A 15th Ave E move as Rudy’s will jump across street to soon to open Capitol Hilltop development

(Image: Rudy’s)

Now they just need to make a space for ShopRite.

City construction permits show the first commercial tenant has been lined up for the opening-soon Capitol Hilltop mixed-use building on 15th Ave E. Rudy’s Barbershop, about to be displaced by another development from Hunters Capital on the other side of the street, is making plans to join the five-story, nearly 70-unit mixed-use apartment building with underground parking for 21 vehicles that has reshaped the corner of Capitol Hill’s 15th and Mercer where the old Hilltop Service Station used to stand.

The short move up the street into a new 1,100-square-foot barbershop ten barber stations, two hairwash sinks, and a new waiting and retail area will help add some stability to the street’s coming changes.

Rudy’s current 15th Ave E location is set to be demolished to make way for a coming mixed-use project that will also replace the street’s shuttered QFC grocery. Continue reading

With Bishops acquisition, Rudy’s now has three barbershops on its Capitol Hill home turf

(Image: Rudy’s Barbershop)

Rescued from bankruptcy by its original Pike/Pine founders, the Capitol Hill-based Rudy’s Barbershop chain is growing with the pandemic-era acquisition of fellow Pacific Northwest barbershop chain Bishops.

The deal means Rudy’s is now operating three salons in its home neighborhood including the former Bishops at 12th and Pike.

West Seattle Blog reported the ripples from the deal gracing that neighborhood with its second Rudy’s.

Like Rudy’s, Bishops has faced major pandemic challenges. The deal reportedly includes a dozen Bishops-operated locations in the Pacific Northwest including the West Seattle and 12th and Pike locations while franchised salons will operate independently. Continue reading

‘You Look Good’ — Glossier’s revived global retail ambitions sprout in Pike/Pine

Pike/Pine has a new 6,200-square-foot center of Flush Pink retail joining the likes of longtimers like Elliott Bay Book Co. and newcomers like Capitol Thrill.

Glossier Seattle opened last Friday with long lines of fans excited about the return of the brand’s real-world retail creations and beauty message — “You Look Good” — here on Capitol Hill.

CHS reported in July on the company’s decision to start with Seattle in its revival of global brick and mortar retail ambitions after a pandemic-forced hibernation with Capitol Hill joining plans for new stores in Los Angeles, London, and New York City. It is the strongly-backed and even more strongly hyped start-up’s return to plan to grow from its direct to customer, online roots into a new kind of retail giant — “Glossier in 3D,” the company says.

Continue reading

Freed from pandemic limbo, Glossier’s new Seattle store will open on Capitol Hill this summer

(Image: CHS)

Of all the ways over the years that CHS news reporting has been confirmed, this might be our favorite. Mixed into the motley mix of wifi signals bouncing around Pike/Pine, a CHS reader noticed a new network recently joining the mix.

Glossier

The signal was true and now construction and wireless infrastructure confirm that the plan for a new Glossier showroom in the core of Pike/Pine is out of pandemic limbo and moving ahead toward a summer opening.

CHS reported in February on the plans backburnered during the COVID-19 crisis for a new 7,000-square-foot store on 10th Ave between Pine and Pike from the makeup and skincare company.

The project represents optimism for Capitol Hill’s economic reopening but also improved prospects for Glossier after the popular chain shuttered its few stores around the globe last summer and furloughed employees to wait out the COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading

New salon and spa suite rental space on Broadway has its first customer — Pike/Pine’s Emerson Salon moving in

(Image: Emerson Salon)

A new hair and beauty venture set to open on Capitol Hill is already shaking up the neighborhood salon scene.

Emerson Salon, one of the first new Capitol Hill business CHS reported on when it opened more than a decade ago in Pike/Pine, is undergoing a shift in ownership and making a big change — leaving its longtime E Pike shopfront to be part of the new Mosaic Salon and Spa Studios on Broadway.

“Lancer and I are VERY excited to continue serving hair clients as individual service businesses on Capitol Hill inside Emerson Salon. It will stay a SAFE SPACE for LGBTQIA & BIPOC in Seattle,” D’Arcy Harrison said in the announcement of the change.

As part of the changes, Harrison said she is taking over full ownership with former co-owner Lancer Forney-McMahon staying on as a stylist with the new Emerson. Continue reading

Vain rehomes its freak-flagship salon on Capitol Hill

Some recent Vain color (Image: Vain)

A Seattle institution for adventurous and colorful hairstyles, and some truly legendary parties, boutique salon Vain has moved its downtown flagship location to new Capitol Hill digs on 1121 Pike Street. Cozied down between Black Sparrow Tattoo and Club Z, Vain opened for business earlier this month. The move signals the company’s rebirth of sorts from the pandemic, and a new chapter in Seattle’s coiffed counterculture.

