Tag Archives: shopping

Shop the Hill? Add a stop at 11th and Pike where the city is making it safer to cross and Retrofit Home is open for business

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Retrofit shared this image from 11th and Pike

If you appreciate the work underway this December to make it safer to cross the street in Pike/Pine you also might want to make sure to do a little holiday shopping in the area.

Local merchants including longtime retailer Retrofit Home got an unpleasant start to the holiday shopping season this week as Seattle Department of Transportation crews arrived to start sawing concrete and pouring new safety features around the intersection of 11th and Pike. The work zone includes closing off several street parking spots — some of the few remaining in Pike/Pine’s wild mix of paid street parking, food delivery pickup zones, and loading areas for the neighborhood’s live music and performance venues.

Retrofit says they were told the work will take place through December. Continue reading →

Ten years of Chophouse Row, ‘a nice little critical mass of stuff for people who live on Capitol Hill’

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(Image: Chophouse Row)

Dunn (Image: Downtown Seattle Association)

By Matt Dowell

It’s ten years for Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row on 11th Ave, but Liz Dunn of Dunn & Hobbes is quick to say that she and her team have been on the block longer than that.

“We’ve actually been here for 25 years,” she reminded us. “So it’s the ten year anniversary of just this last building that we added — but this whole complex I’ve owned for 25 years.”

Dunn purchased a cluster of buildings inside the 11th/Pike/12th horseshoe in 1999, then the beautiful brick building on the northwest corner of the block in 2014. They were redeveloped one by one over the years before the current form’s culmination debuted in 2015.

That’s when the Chophouse building on 11th Ave was added on top of an existing auto row-era structure. Office space was built inside that is now dedicated to coworking, the alleyway and courtyard inside the horseshoe opened, and multiple food and drink and retail spaces joined in. Chophouse Row was born. It followed Melrose Market’s footsteps — another successful Dunn & Hobbes redevelopment project that brought many small businesses into a single, shared, and life-filled space.

Dunn says that the cliche is true. In these developments, “the total is greater than the sum of the parts.” Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill Quality Flea Center lives on in 2025 with the return of the Punk Rock Flea Market

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(Image: Punk Rock Flea Market)

No construction cranes over Capitol Hill might mean rents are going to keep going up.

But they’re not tearing your favorite bar down.

And the Quality Flea Center will be around for another year on 15th Ave E.

The organizers behind the Punk Rock Flea Market have made official what was already pretty damn clear: The old Capitol Hill QFC the market started calling home isn’t going to be demolished any time soon.

The PRFM is returning to the QFC this month: Continue reading →

Shop the Hill: A look inside The (transplanted) Plant Store — Plus, a new ‘Capitol Hill Passport’ from the GSBA with giveaways from local shops

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Miles Jonard loves plants

If you recently saw a happy new pairing of a Seattle resident walking down Pine with his new Norfolk Island Pine, you saw the magic of The Plant Store at work.

The newly transplanted Capitol Hill store is only one of a forest of retailers and pop-up markets ready to be part of happy moments like that man-pine love and holiday gift giving success stories. Continue reading →

Next for shuttered Capitol Hill Gaybucks? New E Olive Way home for All the Best pet supply store

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(Image: All the Best Pet Care)

The former Capitol Hill “Gaybucks” shuttered by the coffee giant in 2022 as part of a ripple of shutdowns over what it said were public safety concerns amid an ongoing labor battle will have new life as a shopping stop for the neighborhood’s fur baby families.

All the Best Pet Care has announced it is moving into the 4,000-square-foot commercial building that has stood on E Olive Way and served as a home to a string of restaurants and big chains like Boston Market and Starbucks since 1937.

Lake City Way-born All the Best is marking its third store in the Central Seattle area with the opening joining its longtime Madison Park shop and a new store in the Midtown Square development in the Central District.

“We know that something as simple as a change of diet can bring about huge improvements in the lives of our fur kids, and we want to share that knowledge with our community,” All The Best co-CEO Jim Castleberry said in the announcement. Continue reading →

Bonito CafĂŠ y Mercadito bringing community, culture, and coffee to Capitol Hill

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(Image: Bonito Cafe y Mercadito)

By Juan Jocom

An amalgamation of a classic coffee shop with a shopping experience you’d typically find in Latino mercados, Bonito CafĂŠ y Mercadito, is preparing to open on E Olive Way, neighboring Capitol Hill’s Pie Bar and Donna’s.

