(Images: La Marzocco)
The tile of a Bellevue Ave cafe space is shining again. Offline Coffee is ready to roll out spring and summer flavors after a winter opening on the northwest edge of the Hill. Its flavors add to an increasingly international mix of espresso and cafe love on Capitol Hill.
CHS reported in September on plans for the “Chinese-inspired coffee + matcha cafe and light eatery” from first time food and drink entrepreneurs Krystal Graylin and Lucy Kong. Continue reading
(Image: Sutabaka via Google Maps)
Starbucks is shuttering four more union cafes in Seattle including one of the few remaining stand-alone stores in the central city on First Hill.
The coffee giant announced its latest round of closures this week including the 1101 Madison shop. The planned early April shutdown of the cafe typically busy with area medical workers and people in the area for checkups, exams, and health care appointments will mark the company’s near full exit from Capitol Hill, First Hill, and the Central District. Three other Seattle cafes included in the closures are also union organized. A fifth is not. Continue reading
There is a person with a tricycle now selling coffee and more amid the hustle and bustle in the entrance to Capitol Hill Station.
Back when the buildings above the station were first being planned, people envisioned a European-style market hall as a busy, human core to the development of new housing, commercial space, and the busy light rail facility. We got the new apartments and we got the grocery store but some of that humanity got left out of the plans.
Zaiquiri and Common Cart can be found serving up hot cups of coffee or yaupon, the tea brewed from yaupon holly, the only* plant containing caffeine indigenous to North America, as part of new, small steps toward changing the mood around Capitol Hill Station.
“My goal is to take them out of that hustle and bustle,” Zaiquiri says. “Give them a special moment. ‘Do I want to stop for a moment and maybe try this?'”
“I deeply enjoy that moment.” Continue reading
(Image: Nudibranch Coffee)
An expert barista who honed her skills at the Capitol Hill Starbucks Roastery will lead the team bringing a new flavor to the neighborhood’s cafe scene: Thai coffee.
Nudibranch Coffee is set to share its version of Thai cafe culture as it opens in coming weeks at the corner of 12th and Madison.
Nudibranch, across the street from the busy Seattle Academy and Seattle University, will also be full of Thai vibes.
“Coffee shops there have a lot of small events like bracelet-making classes together,” Emily Sirisup says.
The coffee? Expect flavors from the light to medium side, fruity with a lighter taste, and concoctions that mix flavors like coconut water and citrus with espresso.
“It is almost an entirely different universe of coffee over there,” Nudibranch’s Cole Arnesen said. Continue reading
Inside a Haraz Coffee House (Image: Haraz Coffee House)
It isn’t at the scale of the now-empty Capitol Hill Starbucks Roastery but 2026 brings new plans for a shuttered Pike/Pine corner to leap back to life as the neighborhood’s newest cafe.
Haraz Coffee House, a rapidly growing Yemeni coffee chain born in Michigan and recently focused on expansion around the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, is making plans to fill the long-empty southwest corner of Boylston and Pike with a new $200,000 cafe buildout.
Founded in Dearborn, Michigan in 2021, Haraz has been public about its expansion plans including efforts to add new cafes across Northern California. Its growth to “31 locations across metro Detroit and other cities with 185 in the pipeline” has included new cafe spaces and sometimes taking over shuttered spaces left behind by the likes of Starbucks.
Haraz is noted for its rich, flavorful coffee offerings and “organic, sun-dried beans from Yemen.” Continue reading
(Image:Fuel Coffee)
A Capitol Hill coffee shop could be part of a new trend in Seattle food and drink.
The Fuel Coffee chain has announced it is re-instituting tipping at its three Seattle cafes as it tries to balance reasonable latte prices with fair compensation for its employees.
Ownership says it has been tip-free since 2020 when it instituted service charges but is bringing the practice back as they cut wages to Seattle’s upcoming $21.30 an hour minimum to counteract the soaring price of coffee beans. CORRECTION: CHS didn’t get this right. Fuel adjusted its prices in 2020 but did not institute a service charge. Sorry for the error.
