Pink Gorilla, the longest running retro video game store in the Pacific Northwest, is expanding to Capitol Hill at 613 E Pike St. This new 1,400-square-feet location is set to open January 2023.

“We’re really excited to be expanding to Capitol Hill,” Kelsey Lewin, one of the co-owners, said. “We’ve always wanted to but haven’t found the right opportunity until now.”

Co-owner Cody Spencer made the announcement of the planned Capitol Hill expansion on his popular Twitch stream earlier this month, saying “We’re now building a new additional store safer, bigger & better than ever.”

The new expansion will be close to the Washington Convention Center and Seattle University plus one of Capitol Hill’s top tourist draws — the Starbucks Roastery. Lewin hopes to be able to connect to communities of the Hill and believes the store’s atmosphere matches well with the neighborhood.

The original Pink Gorilla location in the International District recently faced an armed robbery and increased safety concerns that the business said influenced its plans for Capitol Hill.

Prior to this robbery, Pink Gorilla hadn’t operated with bars or gates and it prompted the owners to think more about security moving forward.

“I think that it certainly spurred us to think a little bit more in ways we haven’t had to up until this point,” Lewin said. “It is something that we are taking more seriously now.”

Pink Gorilla has been around for 17 years. Their first location is located in the International District and their second is in the University District. Lewin and Spencer acquired the business in 2016.

“This will be the first location that is 100% ours rather than inheriting, improving, and working on the stores from the previous owner.” Lewin said.

Finished setting up the lighting at the new Capitol Hill location. This place really pops you can’t miss it from the street. B4, after, and street photos below

Next step is new flooring which arrives on 11/30 pic.twitter.com/1nntpXGqK9

— Cody (@DSKoopa) November 22, 2022

They have focused on bringing in a lot of color and vibrancy to the business in hopes of building an experience for customers to immerse themselves in video games and Japanese culture.

“We really celebrate this colorful, cute, vibrant personality,” Lewin said. “We think all those things make for a really fun shopping experience and more of a destination where even if you’re just browsing it can be a fun adventure.”

The inspiration behind the name Pink Gorilla came from businesses in Akihabara, Japan. Akihabara is known for being the “electric town” as the city is filled with many colorful buildings and electronics stores. Many stores in Akihabara have mascots associated with their stores.

Having Pink Gorilla as the mascot and name of the store helped the business express more personality in addition to having unique imports of video games and merch from Japan.

“Seattle is a cool city with a lot of people who are tech focused and very game focused so I think there’s a total need for as many game stores as we can possibly fit.” Lewin said.

The new Pink Gorilla expansion will be located at 613 E Pike in the former Le Frock consignment shop space. Learn more at pinkgorillagames.com.

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