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Where Seattle Locals Eat

RIP 2020 – Seattle Restaurant & Bar Closures

posted on : January 11, 2021 posted by : seattleunexplored@gmail.com 0 Comment

RIP 2020 – Seattle Restaurant & Bar Closures

In last year’s RIP 2019 Seattle Restaurants & Bar Closures, we mentioned some of the surprise restaurant and bar closings. For 2020, there were no surprises due to the Covid-19 situation. No local small business was immune to the challenges this year.  Here are some of our favorite places that decided to permanently close this year that we previously wrote about.
Wandering Goose- The place we deemed, “Our Favorite Breakfast Spot in Seattle” and home of The Sawmill, our 10th best dish of Seattle in 2019. Announced their permanent closure the last week of December. Needless to say, this place(and their dishes) will be sorely missed. 

Il Corvo – The place we deemed, “The Best Pasta in Seattle”. This is perhaps the place we’ll miss the most. So good, so cheap. There were lines out the door up until stay-at-home directive shuttered the restaurant in March.  We’d been huge fans of Il Corvo ever since it was a one burner lunch spot located in a gelato shop near Pike Place Market. All is not lost though. Chef Mike Easton still has Il Nido out in West Seattle.

El Diablo Coffee– In our Seattle Coffee Shop Awards blog posts, we deemed El Diablo the Best Coffee Shop for Big Groups and one of the Best Coffee Shops to Make Visitors Feel Like Locals. El Diablo was located up on Queen Anne Hill, but it stood out for its unique quality of being in a house. The space was one of the biggest in Seattle and for us parents, the dedicated room for kids was a god send.
Tempesta Coffee – This closure is a double punch in the gut, because not only did we think it was the most underrated coffee shop in Seattle as documented here, but also had some of the best doughnuts in Seattle. Located in Belltown, we understand we they are closing since they really rely on downtown and SLU commuters for the majority of their business. Damn, we’ll miss their Americanos.
Caffe Vita – Phinney Ridge – Don’t worry folks, the other Caffe Vita location around Seattle remain in business. You can visit those or nearby Herkimer Coffee – Phinney Ridge a few yards away. We’ll best remember this location for a conversation we overheard where a guy thought John Lennon was over rated as his girlfriend called him out for humming along to the song playing overhead. We documented the conversation in our review.
Some others that we’ll miss:
Steelhead Diner – We never created a blog post for this spot, but we would eat here occasionally for lunch. The real reason this closure hits us in the feels is that we had our wedding reception here in their secluded room off the main restaurant area. They were excellent in working with us creating a menu for our guests and concocting a signature themed cocktail for the event. Whenever we revisited, we could reminisce about that special day, but no more. 🙁
Suika – We had a blog post all tee’d up to be published when we heard the news that they were closing. Luckily their sister restaurant, Tamari Bar remains in business
Cafe Racer – We frequented this bar and had brunches there occasionally. It closed down once before after the tragic events that happened here in 2012, and was reopened a few years later.
Bamboo Garden in Lower Queen Anne was a long time institution and I remember it being one of the first restaurants i frequented with co-workers as poor young 20-somethings.
Bastille– Even with the present environment, this one was a bit of a surprise. Bastille always seemed to be crowded and their croque madame was one of the best in the city. Their Paris subway decor was also unique for Seattle.
The Ram in University Village. Alas, there are no more Ram restaurants in the greater Seattle restaurants. We’d come here frequently to watch football and basketball games in their massive bar area pre-kids. It was a great place to meet up with friends to watch games because there was plenty of seating. Post-kids we were relegated to the restaurant area, but they had decent solid burgers. The nearest locations are now in Kent and Issaquah.

Nate’s Wings and Waffles – Owned by NBA 3x Slam Dunk Champion Nate Robinson, my most memorable meal was doing take out and sneaking in fried chicken into the gym at Rainier Beach HS to watch future UW and current NBA player Dejounte Murray play against Lakeside HS with Clippers owner, Steve Ballmer, cheering on in the crowd.

Toronado – This bar never failed to have one of the best assortments of beer in Seattle. You could always find beers that you had never had before. Their whiskey selection wasn’t too shabby either.  Huge loss to the Roosevelt neighborhood.

After work memories – The Brooklyn in downtown felt like one of those old school restaurants that had a long history. Remember having oyster shooters for happy hour. Pintxo was a go-to Tapas spot where you could sit and watch the cooks prepare. There also used to be a speakeasy called, The Upstairs, that was the perfect nightcap.  Local 360 in Belltown was known for sourcing ingredients within a 360 mile radius, hence the name.

