HoneyHole, now part of Rumba’s food and drink family, ready to reopen on Capitol Hill

(Image: HoneyHole)

HoneyHole will reopen soon under new ownership and a much more stable future befitting the popular sandwich joint’s decades serving the neighborhood.

CHS reported here in December on efforts to revive HoneyHole by restaurateur Travis Rosenthal who has grown a family of popular Capitol Hill and Seattle food and drink venues including E Pike rum bar Rumba and its post-Tiki sibling Inside Passage.

The deal is now done and Rosenthal’s Pike Street Restaurant Group is taking over the 700-block E Pike bar and sandwich counter. Continue reading

‘YOU DESERVE A SWEET LITTLE TREAT’ — Shikorina Pastries now open on E Pike

There is a new organic bakeshop and cafe in the heart of Pike/Pine. Shikorina Pastries celebrated its “grand re-opening” and is now settled in on E Pike.

“Cake is back!,” the latest social media post for Shikorina exclaims. “Chocolate chiffon w/ strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream,” the hand written sign promises.

CHS reported here last month on the plans from baker Hana Yohannes to move the Black, queer, and woman-owned “organic, sustainable Central District bakery” off of E Union and into the heart of E Pike in the space left empty by the exit of Portland vegan Jewish deli chain Ben and Esther’s.

The move is an opportunity to leave lease, financial, and personal challenges behind, Yohannes said. Continue reading

Reborn and revived on Capitol Hill, Kedai Makan readying Belltown expansion

Sayap Ayam Pedas wings and a coconut shake, please (Image: Kedai Makan)

First, Kedai Makan came back from restaurant limbo with a new life at 15th and Pine. Now, it is getting ready to expand to Belltown.

The Capitol Hill Malaysian favorite says it is working on the new 1st Ave location and ready to expand from the E Pine corner where it reopened last year under after founders Kevin Burzell and Alysson Wilson decided they were ready to step away.

At 15th and Pine, the new Kedai Makan is continuing the traditions started at the original Bellevue Ave location and the many farmers markets where the Kedai Makan approach to Malaysian flavors were perfected. It has been a happy transition for the collaboration from Khampaeng “KP” Panyathong with Joe and Lucy Ye of Hangry Panda who originally came together to form the short-lived Money Frog concept.

Kedai Makan now moves forward under the Hagnry Panda ownership.

The old Bellevue Kedai Makan spot is now home to the Jilted Siren lounge.

Permit records show work is underway to make upgrades for the 1st Ave location where “Asian fusion” restaurant Lai Rai closed last summer.

Kedai Makan says only that the new location will open “soon.”

Kedai Makan is located at 1449 E Pine. Learn more at kedaimakansea.com.

 

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Between Capitol Hill and downtown, it is now west on Pine, east on Pike

(Image: SDOT)

West on Pine, east on Pike.

Pine Street is now one-way between the base of Capitol Hill and downtown. The Seattle Department of Transportation says crews were working this weekend to finalize the overhaul to make Pine the westbound component in the new couplet configuration with Pike.

CHS reported here on the $17.45 million project to transform Pike and Pine into one-way streets below Bellevue Ave with protected bike lanes and safety improvements including wider sidewalks as part of the city’s waterfront improvements. 18 months of scheduled work on the project began late last year. Continue reading

Next for Capitol Hill Machiavelli space? ‘Cheese Room’ from the Meet Korean BBQ family

Thanks to Alex in the CHS Facebook Group for the neighborhood reporting

The corner of Melrose and Pine’s next culinary legacy will be established by a restaurateur who has already brought the finest meats to Capitol Hill.

Now, Heong Soon Park is bringing us his finest cheeses.

The good folks over in the CHS Facebook Group broke the news this week. The food and drink venture taking over the space left empty by the exit of neighborhood favorite Ristorante Machiavelli will be a cheese-y new project.

Liquor and business license paperwork filed for the address shows that work is beginning to transform the classic Italian joint into a new Cheese Room restaurant from the Meet Korean BBQ food and drink family.

