Tag Archives: M&A

After deal for Pike/Pine Mexican joint, Poquitos and Tavern Law are now Capitol Hill siblings

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(Image: Poquitos)

Saulo Cruz’s Capitol Hill collection is growing. The food and drink entrepreneur is the new owner of Pike/Pine’s Poquitos.

“We told you we were building something. We weren’t building from scratch,” his post to social media about the acquisition reads. “We were picking up something Capitol Hill already loves and making sure it keeps going.”

The Mexican restaurant and bar at the corner of 10th and Pike was closed Monday but will reopen Tuesday under new ownership under Cruz who is also a co-owner of Capitol Hill’s Tavern Law. A new company registered to Cruz now holds the licenses for Poquitos at 1000 E Pike.

The exit brings the unwinding of Poquitos by its founding ownership after it closed Bothell and Tacoma expansions in recent years. CHS reported here in 2024 as the restaurants and taverns created under founders James Weimann and Deming Maclise banded together to form the new-era Seattle restaurant group Yes Parade. The group continues to hold its other brands including 12th Ave’s Rhein Haus. The multiple venues under the Yes Parade umbrella currently operate as non-union establishments. 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 →

Capitol Hill burger bar Sam’s Tavern has new owner — UPDATE: No deal yet

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(Image: Sam’s Tavern)

Sam’s Tavern is not changing its name to Inderpaul’s Tavern.

But it does have new ownership.

Permit paperwork shows the E Pike at 11th hangout is changing hands along with the South Lake Union Sam’s.

The Bellevue Sam’s Tavern appears to be remaining under the ownership of founder James Snyder and remaining in the extended Red Robin family tree.

The owners on both side of the transaction either declined to comment on the deal or have not responded.

UPDATE: Snyder says he is negotiating a sale but that the bar has not yet been sold.

Continue reading →

New owners at Corvus and Co. have Capitol Hill love and Mama’s Mexican Kitchen roots

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(Image: Corvus and Co./Jim Tillman)

Capitol Hill bar Corvus & Co., in all its “mystical” glory, is being passed on to new owners. Don’t worry — they like magic and fun too.

First time food and drink entrepreneurs Liv Cruzat and Nick Crowley intend to preserve and foster the community that Corvus & Co. has built over its eight years on North Broadway.

They are excited and ready to dive into this venture, but they aren’t looking to change the game.

“We love the concept, the energy, the employees,” said Cruzat. “We believe in the heart and soul that exists here and we want to maintain and cultivate that.” Continue reading →

In a friendly Capitol Hill booze takeover, E Olive Way’s Rose Temple will become The Wash

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Rose TempleCapitol Hill nightspot Rose Temple will soon give way to new bar The Wash after one last month of business on E Olive Way.

In the end, the June 2019-born Rose Temple has been a pretty good investment.

Owners Austin Polley and Benjamin Smith were able to build the E Olive Way watering hole with a shoestring budget after the previous tenant sunk a fortune into a failed speakeasy venture. Polley tells CHS they’ll exit with a payout for helping The Wash get started after January. Continue reading →

Industry giant Anheuser-Busch parts way with Redhook — and its Capitol Hill BrewLab — in $85M deal with ‘global cannabis-lifestyle’ company

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The Redhook Brewlab is the last physical vestige of Seattle’s “first microbrewery” (Image: Redhook)

In a summer of beer-soaked merger and acquisition on Capitol Hill, a deal with much larger implications than a neighborhood brewery is also going down.

Anheuser-Busch In-Bev is shedding a batch of its lesser “craft” beer brands including Capitol Hill’s Redhook Brewery in the wake of plummeting sales at the global beer giant amidst an ongoing anti-transgender backlash against its top-selling Bud Light.

“Leading global cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company” Tilray announced it is acquiring Redhook along with a collection of other AB In-Bev craft brands — Shock Top, Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Company, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Square Mile Cider Company, and HiBall Energy.