Sadly, Brave Horse Tavern, The Neighbor Lady, Burgundian mentioned in our Favorite Bars post also closed down in  2020.

Unlike 2019, where we were shocked by a few of the closings, we’re not surprised by any of the closures in 2010 based on the current messed up environment.  We’re hoping that we start seeing more openings in 2021.

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Seattle Opinions,Where Seattle Locals Eat

RIP 2019 – Seattle Restaurant & Bar Closures

posted on : December 30, 2019 posted by : seattleunexplored@gmail.com 0 Comment

Pouring One Out For The Homies

There were so many restaurant closures in Seattle. There were the former hot spots that we were surprised to see go – Girin, Little Uncle , Skitka & Spruce. There were some where the writing was on the wall – Sansei, Dexter Brewhouse, Il Fornaio. There just wasn’t anybody there when we visited. There were also a lot of old timers who’d been open for over 10 years and some over 20 years, so we were shocked that they closed down- Tango(19 yrs), Poppy(11 yrs) , Seattle Deli(27 yrs), Peso’s(20 yrs).

Here are some of the places we reviewed that decided to call it quits:

Junkichi Robata Izakaya– This one is really surprising. It had just opened in 2018. When we went it was packed, the food and service were great, and the location was perfect. According to some of the newer reviews on Yelp right before shutting down mentioned service issues, smaller portions and quality issues. The reason for the closure is a mystery, but the space is apparently being taken over by the owners of Suika/Tamari Bar.

Little Kitchen– Another place that just opened in 2018. According to this Seattle Times article, it just became too much work for the owners to maintain. We’re a little less surprised about the closure of Little Kitchen, but are surprised how quickly it happened. Competition is fierce both on The Ave and for Chinese dumplings.

Trove – Another surprising, but not surprising closing.  Surprising in that the other Relay restaurants are super popular and successful, Joule and Revel.  Not surprising in that the space that Trove was occupied was huge and in the competitive neighborhood of Capitol Hill. It must have been difficult to compete with the multitude of restaurants in the area and to fill such a huge space night after night. Also, there are so many cheaper alternative Korean BBQ places in Seattle.

BBQ Smith – They decided to focus on catering only and sold the brick and mortar after two years. Its being taken over by Don Lucho’s, a Peruvian lunch truck.  It’s really a shame, because we just discovered BBQ Smith and they had an awesome happy hour deal. 

The Hi Life – Strangely, this is a closure that we agree with. Not because the food was bad, it just sorta gets lost in the Seattle restaurant landscape. The space is staying in the CHOW Food(The 5 Spot, Endolyne Joe’s, TNT Taqueria) family and being changed into an Italian restaurant. We’re hoping they keep some of the old fire station details in the new space.

Ventoux Roasters –The few times we went there it was always crowded. It seemed like one of those coffee shops that would be sustained by neighborhood patrons of Ravenna, so it didn’t really need to be in a hip area or a busy main street. I couldn’t find a explanation on their website,  Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Palomino – This is the saddest closing for sentimental reasons. We rarely came here, but it’s where my wife and I first met.  Here’s an excerpt from the blog post of our favorite bars in Seattle:

Any Seattleite reading this is saying, “WTF”? The Palomino is a restaurant located in the City Centre in downtown Seattle. They do have a bar area with an actual bar that they claim is the longest in length in Seattle. Their happy hour is okay, but nothing special. Their beer selection and cocktails are ordinary. The atmosphere is a little strange because it’s open on a floor within a building kind of like a bar in a hotel or train station.  So why is this our favorite bar in Seattle?  This is where my wife and I first laid eyes on each other and met. She was in town for a convention. I worked downtown. It was easy to find and centrally located so that’s where we met. I guess we’re just sentimental fools.

Sadly, Ballard Loft , NW Peaks Brewing, Naked City & The Leary Traveler mentioned in our Favorite Bars post also closed down in  2019.

 

Sad to see these places go, but the Seattle economy is booming right now. People are eating out more than ever. If you can’t be successful in this environment, then maybe it’s best to cut your losses. I think the higher minimum wage is also having an affect on some of the smaller businesses. Sadly, we believe with such a high number of restaurant and the inevitability that the Seattle economy will slow down, we’re bound to see more closures in 2020.

 

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