 170 new homes.

The only catch? They’ll need an extra story to pull it off. Wednesday, Hunters Capital will present its first public proposal for the property to the East Design Review Board and start the discussion about the tradeoff it is requesting to allow the project to reach six stories high in exchange for keeping two mature and well-loved European hornbeam trees on the north end of the property along E Republican.

“The scale of the property provides an opportunity to develop a variety of retail and restaurant spaces that will fit into the scale of the existing commercial context,” Hunters Capital’s design proposal reads. “Enhancing pedestrian life and access through the neighborhood is another priority that will contribute to the viability of the commercial spaces and help make this project a destination that draws neighborhood residents and visitors alike.” Continue reading

To meet demand — and be ready for coming growth — city adding paid-parking to Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave E

15th Ave E changes a little more slowly than the rest of Capitol Hill but the neighborhood is in the middle of a transformation including redevelopment and, yes, a full overhaul of street parking to address what the city says is near overwhelming demand around its commercial core.

The Seattle Department of Transportation announced that crews will begin installing new parking kiosks, signs, and paint starting next week, Tuesday, October 10th to mark “two-hour paid parking” on 15th Ave E from E Denny Way to E Mercer.

The west side of 16th Ave E from E Denny Way to E Thomas will also get the treatment. The Residential Zone 4 Parking will remain in effect in the surrounding area.

The changes will mean new habits for those who drive to the area or residents and workers who have been jockeying with each other for street parking in the area around a mix of businesses including longtimers like Rainbow RemediesVictrola, Coastal Kitchen, Hopvine, Jamjuree, and Liberty to relative newcomers like Ada’s Technical Bookstore, and Uncle Ike’s, to the latest additions like Windthrow, Creature Consignment, and Meliora.

“The project aims to address the growing demand for parking by visitors and customers, provide more reliable access at the curb, and enhance the overall parking experience for customers, visitors, and commercial delivery drivers,” SDOT says. Continue reading

‘Monolithic’ — The Aquarian Foundation new age church appeals approval of neighboring Capitol Hill Safeway redevelopment

The design proposal for the Safeway project approved earlier this year showed how the new development would wrap around the Aquarian Foundation (Image: Weber Thompson)

The Aquarian Foundation’s Keith Milton Rhinehart in a video demonstrating his spiritual ability to produce gems from his body

A secretive and reclusive Capitol Hill religious organization is speaking out against plans to redevelop its block of 15th Ave E with a new 50,000-square-foot grocery store, new apartments, and a massive underground parking lot on the site of the neighborhood Safeway.

The Aquarian Foundation has filed an appeal with the Seattle Hearing Examiner hoping to bring the major new retail and housing development to a stop as it demands changes including preservation of trees and street parking and a design for the planned “monolithic structure” to better match the neighborhood’s “look and feel.”

“The sheer size and the aesthetics of the monolithic structure does not consider the surrounding topography, adjacent properties and structures, and the look the feel and ambience of Capitol Hill and the 15th Ave E corridor,” the Aquarian Foundation’s appeal filed last week reads.

CHS reported here in February as the project from property owner Safeway and developer Greystar with a design from Weber Thompson passed through the city’s public review process opening the way to start final planning for demolition of the old store and construction of two new five-story buildings including the new grocery, around 330 market rate apartment units, some new, smaller retail spaces, and an underground parking lot for more than 300 cars on the Safeway property at 15th and John. Continue reading

Busy as a Bee, Coché Valley Dessert Cafe off to a flying start on Capitol Hill

Bee prepares CHS a brownie and Oreo crepe

Bee Paisan credits an opening free drink promotion and buzz from a well-followed local food blogger but there are plenty of other reasons her new Coché Valley Dessert Cafe has been busier than expected in its opening weeks. Asian pastries, crepes, waffles, and dessert toasts tend to draw a crowd. Her new cafe’s location at 15th and Pine amid a small mix of neighborhood food and drink also helps.

“Around 10, 11, 12, midnight there are still people walking,” Paisan says of her new business neighborhood.

Paisan said she loves that, here, “people like to walk.”

All those steps, of course, mean more calories available for a visit to Coché Valley. Continue reading

A new dessert ‘valley’ at the top of Capitol Hill? Coché Valley Dessert Cafe coming to 15th and Pine

Coché Valley Dessert Cafe, a family-owned cafe serving pastries, crepes, and waffles inspired from Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong is moving in at 15th and Pine.

Bee Puntip Paisan says she brought the idea for Coché Valley to Seattle after working in Thailand as a pastry chef. Two years later, she has now turned her passion for desserts into a Capitol Hill cafe serving Asian sweet treats. Coché Valley Dessert Cafe will be her first venture.

