Roxy Doll
The Capitol Hill club community is remembering an icon who helped give countless Seattle performers their first shot.
Word has spread about the sad passing of Capitol Hill’s Roxy Doll.
“TALENT WANTED! All acts, all humans welcome for our fabulous weekly variety show & talent contest!,” one of Doll’s show calls last year read.
“Come join Seattle Drag Icon Roxy Doll at Neighbours Nightclub!” Continue reading
The city is working to expand its Chronic Nuisance Ordinance that can require problem properties and businesses to enter into an agreement with City Hall to address public safety concerns — or risk being shut down.
The Seattle City Council’s public safety committee Tuesday was scheduled to hear details of the proposed update that would open the way for liquor violations to be included among criminal offenses that can be included in the determination for a property.
A much larger change would expand potential violations to the area around a problem property, allowing officials to pursue a chronic nuisance designation if a violation involved an employee or customer of the property in a public safety incident outside the establishment. Continue reading
(Image: CHS)
Six months after going dark and quietly ending its 11-year run of Capitol Hill nightlife, the former Rhino Room space at 11th and Pine is suddenly filled with furniture as custom retailer Couch has moved to Capitol Hill from Ballard.
“Pick one of our thoughtfully designed styles or work with us to come up with a new variation. We are custom builders in the truest sense of the word,” the store’s pitch goes. “Custom elsewhere can mean you get to choose blue instead of gray. At Couch it means you design a sofa in your exact size, style and comfort specifications.” Continue reading
The Seattle City Council approved legislation Tuesday regulating after-hours clubs that officials say have proliferated around the city and have become centers of crime and gun violence.
“Over the past decade, there have been dozens of shootings and homicides that have occurred in connection with these venues,” a statement from council president Sara Nelson said.
The legislation passed unanimously Tuesday creates new requirements that include restricting venues to 21+ age limits, no service of alcohol between 2 AM and 5 AM, requiring at least two trained security personnel, running a security checks for weapons upon entry, providing video surveillance of exits, and what backers say will be “unimpeded police access while operating.” Continue reading
Hesseldahl confronting the old walls before the club’s opening in 2023
By Calvin Jay Emerson
Some jokes go over better than others. Broadway’s Comedy/Bar is gone. With the Emerald City Comedy Club, a new start is underway.
If you ever walk north from Capitol Hill Station, you’ll likely pass under an unlit neon arrow. Wrapped around it is a swirling black ribbon, labelled “High Line”, indicating its former purpose. Given that the dive bar of the same name closed five years ago, it now only serves as a reminder of the changes at 210 Broadway E.
Its most recent identity was as Comedy/Bar, a comedy venue that, despite attracting national controversy, has maintained a friendly following. They’ve provided a space to go for a reliable laugh and discover new comedy talent.
However, owner Dane Hesseldahl knew that the club hadn’t reached its full potential. Continue reading
(Image: The Rhino Room)
When a Capitol Hill nightlife spot is “temporarily closed” for over a month, the website goes dead, and the ownership go quiet, it might be time for a new adverb.
A year after its 10-year anniversary in Pike/Pine, The Rhino Room hasn’t opened for its typical weekend party schedule and it isn’t clear when the disco ball at 11th and Pine might start spinning again.
Last year, CHS celebrated the tough skin of the club as the venture marked a decade of nightlife having endured the explosive redevelopment of Pike/Pine, the pandemic, and the weeks of CHOP and SPD turmoil in the streets outside the venue in 2020.
Patric Gabre-Kidan, one of the few Black business owners in Capitol Hill’s nightlife scene, kicked off the project in 2013, when a group of friends turned business partners collaborated to build the new hotspot. Continue reading
As the final week of her campaign to keep her seat on the Seattle City Council plays out, Tanya Woo has released details of legislation her office says would address late-night gun violence in the city by regulating venues that continue to operate after the nightly 2 AM “last call.”
Woo says her proposal would establish a new regulatory license “required for any business that allows gathering for socializing, smoking, or dancing” after last call between the hours of 2 AM and 5 AM.
The new requirements would include restricting venues to 21+ age limits, no service of alcohol between 2 AM and 5 AM, requiring at least two trained security personnel, running
a security checks for weapons upon entry, providing video surveillance of exits, and what Woo says would be “unimpeded police access while operating.”
The goal would be to bring regulation to what the councilmember has said is a proliferation of clubs operating illegally in the city after hours. Continue reading
The future: a mixed-use Neumos, of course (Image: CHS)
Neumos asked for AI visions of its next 20 years so up top is CHS’s take on the corner during Capitol Hill Block Party 2044.
There is no telling what the next 20 or 30 years will bring at the southwest corner of 10th and Pike. CHS can tell you what the past 30 brought: music, drinks and good times.
The first decade of those good times? That was Moe’s Mo’Roc’N Café and an assortment of clubs that lived hard and died young. But those last 20? Those are all thanks to Neumos, the outgrowth of Moe’s that has gone on to be a center of the neighborhood’s entertainment community with a place among Capitol Hill legends like Neighbours, Century Ballroom, The Cuff, Wildrose, and Linda’s.
The live music club celebrates its 2004 birth Wednesday with a free night of music and performance. The free tickets were still available when we started writing this. They might be snapped up before you are done reading.
Asheville’s Wednesday band on the Neumos stage (Image: Neumos)
“We saw all these people walking down the hill for shows … we thought ‘why not have something here,’” Moe’s founder Jerry Everard told CHS about the original inspiration to transform an old Salvation Army on the corner into a new hangout 30 years ago. Continue reading
Wild Cherry from the folks at Bellevue’s Forum Social House is in the works beneath the Market (Image: Forum Social House)
Hagood will soon be serving inside Melrose Market (Image: Harry’s Fine Foods)
Five years after its sale to a national shopping center developer and emerging from the pandemic. Capitol Hill’s Melrose Market is hitting a second stride with a mix of new tenants that will include a new restaurant in the old Sitka and Spruce space and a basement level Wild Cherry Nightclub.
A local success story will fill the former Sitka and Spruce. Harry’s Good Times, a project from Julian Hagood and the Harry’s Fine Food folks, is taking shape in the back of Melrose Market’s main level with plans for a new concept from the crew that reshaped a Bellevue Ave cornershop into Harry’s Fine Foods, the 2016-born center of a family of food and drink and hospitality businesses on Capitol Hill and across the city. Continue reading
An image from the R Place building’s real estate listing in 2022
Kauer (Image @nark_magazine)
A history of queer nightlife at Pine and Boylston will continue with a new future for the corner’s three-story, 106-year-old building where R Place once ruled.
Massive will be an “avant-garde club catering to the queer, allied and music-focused community” embracing “an electrifying fusion of underground dance music, captivating performances, and visionary shows,” the backers of the new club said in a Seattle Pride week announcement.
Music site Resident Advisor was first to report on the new project with statements from the Massive team of music and event promoter Kevin Kauer, designer Emi Vega, and the building’s owner and restaurant entrepreneur Tam Nguyen of the Tamarind Tree Restaurant Group.
“We intend to take advantage of all three floors on a regular basis, and involve many different queer artists, musicians and performers over time,” the Massive statement reported by Resident Advisor reads. “It’s most important to know that we are here for everyone, and we will be a platform for queer performers to thrive and grow, without taking any ownership or control over their art form.” Continue reading
