Seatown Pottery is coming to Capitol Hill in November to offer a 24-hour workspace to allow artists the chance to mold things out of clay — whenever inspiration strikes.
“These are run kind of like a gym membership. Members can come and go whenever they’re able to carve time out in their busy life of juggling kids and work in school and everything,” owner Chelsea Sherman said.
The Capitol Hill location is the newest addition to the school of studios with the original established seven years ago in Redmond. Other locations include Bellevue and Green Lake.
“Adults don’t get an opportunity to be creative and get their hands dirty and kind of relax and recharge,” Sherman said. “The fact that they can come in at three in the morning and we have people that use the space at all hours of the night which is really fun to see.” Continue reading →
Taurus Ox won’t open for Tuesday service as the Laotian-flavored eatery gears up for greater than expected demand in its new home on Capitol Hill.
Khampaeng “KP” Panyathong and the crew at Taurus Ox served “twice as many guests as anticipated” last week as they debuted in the new space and needed to take a day off to replenish the kitchen and do some training as they settle in on 19th Ave E. Continue reading →
Location, location, location… A Capitol Hill food and drink family’s reshuffling has its centerpiece restaurant moving into a space on a quieter part of Capitol Hill where its most recently launched concept didn’t work out.
Taurus Ox, just finishing its third year of business on the Hill, is moving to 19th Ave E.
With plans to reopen in October, the chef-centric Laotian eatery from Khampaeng “KP” Panyathong is busy readying the former home of 19th Ave E Greek classic Vios as its new home after a move from the E Madison mixed-use building where it first opened in late 2019.
“The amount of food produced out of our little Lao restaurant this summer was bananas—safe to say we’ve logistically outgrown our space,” the Taurus Ox team posted about the change. “With that said, we gladly announce our very necessary expansion into our new home nearby on 19th Ave.” Continue reading →
There is peace along E Aloha. In a letter to the school’s Capitol Hill neighbors sent out this week, Holy Names Academy announced it has reached “a mediation agreement” on the City Hall tussle over construction of a new, two-story gymnasium and a new parking lot on the school’s 21st Ave E campus.
“I extend thanks from our HNA community to these neighbors and to everyone involved who worked in good faith to reach this settlement,” Holy Name head of school Liz Swift writes in the brief letter outlining the settlement.
According to HNA, the agreement with a group of neighbors over the project to create a new gym and underground garage, and a new 32-space surface parking lot on the northern edge of the E Aloha at 21st Ave E campus will put construction on track for a June start.
Macrina Bakery and Cafe is celebrating 25 years of business in Seattle with the opening of its fifth cafe Thursday morning.
The new Macrina at 19th and Aloha is hoped to channel the spirit of the Surrogate Hostess that used to be housed in the 1925-built building overhauled by contractors over the past five months. That Capitol Hill legend was known for its communal tables — and warm cinnamon rolls.
New legends are set to be made at the new bakery with exposed beams and a sleek white and grey palette. Continue reading →
Bar manager Veronika Groth joins David Nichols at Ernest Loves Agnes. The stripes weren’t planned.
Braised chicken
Back in September Italian restaurant, Ernest Loves Agnes celebrated one year since its 2015 opening at 19th and Mercer. Shortly after hitting that milestone, new chef David Nichols stepped up to the stove and Veronika Groth recently took over the bar to bring new changes to the neighborhood eatery.
Nichols is expanding the restaurant’s Italian cuisine to include more Mediterranean flavors. “So we’re not just pigeon-holed to one specific thing,” Nichols said. Continue reading →
Dozens of Capitol Hill residents moved out of the neighborhood over the past week. Tent City 3, as usual, is on the move again.
CHS reported on the homeless community’s short summer stay at the corner of 19th and Aloha as the group filled the parking lot of St. Joseph’s into lines of tents, known as dorms, with room for around 100 residents along with tents that served as a computer room, a kitchen, a laundry room, and a community dining hall. The group also stayed at St. Joe’s in 2006 and again in 2011. Always on the move, residents told CHS Tent City 3 will next settle in Shoreline. Continue reading →
Jane Hamel, keeper of the wishing tree, hasn’t added her 2016 wish yet (Images: Alex Garland for CHS)
“The concept of the wishing tree is very old,” says Jane Hamel, the “owner” — as some would call her — of the Wishing Tree at 21st and Galer.