It will soon serve locally Latino-grown sourced coffee and will be hosting mercado events featuring Latino vendors.

From photographers to monthly hosts of Aqui Mercado in Pioneer Square, couple Daniel and Ismael Calderon, are soon to open their dream business that was inspired last year after they hosted their first mercado event. Over the past months hosting their mercado, they were able to build a community of hundreds of supporters and fans.

It was never the plan to open a cafe-market hybrid store. However, after positive feedback from the Latino and queer community from their mercado, the couple decided to pursue opening the business that captures the vibrancy of their monthly event into a daily experience. Continue reading →

Six Shop the Hill (and nearby) ideas for last-minute gifts

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(Image: Station 7)

Still looking for a few perfect gifts? It’s the most wonderful time of the year to shop locally and skip the sadness of telling your special gift-getter that the perfect present is still somewhere in the back of UPS truck. Here are a few ideas from around Capitol Hill and the Central District. Let us know where you’re shopping this year in the comments.

Station 7 is a second-generation family business that focuses on handmade goods, and has made a retired 1920s firehouse its home. Lauren Tilden, owner, told CHS that some of this season’s bestsellers are shower steamers, which allow you to turn your shower into a full-blown steam room. Volcano topography coasters, candles, and minimalist jewelry by And Arlen have also been fan favorites.

“When you shop with us, you’re not only supporting our small business, but dozens of other local makers and artists whose goods we carefully curate,” Tilden said. “From candles and home goods to jewelry and paper goods and everything in between, Station 7 has you covered this holiday season.” Continue reading →

E Pike’s Capitol Thrill adds a Little Queer Pop-Up Shop — now it just needs to find goods from LGBTQ+ brands, designers, artists and authors to stock it

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(Image: Capitol Thrill)

By Kali Herbst Minino

Tucked into E Pike and displaying an array of Pride flags, designs created by owner Jeff Gonzales, and a neon sign, Capitol Thrill is marking its second anniversary supporting independent brands owned by underrepresented groups with a new selection of queer-created merchandise.

The Little Queer Pop-Up Shop is growing into a small but lively corner of the store with goods from LGBTQ+ brands, designers, artists and authors.

“The plan is to really do a deep dive and try to find what things people from our community can create,” Gonzales tells CHS.

But finding brands to feature in the pop-up has not been an easy task because a lot of smaller, local artists aren’t set up to do wholesale. They can be found in markets around Seattle, but not in physical stores, Gonzales says. Continue reading →

Glasswing closing its E Olive Way Greenhouse but still growing at Melrose Market — UPDATE: Another garden closure as Plant Shop shutters

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(Image: Glasswing)

(Image: Glasswing)

Though it only was able to bloom for a short time before the COVID-19 crisis set in, the Glasswing Greenhouse brought a burst of life to the corner of Melrose and E Olive Way. Glasswing hopes to continue the growth at its Melrose Market location as it is shutting the Greenhouse space down:

Though the Greenhouse is closing its doors at this location, Glasswing will continue to offer all of the same “green” community services and specialty products that their Capitol Hill neighborhood has come to know. They have expanded their plant and garden assortment in-store at their main shop, located just a block away at 1525 Melrose Ave. Their workshop program released class dates for Spring and during the transition to a new space, these workshops will be hosted out of the Melrose Market, adjacent to Glasswing.

CHS reported here on the opening four years ago of the live plant shop outgrowth of Glasswing Forest Eckley and Alisa Furoyama have created a lush greenhouse at the corner of E Olive Way and Melrose in the former home of John John’s Gameroom. The building had been in the running for one of E Olive Way’s open spaces for retail marijuana but didn’t make the final cut. Continue reading →

Tiny Spark and Thread wants to help Capitol Hill connect to a gift of art

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Online shopping is rarely optimized for building relationships with other artists and customers.

Solia Hermes and Juli Hudson are two local artists who have taken the initiative and opened their own boutique on Capitol Hill, a small start to building community and helping support local artists showcase their work.

Having customers experience E Aloha’s Spark and Thread in person has created a positive impact for the artists to see people appreciate their work and the creations of others featured in the small store.

“Online you’re searching for things versus in person you see all kinds of things that you didn’t expect.” Hudson said. “Meeting the artist changes the relationship people have with the art.” Continue reading →