Opening day at 12th Ave’s The Local Vine back in 2010 (Image: CHS)
Memorial Day bumped our regularly scheduled programming but our food+drink notes bucket is overflowing. Enjoy this special Wednesday edition. Got a tip? Lay it on us here.
- 12th Ave “neighborhood wine bar” The Local Vine has shut down a year and a half after moving to Capitol Hill as its original Belltown home started crumbling away.
Neighbor @mattgoyer posted the first sign that things might be amiss Tuesday night via Twitter.
CHS has learned that the 2,500 square-foot space in the Trace Lofts North development is indeed “available immediately” and being actively marketed.
It is adjacent to Barrio Restaurant, across from Plum and Manhattan and just down the street from CHS advertiser High 5 Pie.
The Local VIne’s predecessor in the location was an outlet of the Pizza Fusion franchise which folded in under six months.
The shuttering of The Local Vine represents the second recent food and drink player to make recent big changes on that block of 12th. Across the street, we reported on the shift underway as Manhattan carries forward to re-invent itself as a legitimate steakhouse.
As of Wednesday morning, your neighborhood wine bar is down
At one point, it appeared PIke/Pine was undergoing a purple revolution with the neighborhood awash in plans for wine-related businesses. That has clearly not come to pass — only CHS advertiser Poco remains from that roster.
The Local Vine concept was created by two women who made their names in corporations and dot coms before jumping into the wine bar and retail business. Allison Nelson and Sarah Munson uncorked their concept in Belltown about four years before moving to the Hill and said they were planning to expand to Capitol Hill, not move there when the building problems in their former home surfaced. The Local Vine also opened a location in the University Village.
We’re trying to check in with The Local Vine to learn more about their decision to pack it in on 12th Ave and find out if the company as a whole is shutting down or if the University Village location will continue to operate. The small chain hasn’t put out any public word on the closure beyond the hand-written sign posted by Goyer. The Local Vine isn’t active on social media, has no Facebook pages and its web site is currently “down for maintenance.”
- The Seattle Times reports that the State Liquor Board is voting today on Seattle’s “petition to allow local jurisdictions to set service hours. Current state law prohibits alcohol sales between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.” Predictions?
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An artist’s rendering of Q’s Broadway entrance (Image: Q)With the Social open and doing its thing on E Olive Way, attention turns to the next “ultra lounge” slated to open on Capitol Hill. Q says they’ll be ready in September:
Q opens to the public on Saturday, September 8th at 8PM.
You can follow along with the construction progress on on the club’s FB page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Q-Capitol-Hill/281614878524357
- June 1st will bring the start of private liquor sales in Washington state. We’ll have more on the Capitol Hill end of things as 6/1 arrives. Last week, a re-auction of rights to certain state store locations included the Broadway store re-selling for $365,000 — up from the $255,000 and change it went for online before that buyer backed out. We’re talking to the winning bidder about his plans. Along with the new wave of supermarket booze, the store at 12th and Pine will continue into the post-1183 future as will the store at 23rd and Union.
- Ethan Stowell Restaurants still won’t say what the real name of 15th Ave E’s Fifth Quarter is going to be but they are bumping giant chef Brandon Kirksey up the Hill from Tavolata to run the kitchen.
- Broadway’s Poppy is a finalist in the People’s Choice for an American Institute of Architects Los Angeles restaurant design award. As Poppy’s Jerry Traunfeld says, “Take that yelpers who see danish modern infuenced design and can only think of Ikea.” You can vote here through June 18th.
- Speaking of Traunfeld, he’ll join fellow Capitol Hill cook Matt Dillon as well as Renee Erickson and Holly Smith at Wednesday night’s taping of a Seattle edition of “The Great American Chefs Tour.” The $25 tickets are still available here for the Tom Douglas-hosted show.
- Elysian vs. Elliott Bay. Death match.
- Food truck Scratch Deli is “temporarily” parking itself on 12th Ave at the People’s Republic of Koffee. Sounds worthy of a visit before it moves back to Wallingford “later this summer.”
- The Marination folks have hit another wall in their West Seattle venture.
- Stranger talks to the boys from Saint John’s.
- Seattle Weekly visits Meza for happy hour, commits the “Capital Hill” sin.
- Artusi is adding sidewalk seating on E Pine.
- Arabica Lounge: home of gluten free cake and mostly gluten free pastries.
- “At first I was surprised that people would want to give a thousand bucks, then come scrub my walls…“
- More on 20 years at Cafe Flora.
- Smith gets a facelift just in time for its fifth birthday:
(Image: Smith via Facebook) - EVO Tapas happy hour details: “3-5pm featuring $1 off wells, red/white house wines and bottled beer, $2 domestic/$3 imported drafts, $2 off Sangria and draft beer pitchers, and a $5 tapas menu.”
- “Altura is not a place to drop by for a casual night out. Best to dine here when the purse strings are loose or the occasion calls for a splurge; the restaurant’s three-course tasting menu is $49. But the food? Mostly marvelous.“
- “I’ll be doing more things in the neighborhood.” What do you suppose Big Mario’s owner Dave Meinert might be up to?
- Next Monday, 12th Ave’s Plum is throwing its support behind a more sustainable food system:
The Northwest Farm Bill Action Group is a group of community members who are concerned about the current state of our food system. Our goal is to connect with a diverse alliance of people and organizations in the Pacific Northwest and advocate for a more healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system. Through collaboration, the Northwest Farm Bill Action Group provides a space for Pacific Northwest communities to educate themselves about the upcoming Farm Bill and to cultivate the tools to take action and effect policy change to work for a better food system. We do this by offering educational workshops, relevant online resources, and hosting events focused around our food system. Your donations to the Northwest Farm Bill Action Group through Plum Bistro will go directly to our organizational programming, educational materials, and staff time, so that we can continue our work for a more just and sustainable food system. Thank you!!
Where: Plum Bistro
When: Monday June 4th 5-10 PM
What: Plum is donating 30% of our revenue to the Northwest Farm Bill Action Group
- Coming soon, Terra Plata promises:
(Image: Terra Plata via Facebook)
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This week’s CHS food+drink advertiser directory |
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I’ll be sorry to see them go (I’ll miss having their little wine shop so nearby)…but I’m not entirely surprised. I always had very friendly service, but never thought their wine program was really that up to par. I first went when they were still in Belltown, and something about the vibe, or the cutesy wine list with all the symbols and legends clearly geared toward the non-drinker, always felt slightly out-of-step with the neighborhood up here. Their U-Village location always seems packed, however!
There was a sign in the U Village store window last night that said, “Restaurant Refresh Underway.” Not sure if that means the same owners or new ones.
Isn’t the cafe on 12th, not 14th?
Yes. I have fat fingers.
They had a Facebook page and a Twitter account but they’re now gone. Guess they deleted them with the closure.
So much for my Wines of France class on Saturday. I hope Groupon will help me with a refund.
Loved the space, wanted to love the bar/wine shop, but the service was beyond horrible. I refused to set foot in there again after the last episode. Here’s hoping they can get a business in there that is interested in their customers.
Sorry Local Vine, though I never liked you anyway. Went there with a big group shortly after opening and two people got overcharged for their wine. And on top of that they charged us a “gratuity tax” (WTF??) that was additional to the tax on the bill. Server and manager were unwilling to budge and unapologetic on both accounts, so we said “never again”. Guess we weren’t the only ones.