Analysts says the transaction is an $85 million deal and includes all of the companies’ existing employees and facilities.

It’s not clear what the future will be for Redhook and its small Capitol Hill brewery at the center of the Pike Motorworks mixed-use development but its new owner has shown a penchant for experimentation when it comes to cannabis and beverages.

Continue reading →

Victrola coffee family grows with Seattle Coffee Works acquisition including E Pike cafe

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(Image: Capitol Coffee Works)

The company behind Capitol Hill-born Victrola Coffee has acquired the Ballard-born Seattle Coffee Works family of shops including a cafe in Pike/Pine.

Vibe Coffee Group announced the acquisition Wednesday. The company, which operates Victrola cafes on 15th Ave E and E Pike, now adds E Pike’s Capitol Coffee Works to its Capitol Hill collection.

“This opportunity not only adds the additional locations, it also opens an additional door to more direct relationships with the coffee growers,” Dan Ollis of Vibe tells CHS in a statement sent on the deal. “I am constantly humbled by all the effort put into a cup of coffee, from the coffee cherry all the way to the cup. These farm to cup stories have been shared many times, but I never lose sight of the hard work that goes into our cups of coffees.” Continue reading →

Lionhead lives on as chef takes over Broadway Sichuan joint — and adds his speciality congee to the menu

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Chew and Doherty (Image: Jeriel Calamayan, courtesy Lionhead)


Earlier this month, the space where Capitol Hill restaurant great Jerry Traunfeld built Poppy into one of the neighborhood’s most enduring favorites debuted its new showcase resident as Carrello from the Altura restaurant family introduced its carts of meatballs and salumi to North Broadway.

In the midst of Traunfeld’s retirement from the Seattle restaurant business, CHS noted that Poppy’s next door sibling Lionhead would live on — but under new ownership.

With the deal done and the restaurant moving ahead in its new life, new owners chef Garrett Doherty and Benjamin Chew are ready to make the takeover official.

The new owners will be building on Lionhead, born in August 2015 as Traunfeld’s play space for the flavors of the Sichuan peppercorn, and its menu of Southwest Chinese dishes including Rose Bud Dumplings, Dan Dan Mein, 5-Spice Pressed Tofu and Leeks, and Ma Po Doufu. Continue reading →

A downsizing Linda spins off Capitol Hill’s Smith

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(Image: Smith)

Almost one year to the day that CHS reported on the sale of Tallulah’s and twelve years and one month after the quiet side of Capitol Hill Linda’s joint broke the “Jake’s to Mango to Mcguire’s to Kozak’s to Cypress curse,” a deal for new owners at 15th Ave E’s Smith is about to be completed.

Linda Derschang confirmed the sale this week and said the plan is for the new, first-time restauranteurs to take over and “not change a thing.” As for Linda, she says don’t read too much into the transaction.

“If you look in any city, you see people opening restaurants, closing restaurants, selling restaurants,” she said Monday.

Instead, the paring down of the Derschang Group empire is about getting older, wanting a smaller company, and, Derschang says, New York City. Continue reading →

Toscana to Itto’s to A La Vida — New owner on Summit part of ongoing wave of Capitol Hill food+drink deals

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Change coming to Summit Ave (Image: Itto’s Tapas)

2018’s year of mergers and acquisitions in Capitol Hill food and drink has continued into 2019. Another new owner on the Hill is hoping to take the take over and transition route to food and drink success.

Manager Jody Claggett tells CHS he has purchased Summit Ave’s Itto’s Tapas from longtime owner Khalid Agour and will set about a quick transformation and overhaul of the restaurant and bar into a more Spanish flavored A La Vida.

Claggett said the name for the tapas, gin, and wine bar was inspired by a customer who turned him onto new music and a song about the joy of life.

“Everybody that I meet, it’s just a great conversation,” Claggett said of life behind the bar and the counter after a career in tech. Continue reading →