Tag Archives: coffee

Buoyed by community support, The Seattle Grind expands to Capitol Hill

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(Image: The Seattle Grind)

It has been a busy season of new additions and change in the cafe scene around Capitol Hill. The latest will come this weekend along 11th Ave where a coffee shop familiar to Space Needle visitors is expanding to Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row.

Owner Mehmet and Ezgi Gültekin say they are excited to expand The Seattle Grind from across from the Seattle Center to a center of Capitol Hill commerce and community.

“We’ve had the idea of opening a second location in mind for a long time, but we specifically wanted a space with real character and soul — like Chophouse Row,” Mehmet Gültekin said. “As soon as the opportunity came up, we jumped on it immediately because we knew it was the perfect home for The Seattle Grind.” Continue reading →

Cafe watch: Ha Ha Coffee and Cha Chak on Capitol Hill, plus four more nearby — Yoka Tea, Casa Ella, Visible Coffee Roasters, and Coffee TAB Central District’s grand opening

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The Mango Sticky Rice Sundae (Image: Cha Chak)

The cafe scenes in the neighborhoods across and around Capitol Hill have some new — and new to CHS — additions heading into fall:

Ha Ha is now open — thanks to Harry in the CHS Facebook Group

  • Ha Ha Coffee and Tea: The new owners of a 15th Ave E building have brought milk teas and smoothies to the top of Capitol Hill. Ha Ha Coffee and Tea is now open at 324 15th Ave E. CHS reported last year as book shop Nook and Cranny lost its lease for the space. The building’s new owners include Diem Le who moved the book shop space neighboring the Red Chair Salon through the city’s streamlined change of use process to open the new cafe with a menu of milk tea, fruit smoothies, and coffee. While bubble tea shops and Asian-style tea offerings have proliferated along Broadway and through Pike/Pine, the quieter edges of Capitol Hill have mostly gone unserved. You can check out the Ha Ha menu here.
  • Cha Chak: Another long awaited Capitol Hill cafe opening has taken place. Above Capitol Hill Station next to the plaza across from Cal Anderson you will now find Thai tea and dessert shop Cha Chak. CHS reported in March on plans for the cafe from Montida Lertkiatsakul and Suphanita Roumsak. Lertkiatsakul was part of opening Manao Thai Street Eats at 14th and Pine. Cha Chak debuts with treats including green tea ice cream lattes, Thai tea chiffon cake, and an incredible looking Mango Sticky Rice Sundae. Find it at 118 Broadway E next to the station plaza across from Glo’s. Follow @chachakseattle for updates. Continue reading →

Coffee TAB Central District ready to open at 23rd and Jackson

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(Image: Coffee TAB)

A key neighborhood hangout is going back in motion in the Central District as Coffee TAB is ready to open at 23rd and Jackson.

“We’re intentional about everything, from the way we pull a shot to the neighborhoods we choose to serve. We want to breathe new life into places by building something that serves the community well—somewhere people gather, form relationships, and feel a sense of belonging,” founder Jonathan Tran said in the joint announcement from TAB and Vulcan Real Estate, the owner of the building and the surrounding shopping center.  “Opening at 23rd & Jackson is another chance to live that out. It’s about investing in a neighborhood, creating jobs, expanding opportunities for young adults, and becoming part of the fabric of the Central Area.”

In addition to restoring much missed coffee service at the corner, the opening of Coffee TAB CD is an important milestone after years of concerns around public safety and street disorder in the area as the building sat empty. Continue reading →

At El Cerro, high-altitude Puerto Rican coffee meets Capitol Hill cafe heights

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Don’t wait. It already seems nearly impossible for El Cerro to keep bringing fresh roasted Puerto Rican coffee beans to Capitol Hill.

The cafe at the top of Pike/Pine is settling in after its summer opening and has recently expanded hours. It is now serving Wednesday through Sunday 7 AM to 4 PM. Continue reading →

The Hill: El Cerro taking coffee to new heights from the top of E Pike

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(Image: Chelo Duarte via Google Maps)

A new coffee house is climbing onto the Capitol Hill scene, bringing high-altitude mountain heritage to upper Pike/Pine.

El Cerro has opened on E Pike with the relaxed-paced, mist-covered peak environments of the Caribbean.

Its name translates to, appropriately, The Hill.

Founded and owned by Jehú Torres Vega, the concept is intentional and personal. Originally from Puerto Rico, Torres Vega says he is channeling his Caribbean roots and design eye to build a warm, tactile space.

