Tag Archives: dessert

Coming soon to 12th Ave: Kemi Dessert Bar set to create its own identity in Capitol Hill’s cookie, cake, and pastry community

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Black sesame hazelnut thumbprints (Image: Kemi Dessert Bar)

The business has grown with pop-ups and holiday events (Image: Kemi Dessert Bar)

The success of Kelly Miao’s black sesame hazelnut thumbprints, matcha kumquat cakes, and dense slices of Hong Kong milk tea basque cheesecake is so close, you can taste it.

“It’s in the palm of my hand right now. I just need to make it happen,” Miao tells CHS as she prepares for her planned opening next month of Kemi Dessert Bar, a working dessert kitchen and cookie, cake, and pastry walk-up counter planned to open soon on 12th Ave.

Miao comes to Capitol Hill having cut her sweet tooth in New York City’s “Instagram Bakery Scene” — yes, they have one of those — and honing her craft in pastry arts at a prestigious roster of NYC bakeries, bars, and restaurants, including a joint with a Michelin star.

There are no Michelin stars on 12th Ave but Miao arrived in Seattle with the dream of opening her own place here and started to get to work with the locals. Miao joined up with the crew giving Coping Cookies a go on 12th Ave where they combined chocolate chips with support for social causes. Coping Cookies also built out a lovely bakery for the venture.

Soon, the cookie business wasn’t working out and Miao decided it was time to step up. “I’m trying to get my roots in Seattle — I figure I’d shoot my shot and see if I could take over their space.”

Now Kemi Dessert Bar is about to happen. Continue reading →

Cupcake Royale is closing its Madrona original — The ‘cupcake revolution’ continues on E Pike

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The E Pike CR remains — Thanks to neighbor Tammy Jo for the picture in the CHS Facebook Group

Cupcake Royale was onto something 21 years ago in Madrona, of all places.

Monday, the original 34th Ave cafe will serve its final ‘cakes as the company scales back to a more sustainable footprint in the city focused completely on its South Park bakery and its newly opened E Pike shop.

“The US Cupcake Revolution began in December 2003 in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood 21 years ago,” owner Jody Hall said in her announcement of the Madrona cafe’s final day of business:

My idea was to create the most joyful part of your day to connect us over celebration and coffee. A few months after launching, Martha Stewart debuted CUPCAKES on the cover of her Wedding Book. Great minds think alike!

Cupcake Royale’s Madrona closure follows a similar shutdown in West Seattle in October. Continue reading →

Insomnia Cookies baking plan to serve Seattle U kids and Capitol Hill nightlife crowds with new Broadway shop

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(Image: Insomnia Cookies)

Insomnia Cookies has built its reputation around offering hot, freshly baked cookies late into the night often in areas within walking distance or a short delivery route away from major universities.

Already at 300 stores across the country, one of the Philadelphia-founded company’s new batch of openings will come on Broadway where the new Capitol Hill cookie shop will cater to kids from nearby Seattle University and throngs of weekend nightlife revelers around Broadway and Pike/Pine. Continue reading →

Sorry, kids, no more Menchie’s fro yo on Broadway — But Timeless Tea is coming

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(Image: Timeless Tea)

There will be a hole in a block of retail space in Capitol Hill’s Joule mixed-use development with the planned closure of another business. But there are also plans in the works for a new addition bringing bubble tea and crepe cakes to Broadway.

Following our report on the exit of longtime prepared meals tenant Eat Local from the block as its parent company transitions to a fully online business model, word has spread of another planned closure sure to bum a few Broadway kids out.

The Capitol Hill location of the pay by the ounce Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt chain will mark its final day of business on Sunday. A sign went up with details of the sad announcement this week.

The frozen treat shop debuted in a sunnier 2012 and its initial ten-year lease has apparently run its course. Fans of the franchise are also dealing with the shift in the University Village location to a new locally-owned fro yo business called Chill. Continue reading →

Batch Baking Company and its nostalgia-filled Squareos now open on 12th Ave

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With batches of fresh from the oven, nostalgia-inspired caramel chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter brownie, palmiers, and Oreo-style Squareos, Batch Baking Company is now open on 12th Ave.

Business partners and co-bakers Scot Partlow and Jared Watson called Batch a “dessert focused, small batch” bakery paying “special attention to cookies” with “a bit of a nostalgic bent to it” when CHS talked to them about the new project last fall. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | The Cookie Counter brings pink walls and sweet vegan treats to E Pike’s Gay City

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Need an E Pike vegan treat? The Cookie Counter is now open on Capitol Hill inside Gay City.

CHS reported in June on the new partnership at the LGBTQ nonprofit’s headquarters that brings the Greenwood-born dessert shop and café for vegan pastries, cookies and ice cream to the 500 block of E Pike. “To be in that space will be nostalgic for us,” Chelsea Keene, who co-founded The Cookie Counter with her husband Chris Olson, told CHS in June. “When Chris and I lived on the hill, the previous Kaladi Brothers Coffee space at Gay City was our favorite coffee shop.”

You can now find Kaladi Brothers down the street where it has returned to its overhauled original Capitol Hill home.

Meanwhile, there has been plenty of Capitol Hill-area cookie news. 19th Ave E’s Hello Robin announced expansion plans in University Village and Lowrider Baking joined the food and drink scene developing around 23rd and Union’s new construction. Continue reading →

Now open on Pike/Pine’s midway of treats: Cinnaholic

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Cinnamon rolls have joined Seattle Dogs, cupcakes, waffles, Unicorn Balls, and plant-based ice cream on Pike/Pine’s carnival of treats.

The new Seattle outpost of Cinnaholic is celebrating its grand opening with $1 rolls 10 AM to 2 PM Friday. Sure, you can eat a cinnamon roll for lunch.

CHS talked this summer with Maysaa Abouhamze about her new E Pike business with fellow entrepreneur Trieva Katsandres with plans to take over a short-lived salon’s former space next to Capitol Cider and add another sweet component to the neighborhood’s mix of food, treats, and drinks.

Continue reading →