Madison Valley’s new corner store? Kitchen & Market ’boutique grocery’

(Image: Kitchen & Market)

The corner grocery store isn’t dead yet in Seattle but you might have to pay a little more for your chips. A small neighborhood grocery in Madison Valley is set to reopen as part of the Kitchen & Market “boutique grocery chain” that says it is “chef- driven” and “primarily focused on bringing fresh products and meal kits to market.”

“I am so excited that we are opening a store in Madison Valley,” Stephanie King, Kitchen & Market’s founder and CEO, said in the announcement of the store’s opening. “Madison Valley has long been a neighborhood of fabulous customers of Kitchen & Market via our delivery service and now they can visit us in person.”

The change for the market across the street from neighborhood anchor Cafe Flora is another burst of life for the neighborhood’s struggling business community as it has asked for more support to make it through this final year of construction to create the new RapidRide G rapid bus line to connect the waterfront to Madison Valley via First Hill and Capitol Hill along E Madison. Continue reading

Standoff with robbery suspects inside First Hill apartment unit shuts down Madison

Five people were taken into custody and police had the area around Madison and Boylston locked down Thursday morning while dealing with a group of robbery suspects believed to be barricaded inside a sixth floor apartment unit.

SPD was called to the First Hill apartment building just after 4 AM after a man was reported down and bleeding from his head in the lobby of the highrise.

Officers were told multiple suspects were inside a 6th floor unit in the building. Continue reading

Fire-ravaged building home to Vito’s and 75 low-income apartments demolished on First Hill

Thanks to reader Allan for the picture

The 122-year-old apartment building home to Vito’s and providing subsidized housing in its four stories above Madison has been demolished and trucked away.

There is no public plan for what will come next on the former site of The Madison Apartments. Continue reading

A year later, investigation of E Madison hit and run that killed 80-year-old Bari Hill remains open

Police say a sad anniversary has passed with no updates in the search for the hit and run driver who struck and killed 80-year-old Bari Hill amid E Madison street construction last February.

A Seattle Police Department spokesperson tells CHS there have been no updates in the case.

Hill, a Madison Park resident, was struck and killed by a driver as she crossed Madison near the Safeway just before 5 PM on Sunday, February 5th, 2023. The area was crowded with construction materials from the RapidRide G project as the driver made a left turn onto Madison and struck Hill before speeding from the scene.

Off-duty registered nurses who happened to be at the scene began CPR on Hill before she was transported to Harborview but she would not survive her injuries.

Witnesses reported a vehicle described as a black work van speeding from the intersection westbound on E Madison. Continue reading

There is a Five Guys coming to First Hill

(Image: Five Guys)

There is a Five Guys coming to First Hill, the fourth location for the popular hamburger franchise in Seattle. The new Five Guys will bring up two or three memories of the area’s fast food past.

Construction is close to starting to create the burger joint at the corner of Minor and Madison on the ground floor of the Sentral First Hill apartment building next to the neighborhood’s Amazon Go convenience shop.

Eight years ago, the corner was home to McDonald’s before the restaurant’s demolition to make way for the planned 17-story “luxury apartment” project. Continue reading

Happy viral video New Year: 2024 begins with First Hill BASE jumpers, E Madison TJ’s gouda roll

There are lots of ways to enter the New Year. Some, like these illegal base jumpers spotted leaping from the 30-story 800 Columbia tower on First Hill Monday will float before an ungraceful plummet as reality sets in.

Too bad there are no skyscrapers on Capitol Hill.

Around here, others, like TikTok user @boeinghobo, will roll in with all the grace of a wheel of gouda from the Capitol Hill TJ’s.

@boeinghoboGouda Get’r♬ Piece of Me – Skid Row

We know the cheesy video is a few weeks old but it is only getting better with age. Happy New Year!

 

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First Hill building that became squat after 2022 fire burns again in massive 3-alarm blaze

The 9th and Madison building burned — again — Monday monring (Image: Seattle Fire)

A First Hill building emptied of residents and popular lounge Vito’s and troubled by squatters and trespassers since a major fire two years ago, burned again New Year’s Day, nearly completely charring the abandoned structure and forcing the displacement of residents in a neighboring apartment building.

Seattle Fire says the overnight January 1st Madison Apartments building fire at 9th and Madison required a three-alarm response and left the structure too unstable to complete a search for any possible victims.

According to city records, the building owned by developer Southport Financial Services had been in violation of the city’s Vacant Building Monitoring program and subject to an emergency order to correct safety issues in October. Continue reading

Metro: Still no decision on Summit/Bellevue bus service

Metro says it hasn’t yet made a final decision but more people have told it they support higher frequency of service on other routes over providing buses on Bellevue Ave and Summit Ave north of Olive Way.

In a “progress report” on the process to overhaul area bus lines in anticipation of the opening of the RapidRide G line in 2024, Metro says “a slim majority” of the some 1,600 people who responded to its survey preferred more frequent service over adding extended routes to serve Bellevue and Summit.

Metro has already decided on other changes including Route 10 and Route 12 with a proposal for the lines to be “reoriented” to operate along E Pine instead of E John and Madison, until they turn north on 15th Ave and 19th Ave. Metro is also going ahead with a plan to move Route 11 off Pine. Continue reading

911 | Madison gas station robbed at gunpoint, 12th/Cherry phone robbery, thieves boot passenger during Capitol Hill Uber heist

See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt/Signal (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS 911 coverage here. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out Twitter reports from @jseattle or join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • Madison armed robbery: Seattle Police was searching for two teen suspects in a reported armed robbery Monday afternoon at the E Madison Shell service station. According to SPD, police were called to the station’s convenience store just after 2 PM to a reported robbery involving a firearm. Police say two suspects entered the business “demanding product from behind the counter.” When a worker in the back heard the demands and confronted the suspects, one suspect reportedly began assaulting the employees. The teen suspect then pulled out a pistol with an extended magazine and pointed it while robbing the store. The two suspects described as male and female teenagers fled on foot southbound on 17th and then west on Pike but could not be located by police. Seattle Fire was called to the scene to provide aid to one of the victims injured during the ripoff. An attempted canine track of the suspects could not be completed. There were no reported arrests.
  • 12th/Cherry phone robbery: Multiple victims reported having their phones stolen at gunpoint early Sunday morning in an incident near 12th and Cherry. SPD says the heist was reported just before 1 AM. According to police, the victims were robbed of their phones by a group including three females and two males, one reportedly armed with what appeared to be a rifle. The suspects were reported to have left the scene in a red Toyota SUV. One of the stolen phones was tracked to Renton where the police department attempted to contact the vehicle but it sped away and was not pursued.
  • Uber heist: An Uber driver said her Mercedes was boosted by two thieves as she loaded a passenger’s bags into the vehicle early Saturday morning on Bellevue Pl E. Police say two males jumped into the passenger and driver’s seat and told the Uber customer in the back seat to get out. As the Uber driver went to confront them, a suspect pushed her away and drove off. There were no reported injuries.
 

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