El Cerro is designed as “a Caribbean-inspired coffee house that lives in the mountain rhythm, not the beach story.” The cozy, wood-and-clay elements of the new shop focus on slowing down, offering a rotating coffee program highlighting notes of “roasted cacao, stone fruit, or tobacco bark.” Continue reading →

Nonprofit cafe and job training venture Coffee TAB set to revive long-empty Central District Starbucks

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(Image: Coffee TAB)

Thanks to CHS reader Lindsay for the picture

A major hole in the hopes for growing the community around a core of the Central District is about to be filled. Not-for-profit Seattle cafe chain Coffee TAB is making plans to open soon at 23rd and Jackson.

The four-year-old nonprofit is set to open its third Seattle cafe in the former Starbucks where efforts by Vulcan Real Estate, the City of Seattle, and Black Coffee Northwest to open a new venue at the center of “a vibrant core for Black businesses” fell apart and left the corner empty for years.

CHS reported here in early 2025 on the scuttled effort from the Office of Economic Development and one of the city’s leading developers in Vulcan Real Estate, plus Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office, and District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth to help the cafe open amid efforts of rebuilding Black ownership in the neighborhood.

The coffee project had been hoped to be the start of a new era at 23rd and Jackson with Black Coffee Northwest taking over a space being left behind by global coffee giant Starbucks over public safety concerns at the corner. Continue reading →

Inkling Art & Cafe coming to Capitol Hill’s 19th Ave E — Meanwhile, goodbye to Ada’s

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Owner Danielle Hulton was behind the counter at Ada’s for a last time on Saturday

Fuel 19th Ave E (Image: Fuel Coffee)

Twenty-one years of cafe culture on Capitol Hill’s quiet side will continue. There are new plans for the old Fuel Coffee on 19th Ave E.

The new project arrives as Fuel’s family of Seattle cafes centered around 15th Ave E’s Ada’s Technical Books is coming to an end.

Ada’s owner announced this spring she was stepping away from the coffee and retail business to spend more time with family. Danielle and David Hulton were behind the 15th Ave E coffee bar Saturday morning for the shop’s final hours of service.

For now, Ada’s will sit quiet on 15th Ave E while the adjoining coworking space stays busy.

The Ada’s Fuel Coffee cousins are making new plans with the Hultons’ exit from the cafe business. Continue reading →

Sweet Caffeine keeping the tradition of tiny coffee alive on Broadway

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It has not been the easiest time for Broadway’s tiniest coffee businesses.

You might miss the magnetic sign outside Sweet Caffeine but there’s a big “Coffee” sign next to the window.

For the past three months, Dave Thornton has opened his sliver of a coffee shop on Capitol Hill, tucked into what used to be a Bank of America ATM alcove, less than 90 square feet of space directly across from Seattle Central.

“My model is more about discovery,” Thornton said on a recent Tuesday morning, pouring a small sample of something called Diamond Brew into a two-ounce beaker. “It takes a while. It’s a lot slower than if I just did a grand opening and really did a whole bunch of social media.”

The coffee lands smooth, concentrated, and complex, more like a very refined cold brew than anything espresso-adjacent, but with the depth and flavor brightness you only get from a hot extraction. It is, legitimately, unlike anything else being served on the Hill right now.

The little space, meanwhile, echoes with the history of small coffee on Broadway where names like Vivace began with carts and counters.

Continue reading →

Virtue Coffee and Cocktails: The only new* Capitol Hill food+drink project of 2026?

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A rare opening of a new mixed-use development on Capitol Hill will also bring something else not seen a lot these days in the central city — a wholly new food and drink space joining the area’s mix of bars, restaurants, and cafes.

Virtue Coffee and Cocktails, a new project from a Starbucks and Google veteran, is lined up to be a street-level tenant of the about to open Tanager Apartments development.

CHS reported here on the seven-story, 138-unit building that is one of the few mixed-use projects underway in the city as developers say cost inflation and flagging rents have all but iced the start of new projects on Capitol Hill, in the Central District, and across Seattle. The new development is puzzle-pieced into the block, rising above music club Chop Suey, the Madison Pub, and 14th Ave bear bar Diesel. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Station coffee vendor Common Cart also nixed by health department

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The health department has shut down Common Cart, the bike cart coffee and yaupon business CHS highlighted in March as the first vendor ever authorized by Sound Transit at Capitol Hill Station.

Owner Zaiquiri describes the shutdown situation as a bureaucratic mess:

Today I was visited by a health investigator from King County, and we walked through my carts operations. Common Cart’s product lineup was designed to be time and temperature control safe, so it did not require health permits from King County. Last September when I was writing up my business plan, I spoke with the health department and ensured my products fell under the exemption given their acidity and caffeine’s ability to avoid bacterial growth. Sadly, a new set of investigators have informed me I was misinformed in the past and both cold brew and adding anything to a drink is not permitted with my current equipment.

Zaiquiri says the hope is to possibly reopen Common Cart with a limited menu at the station in the near future but, for now, the business owner is remaining closed to sort things out. Continue reading →