Frankly, I often think it would be quite easy to never leave Capitol Hill. (For this exercise, let’s pretend we don’t work; which unfortunately, may be true for many of us.) Hillsters have just about everything within walking distance. Despite this, I make 3 regular exceptions. What are yours?
1) Dosas. Capitol Hill has North Indian food covered, but to my knowledge there are only two places in the Seattle metro area that serve yummy South Indian dosas — Malabar in the U-District and Udupi Palace (!!!) in Bellevue. Yes, Bellevue.
2) Yarn. I’ve written about this before. Still no change.
3) Haircut. My cutter/stylist moved from Capitol Hill to Ballard and I liked her so much that I continue to make the schlep out west.
I’ll post more about this but I have some stats that say my household is not alone in our Northgate travels — there’s a Cap Hill-Northgate connection. For us, it’s Target. Assuming Best Buy for others. Joe’s sporting goods for you?
1) Blue C Sushi in the UVillage
2) Gelato at the Chocolate Box downtown
That’s really it though. I thought I wandered away from the Hill several times a week for various purposes, but it turns out that it’s all for work. I am certain that if I were to actually visit Churchmouse or Hilltop I would be leaving the Hill much more often, but since I am broke I have, to date, managed to refrain.
+1 Target
Lowes/Home Depot/Ace Hardware
Gym
No place for cheap Asian goodies here on the hill.
Lowes, for some reason I can never go into Pacific Supply and not have them refer me to go to Lowes…frustrating
Airport
Work
Occasional work mate party in some North Seattle ‘hood
for great access to sunset/water/mtn views, i head to ballard or queen anne.
To either Zanadu downtown, Zanadu U district or Comics Dungeon in Wallingford. I would say that the hill needs a comic book shop, but I don’t want to see any of the fine establishments listed go out of business.
Just made the Northgate trip for big box electronics this weekend. Caught the under-appreciated 66 bus just across I-5 from the Shores (was the only non-teenager at the Northgate Transit Center).
Capitol Hill is fine and all, but it’s hardly the end-all-be-all neighborhood.
Hiphop shows downtown or in SoDo/Fremont/Ballard
Occasional treks to Target in Northgate or Fred Meyer in Ballard
Thai Tom’s on the Ave
very, very rare trips to West Seattle for parties
3am food at one of the 24 hour diners around town
The hill definitely needs more 24 hour establishments, and a fast food joint with a drive through. Just one. Jack in the Box needs to hurry up and open again.
*edit: I go to the CD all the time, too, for various reasons. I don’t really consider that “leaving the neighborhood” though, for whatever reason.
University Book Store (Bailey-Coy is my go-to, but sometimes I need a bigger independent bookstore)
farmers market (Ballard or U-District) in winter
Cafe Besalu
I feel guilty about this, but I do look forward to the redevelopment of the Goodwill site (assuming it gets financing at some point) because of the planned Target as one of the anchors of the project.
(1) work (in Redmond)
(2) costco
(3) ballard farmer’s market (open every sunday, even in winter)
(4) belltown (events at friends’ places)
(5) misc favorite restaurants: seven stars szechuan (ID), tamarind tree (ID), paseo (fremont), original pancake house
(6) home depot for DIY fixit stuff
What are these places you all are referring to? Ballard? Queen Anne? U District? Northgate? Redmond? Sounds like fantasy if you ask me. I don’t believe these places are real.
Electronics are the one thing that I always think I should be able to get somewhere close but end up going to Best Buy at Northgate for, there’s not really anywhere downtown even.
Also pretty much all of my friends and family live in North Seattle (I grew up there) so I go there a lot. What’s worse, a lot of them are starting to move even further North, Lake Forest Park, Mill Creek… ugh. Wedgewood I can handle, Mill Creek, not so much.
I basically travel from Capitol Hill for three reasons (other than work): dosas, vietnamese yogurt dessert, and to ride flying machines at SeaTac.
I agree – I live in Capitol Hill, but the CD feels like part of my hood, maybe because I used to live in the CD, and in Capitol Hill again before that.
Capitol Hill and Cherry Hill are two parts of the same hill/ridgeline.
there are no a) hardware stores b) camera stores c) electronics stores d) no banks at all in i-5 shores, wtf?!
i wanted to price out tv’s last weekend and i had to rent a car for crying out loud. it’s not that they just don’t have a place to but that on capitol hill, but they don’t even have a place to buy it downtown. how come i can find that stuff in an easy walk or short bus ride in san francisco or vancouver, but in seattle i have to waste money on a zipcar? and it’s faster for me to walk downtown to find a bank of america from bellevue and olive than it is anywhere on the hill.
cap hill is great for day-to-day, but it doesn’t really get you that far when you need STUFF. (eg. electronics, musical instruments, specialty foods/spices, camera stuff).
also, museums, libraries and other parks (Seward, Discovery, etc.).
also skiing
my small family of 3 does not have a car. we do not often leave the hill. in fact, we have a difficult time being friends with people if they don’t live on the hill, we just can’t get there! what gets me to leave…..? the 74 to the airport with sunshine at the end of a flight!
Have you been to Capitol Hill Loans on Pine? It’s a pawn shop and they have awesome instruments, electronics, etc. Ask for Mickey if you want to know about guitars. He helped me pick one out for my husband for Christmas. But, all the guys who work there are really helpful and laidback. Plus, Stumptown is next door, an added bonus!
sure sucks that this city has such an atrocious public transportation system that it takes so long to visit people out of your neighborhood.
Dude what about the BofA on Broadway?
That’s not quite fair. I agree that transit could be improved (yay for Prop 1!), but it’s really not that hard to get around. Just the other day I made it all the way to Phinney Ridge in like half an hour, and it only took one bus to get there.
Granted, it takes a while to get to Renton, but who wants to go to Renton?
When City People’s left, there was no longer a place to get hardware.
Mayuri in Bellevue (and there is one in Bothell, but I have never been there) has DELICIOUS dosas… and even a weekend afternoon buffet of dosa galore