Eat don’t park (Image: CHS)

Hope you enjoyed your Monday holiday. Didn’t think we’d rip you off by skipping food+drink notes this week, did you? We’re a full-service operation here, folks. Got a tip for us to add to the pile? E-mail us

• With the City Council slowly masticating legislation that may or may help grow Seattle’s street food economy, a group of food truck operators banded together to create the 2nd and Pine Street Foods “truck pod” that will rotate some of the area’s top mobile providers for lunch and dinner in a downtown parking lot. CHS can now report that there are plans rolling to create a second pod location involving the same group of providers up here on Capitol Hill. We’ve learned that the Diamond parking lot at the old BMW dealership lot on Harvard at Pike is being geared up to host the Capitol Hill Night Market, a Capitol Hill street food truck pod on a rotating schedule — hopefully starting later this month. According to one of the participants, details between a couple of the trucks and Diamond are still being worked out. The rotation will put some of the trucks not deployed at 2nd and Pine at the Havard and Pike lot. No specifics on the schedule yet — but you can see 2nd and Pine’s rotation for June here — and no confirmation yet if the Capitol Hill lot will add a third, very important meal time to its schedule: drunky drunk snack time. The downtown pod is currently slated to be finished each day by 8:30 PM. We’re assuming that won’t be the case with the Hill pod given the whole “Night Market” thing (UPDATE: full details at end of this entry). Those HG Lodge kids gotta eat. In addition to making room for Pike-frequenter Pai’s, the current roster of trucks includes Buns on Wheels, Curry Now!, Lumpia World, Fusion on the Run, and Sweet Treats. You can keep track of things on the Capitol Hill Night Market Facebook page. UPDATE: Seattle Met says the Night Market will debut this weekend. You can learn more about the market here: http://www.caphillnightmarket.com/. The market will run every Saturday night, 9 PM to 3 AM.
• Maybe the new pod can find a place for Thai Curry Simple when it is forced out by construction later this summer.

• (Image: Buns on Wheels)

  Mark your noodle calendar. Broadway’s Samurai Noodle tells CHS its official opening day will be Thursday, June 9th. The third location for the popular noodle provider, the Broadway Samurai will take up residence in the overhauled space that used to be home to Bailey Coy.

• Let’s play the coming-soon-with-dates game. Samurai — June 9. Artusi — was June 3 but probably a bit more time(?). CC Attle’s Olive Way — June 11th. Taylor Shellfish shop and “chowder bar” in Melrose Market… no date but “early June” they say. Game over. What did we forget? UPDATE: Artusi delayed — new target: Monday, May 6
• Via Tribunali, Caffe Vita on track for July opening… in Portland.
• Speaking of our cool little brother down south, Oregon looks at the revitalization of Capitol Hill — “Anyone who visited Seattle’s Capitol Hill a decade ago could tell it was in limbo” — through the prism of yum-I-want-to-eat-there:
  

  Perhaps Capitol Hill’s comeback was destined, given that it’s the most densely populated part of town. It’s also near downtown and the University District, and offers dramatic vistas of skyscrapers and the Olympic Peninsula. But the hill’s restaurants have also proved to be a big force behind the revitalization.  

• CHS puts things like “Savor [Place Name Here]” tours in same file as Groupons, restaurant weeks and cruise ships. But we’re not a lot of fun, really. 
• Broadway’s The Confectional celebrates its grand opening this coming Saturday, June 4th with a big giveaway involving free cheesecake for a year and free samples. We visited the new shop last week.
• Last week we also talked to Amy Hedane about here new Cure bar on the edge of Cal Anderson.
• The $290,000 project to transform the basement of the Unicorn into an expanded bar and club space is making progress. Here’s a shot of the rubble posted to the Unicorn Facebook page as work gets serious in the space.

  A Unicorn did that

• Want early dibs on restaurant space at the underway People’s Parking Lot building? 8,000 square feet available. Ready April 2012. Manray II?
• Happy 1st birthday, Highline.
• 18th Ave’s Tougo Coffee is downsizing to make space for kids clothing store, Magpie.