“Originally, it’s Japanese, but we saw it first in San Francisco,” Hamel said. She has lived on 21st Ave E since 2013 and says her previous place in California just wasn’t right for the project. After noticing the number of people walking and jogging through the neighborhood, Hamel took a chance and put out her first container of wish paper and markers in November of 2014.
Hamel’s wish tree is a work in progress. The first batch of wishes were ruined by Seattle’s wonderful wet weather and in February of 2015 she took it down. Throughout the spring, people stopped as she worked in the garden. “What happened to the wishing tree?” she said they asked. Some were concerned the tree had been vandalized. Hamel said she realized how important the wishing tree was to the neighborhood but she needed a new system. With the help of a few generous community members, a machine to laminate wishes arrived, followed by a bench for people to sit on while they wished. Continue reading →
If you are the pilot of a wayward drone that crashed into a Capitol Hill house and shattered a window Thursday morning, we have good news and bad news. Police found your drone. But they’d like to talk with you.
The couple reportedly heard the sound of breaking glass in their living room around 7:30 AM and went outside, where they found a white drone lying on the ground outside their dining room window. The couple noticed the drone had a camera affixed to it, which was still recording. While no one was injured in the incident, the drone smashed the couple’s dining room window and caused damage to the window’s frame.
Police are working to identify the pilot:
Officers documented the damage, booked the drone into evidence, and are working to get a warrant to review footage recorded by the drone’s camera and identify its pilot.
Last year, SPD detectives used recovered footage to identify the pilot of a drone after it crashed into the Seattle Great Wheel. The case has been forwarded to the Federal Aviation Administration for further review. The City Attorney’s office also charged a 37-year-old Oak Harbor man with reckless endangerment after a drone he was flying crashed into a woman at the Seattle Pride parade in June 2015.
The laws and regulations around the use of quadcopters and drones are continuing to take shape. Late last year, a FAA Small Unmanned Aircraft Registration system began that requires even recreational drones to be registered. It’s not clear whether the drone involved in Thursday’s crash displayed the required registration information.
The homeowner sent CHS this photo of some of the damage
The area of the crash, meanwhile, is outside of the FAA-mandated five-mile no-fly zone around airports. There are not currently any City of Seattle laws the prohibit the devices from being used but Seattle Parks regulations, for example, prohibit their use on parks lands. Thursday’s crash happened just blocks south of Volunteer Park. The Lowell Elementary School campus is also a possible takeoff point. It doesn’t look like Seattle Public Schools yet have banned the copters. As in the case of reckless endangerment cited by SPD above, existing legal framework comes into play in the event of crashes where there is damage or injuries.
Fortunately in this case, nobody was injured Thursday morning — though it sounds like the drone’s flying days might be over.
UPDATE: The homeowner sent us a picture of some of the damage from the drone. He also tells CHS the drone was a DJI Phantom series quadcopter similar to the one pictured above. It’s one of the most common quadcopters on the market and widely available.
Friday, CHS found the WestSide Baby Stuff the Bus bus at 19th Ave’s Hello Robin making a stop on its 2015 tour to collect diapers — and smiles — around Seattle.
WestSide Baby, which now has an area presence at 18th and Cherry after a 2014 merger, collects second hand items for babies and children that providers such as social workers or other agencies can distribute to families in need.
Sunday, the 2015 tour comes to an end at Capitol Hill’s St. Joe’s:
What: Stuff the Bus diaper drive finale event – inviting the public to donate diapers at the school bus When: July 26 2015 10 am to 2 pm Where: St Joseph’s Parish, 732 18th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112
Nonprofit WestSide Baby will be closing their fifteenth annual Stuff the Bus Diaper Drive on July 26th in Capitol Hill, inviting the public to come along to the brightly colored school bus, donate diapers to benefit local families and share a smile at a photo booth. Stuff the Bus is Seattle’s largest diaper drive, this year aiming to collect 500,000 diapers to distribute to families in need across King County.
WestSide Baby Executive Director Nancy Woodland said: “Every child deserves to smile and every parent should experience baby giggles. However parents who are struggling to provide food, pay bills and purchase diapers miss the joy of their child’s smiles because they are so stressed and because uncomfortable children scream rather than giggle. Even though a dry diaper is critical to keeping an infant healthy and happy, diapers aren’t covered by food stamps, so for the 10,000 children under the age of 3 living in poverty in King County, parents must often choose between feeding and changing their baby. Stuff the Bus is an opportunity for the whole community to help and we encourage everyone to donate and share a smile.”