Growing in the Belltown building left behind by the move of legendary Seattle club The Vogue to Capitol Hill, Vain was born into the city’s changing punk ethos. Vain owner Victoria Gentry remembered that neighboring businesses didn’t exactly appreciate The Vogue’s noisy shows, but with a salon, “You still get all the freaks without the noise.”

The move to Capitol Hill has been in the works for a while, Gentry said. The former location — in downtown, or Belltown, depending on who you ask — is part of 1st Ave Seattle history, an area now unrecognizable from when Vain first set up shop in the late 1990s, Gentry said.

They already had many clients from Capitol Hill, and the fact that downtown business had significantly slowed during the pandemic all factored into the decision to move. The new location is just on the other side of Boren, still within a mile of the old space for dedicated downtown and Belltown clients.

“I had already been planning on [moving] for quite a while. I had been waiting for the lease to run out to make a move. It got delayed a little bit because of COVID,” Gentry said. “Our connection to the Capitol Hill community has always been really strong. In a way it does feel like [coming home]. I’m excited to reconnect with arts groups and artists.” Continue reading

Replacing Urban Outfitters, Mosaic Salon and Spa Studios to create new space for independent hair and beauty pros on Capitol Hill

Mosaic is creating space for 58 independent studios inside (Image: CHS)

@hairapy.by.natalia operates out of Mosaic’s downtown location (Image: Mosaic)

By Jethro Swain

A big hole in Broadway’s commercial offerings is about to move from the youth fashion retail era of the past to a new era of hair and beauty.

Mosaic, a privately owned facilities management company that leases studios to salon and spa business owners, is opening its biggest location yet this spring on Capitol Hill.

The new set of leasable suites scheduled to open as early as May is taking the large retail space formerly home to Urban Outfitters in the Broadway Market shopping center corner of Broadway and Harrison. There will be both a street entrance as well as a second floor entrance above the market’s QFC grocery store.

“We’ve targeted the Capitol Hill market for a while, the ethos of Capitol Hill is perfectly suited for what we do,” said Mosaic owner Paul Griff. “The independent spirit and sense of community will be perfect.”.

Mosaic provides salon and spa owners with individual spaces that they can lease on a weekly rent basis and make their own. “What we do is straightforward — We provide a place for people to come and open their business and not have to worry about other things,” said Griff. Continue reading

A plan in COVID-19 limbo: Pike/Pine’s big Glossier Seattle showroom

A rendering of Glossier’s steamy pop-up on Broadway in 2019

While we’re uncertain how many neighborhood bars, restaurants, and shops we’ll find permanently closed as the COVID-19 crisis lifts, there are a few things to keep your fingers crossed for and to look forward to on the post-pandemic Capitol Hill — provided there is a post-pandemic Capitol Hill.

One center of this limbo of potential joy are plans for a new 7,000-square-foot Glossier showroom in the core of Pike/Pine on 10th Ave. But the hope hinges on a change of direction and overall recovery for the makeup and skincare company that shuttered its few stores around the globe this summer and furloughed employees to wait out the COVID-19 crisis.

It is possible the project could end up, instead, the center of things that could have been. Continue reading

Checking in: Paint Salon opens in pandemic-era Pike/Pine

(Image: CHS)

By Gabrielle Locke

In past CHS “Checking in” posts, we’ve talked with longtime neighborhood favorites about how they’re surviving, thriving, and struggling through the COVID-19 crisis.

But this “Checking in” is a different kind of story.

Paint Salon opened last year at 13th and Pike in the middle of the pandemic but its first-time salon owners say they’ve never been busier as stylists.

“People love to get their hair done because it makes them feel good about themselves. And people want to feel good more than ever during these hard times.” Paint co-owner Erin Caldwell tells CHS.

Caldwell and business partner Paige Morgan set out to shape Paint for with a setup meant to create a safe environment for stylists and customers with considerations about the long-term effects of things like hair coloring and blow drying. But Paint is also shaped for the times it has been born into. Continue reading

Reopening: Capitol Hill salons old and new return, adjusting to ‘new norm’ of masked haircutting

New colors at 19th Ave Salon by Brandon Madsen (Image: 19th Ave Salon)

Capitol Hill beauty businesses are adjusting to cutting and styling hair under state-mandated changes, including wearing PPE, issuing temperature checks and maintaining six feet of distance when possible.

For 19th Avenue Salon owner Jamie De Maria, implementing these safety requirements has been an important part of opening the new business. The salon had only been open for a week when COVID-19 restrictions shut the business down.

To his surprise, De Maria said the shop has not struggled with customers since reopening.

“We’ve been so beyond busy and turning clients away and working 12 hour days — it’s been insane,” De Maria said. “I would say 80-90% of our new customers are neighbors and residents of the community that have been walking by the salon seeing the construction happening and waiting for it to open and reading our reviews online.”

Salons got the go-ahead to reopen at 25% capacity under Phase 1.5 restrictions in early June and now have the option to expand to 50% capacity as part of Phase 2. Continue reading