“The idea came to me when I was a pastry Intern during university, where I realized my passion for desserts,” Paisan said. “I wanted to create a place where people could feel happy.”

After graduating in 2019, Paisan moved with her husband to New Orleans, and finally Seattle specifically to start her own line of Asian sweets. Continue reading

Capitol Hill’s new Sakana ready to stand out in Seattle’s sushi scene

Paul Kim, owner and head chef of Sakana Sushi and Kitchen

You can get sushi in almost every neighborhood in Seattle. While some bars stand out for their adherence to traditional technique, others stand out by shaking things up a bit. Now open at 15th and Madison, Sakana Sushi and Kitchen chefs are more than just skilled at traditional sushi dishes like nigiri, rolls, and sashimi, but their uniqueness comes from dishes created by owner and head chef Paul Kim.

Combining traditional Japanese sushi with innovative fusion flavors, Kim creates new dishes with flavors that fit together. With over 20 years of experience, his beginnings as a dishwasher in his uncle’s restaurant keep him grounded. Kim found passion, motivation, and a creative outlet by creating dishes that feed his community as he has stepped up from chef to owner.

Before that, he also stepped away from a path that took him out of the kitchens he grew up in with a possible future as an architect.

“What I liked was people, hospitality, and making food,” Kim said. Continue reading

Artist’s ‘floppy’ project stores Capitol Hill memories on the walls as new plans for neighborhood’s old grocery develop

Yelahneb aka “The Floppy Guy”

While smaller plans are being made for how to make the building more than just an empty shell and longer plans are shaping that will replace the block with new apartments and businesses, the old 15th Ave E QFC has become a strange kind of display for a strange kind of computer art.

This isn’t artificial intelligence renderings with six-fingered, oddly glossy humans. These are floppy discs — murals of pixelated images related to local businesses made with obsolete digital data drives. Yelahneb (they/them) aka “The Floppy Guy,”  has been collecting and repurposing these iconic storage devices for years.

The Floppy Guy’s projects involve arranging the 3.5 inch floppy disks, mosaic style, in various patterns and designs, often resembling recognizable icons or objects. “I treat each floppy disk as a pixel,” explained Yelahneb. “If I want to reproduce a Windows icon, for example, every pixel needs to match the original icon.”

Their latest canvas has been the beige half-block wall of the emptied QFC.

CHS reported here on plans from Capitol Hill developer Hunters Capital for a five-story mixed building with around 150 apartment units and underground parking for around 116 vehicles on the site running from the middle of the 400 block of 15th Ave E to E Republican. The plans include demolition of the 1904-built Moore Family building home to a Rudy’s Barbershop and longtime neighborhood convenience store ShopRite and the adjacent grocery and surface parking lot that hosted a grocery since 1944 until QFC exited the street in 2021 in a tiff with the Seattle City Council over COVID-19 hazard pay.

If you want to help shape that project, by the way, the Pike/Pine Urban Neighborhood Council group that is active in area development outreach and feedback is hosting a meeting this week with Hunters Capital to discuss early plans for the project — The meeting takes place Thursday, June 29th at 5:30 PM at Community Roots Housing, 1620 12th Ave in the second floor Fish Bowl conference room.

Back on 15th Ave E, finding the right colors can be a challenge, as Yelahneb doesn’t alter the floppy disks with paint or other materials. “I’m at the mercy of what I find,” they said. “Purple is notoriously hard to get. I have about 10 to 12,000 floppies, and I try to keep them organized by color.”

Yelahneb says there is significance to working with floppy disks and their place in the history of technology. “As a kid of the ’80s and ’90s, floppy disks were the perfect storage medium,” they said. “It became the symbol, the skeuomorphic representation of ‘save’ in computers.”

The message, then, is a version of saving some of the memories around this part of Capitol Hill. Continue reading

Meliora brings ‘vibrant Pacific Northwest vibes with a touch of medieval influence’ to the old Canterbury space

(Image: Meliora)

The Canterbury knight still stands sentry as the Capitol Hill public house at the corner of 15th and Mercer begins anew as “New American Restaurant” and cocktail bar Meliora.

“With a New American inspired menu centered on sustainability, and a highly curated, complementary wine program focused on Pacific Northwest wines, Meliora aims to captivate the senses and provide a delicious, welcoming experience,” the announcement for the new venture’s Tuesday grand opening reads.

Born of the dynamics around a history of raucous nightlife, the profit margins required to survive a Capitol Hill commercial lease, a 115-year-old apartment building, and Seattle’s never-quit real estate market, Meliora has transformed the former home of the Canterbury Ale House into a quieter but hopefully still lively use of the 5,000-square-foot space with “a spacious main dining area with original wood paneling sourced from a local barn paying homage to the rich history of the building which first housed a tavern in 1976.”

(Image: Meliora)

Continue reading