“Based on our own research, along with customer and employee feedback, we’ve come to the conclusion that we would not be able to raise prices to the necessary degree needed to cover cost increases, pay our baristas a competitive wage, and still remain a viable option in the community,” Fuel said in its announcement.
Fuel says it is making the switch in a way it hopes will protect its employees, guaranteeing “that all team members will earn at least their current wages through the end of November–and if they don’t we will make up the difference.” Continue reading
(Image: CHS)
The Capitol Hill Starbucks Roastery is permanently closed. Starbucks shut down the more than $20 million coffee destination with boarded windows and a paper sign Thursday morning.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the closure of the Seattle Reserve Roastery. This location has been the destination of coffee lovers from down the block and around the world,” it read. “That you have chosen to share this experience with us is deeply appreciated.
For our Cap Hill neighbors, thank you for making us a part of your life. Your loyalty over the years and the meaningful connections you have made with our partners will not be forgotten.”
The shutdown comes as the coffee giant announced it is shutting down more “underperforming stores” and laying off 900 workers. The company previously announced it was laying off 1,100 in cuts earlier this year.
Monday, unionized workers from Starbucks Workers United were outside the Melrose roastery rallying for a fair contract. Melrose roastery workers at the massive store, roasting plant, restaurant, and cafe voted to unionize in 2022. Continue reading
Brothers Nano and Mahmoud Farajallah and friend Abdullah Alabed
Capitol Hill has a new gathering spot. Mintish, a Levantine-inspired coffee shop on Harvard Ave E, represents both a business venture and a cultural bridge for brothers Mahmoud and Nano Farajallah and friend and business partner Abdullah Alabed.
The cafe is now open at 515 Harvard Ave E in a space that the owners transformed themselves from what was once the last vestige of legendary Capitol Hill hangout Bauhaus.
Mahmoud Farjallah, who was born in Seattle but raised in the Middle East, returned to Washington 12 years ago to study accounting at the University of Washington. His friend Alabed grew up in Jordan. Both are Palestinian-American, and their family story reflects the displacement many Palestinian families have experienced over generations. Nano was in Dubai during the interview with CHS.
“My dad was born in Gaza,” Mahmoud Farajallah explained during the shop’s soft opening week. “Unfortunately, I never went to Palestine, but it always grew up with me.” Continue reading
Thanks for the picture and tip, Tammy Jo
There are lots of ways CHS gathers local news. Ohe of our favorites is the reader tip. The latest comes to us from the CHS Facebook Group where longtime reader Tammy Jo got the scoop on a new cafe coming to Harvard Ave E — welcome Mintish:
Their tagline is Levantine roots. Seattle vibes. ❤️ We walked by and met Nano, who is opening Mintish with his brother in late August. (space was the former Bauhaus reboot) Coffee Teas and Food. Super friendly + the renovations look fresh & welcoming.
The new project is coming along in the Rubix Apartments building space where the Bauhaus reboot sputtered to a recent stop. Continue reading
(Image: Wunderground Cafe)
A founder of one of Capitol Hill’s most enduringly popular cafes has returned from retirement to help create “the coffeehouse of the future” with an overhaul of E Pike adaptogenic mushroom coffee joint the Wunderground Cafe. They’re celebrating Saturday with a Pride rave.
Ericka Burke says she is joining Wunderground founder and CEO Jody Hall to give the four-year-old E Pike cafe and adaptogenic mushroom startup’s showcase cafe a fresh start, “offering food and beverage to nourish and flourish.”
CHS reported here on the fall 2021 debut of Wunderground, a grain bowl, bone broth, and mushroom coffee hangout in the space formerly home to Hall’s E Pike Cupcake Royale location and a center for the startup coffee company and its fusion of “health benefits” from mushrooms like Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps with the daily ritual and the “antioxidant properties” of coffee. Continue reading