What shape and form the cheese-inspired project will take is yet to be seen. Anything from a cheese bar (RIP Culture Club) to a fondue joint that echoes the attendants and prepare-at-your-table vibe of Meet BBQ could be in the works. Popular Seoul restaurant Melting Shop and its Italian leanings could also be an inspiration. There is also the possibility Cheese Room is just a temporary project name for the final food and drink project. We’ve reached out to Meet to learn more. Continue reading

Tough skin: The Rhino Room endures a decade of Pike/Pine nightlife

(Image: The Rhino Room)

(Image: The Rhino Room)

The Rhino Room has had quite a Capitol Hill life in its years on 11th Ave. The neighbors used to be The Stranger and a Value Village. Then a WeWork and national golf bar chain moved in. The alt weekly moved out. In that lifetime, the WeWork has gone bankrupt and closed. Tough skin.

The party is still going strong at the “Booze and Boogie Palace” as the Rhino Room marks a decade on Capitol Hill this spring. The club might be in its toughest, leanest form, sparking to life and sending its disco ball spinning only two nights a week. But they are two nights of very big fun.

Patric Gabre-Kidan, still part of the ownership today, hasn’t had much to say over the years at Rhino as the venue has endured waves of Pike/Pine redevelopment and the weeks of CHOP and SPD turmoil in the streets outside the club in 2020.

“I’ve been out of town the past week. Just landed moments ago. What can I say? It’s been a great 10 years,” Gabre-Kidan told CHS. Continue reading

The Last Drop: One of Capitol Hill’s favorite coffee spaces is now dedicated to beer

A popular Pike/Pine cafe space has cracked open a new life as a Capitol Hill beer hall and bottle shop.

The Last Drop has expanded from its Maple Leaf neighborhood roots and is now open on E Pike in the former home of Alaska-based coffee company Kaladi Brothers.

The new beer venue includes plenty of tables and chairs with creations from multiple breweries on tap plus bottles and cans for purchase. It fits into the area’s beer community just a little more bottle shop than the Pine Box on the Chuck’s end of the beer bar spectrum. Continue reading

More of the same good times at Capitol Hill Block Party 2024: Three days, eight stages, and a mix of music on the streets of Pike/Pine

The Capitol Hill Block Party is becoming downright dependable as its 2024 edition shapes up with a familiar plan — three days in July, eight stages along E Pike, a mix of free events and activities in Cal Anderson and outside the gates, and a mix of bands including national acts on the rise and local favorites familiar to the neighborhood’s stages at venues like Chop Suey and Neumos. The only thing uncertain is the weather.

Producer Daydream State, the production company from Pike/Pine nightlife entrepreneur Jason Lajeunesse that puts on the annual three-day ticketed music festival on the neighborhood’s streets, has dropped the 2024 CHBP lineup that includes headliners “Grammy-winning producer Kaytranada, electropop superstar Kim Petras, and indie rock group Still Woozy.” Passes are now on sale.

The annual announcement of Block Party acts has become a rite of Capitol Hill spring, pairing with the Queer/Pride music festival’s lineup drop for a one-two punch of summer enthusiasm for the neighborhood. Continue reading

20 years of Neumos, the musical center of the Pike/Pine universe

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

COMEBUYTEA’s craft take on boba steams up the Capitol Hill tea scene

(Image: COMEBUYTEA)

(Image: COMEBUYTEA)

Like the Starbucks Roastery a few blocks away continues to draw crowds of visitors dotted by the occasional Capitol Hill local, it seems like the new COMEBUYTEA at the corner of Pike and Broadway might be busy forever.

The first Seattle location of the Taiwanese chain debuted earlier this month with lines around the block waiting for COMEBUYTEA’s take on tea focused around craft and its steam-billowing “TEAPRESSO Machine” that completes “the 5-step Kungfu brewing method” in “a 60 second comprehensive brew” that produces “a perfectly balanced tea every time.” Continue reading