A King County Sheriff’s eviction notice hangs on the front door of E. Pike’s Satellite Lounge tonight.
The Satellite is owned by Harold Burton of The Real Comet, Inc. according to state records. The building at 1118 E. Pike St. is owned by Sylvia Kane, according to City of Seattle records. CHS has been told that Kane informed the Satellite last month that she was looking for a tenant to rent the space that would also pay to put the building’s large basement to use.
The Satellite’s Web site describes the lounge as “one of the longest running bars located in the heart of Capitol Hill.” Old timers, please weigh in with any history for the location you can share. CHS will update this post with what else we can find.
It is in the up the Hill site of Spags which was bought out by the bus tunnel project. Spags was on Pine below the freeway. Very old gay bar, back to the 1950is. It was suit and tie downtown crowd at happy hour and party central on weekends, friendly, cheap beer, no hard liquor, a tavern….
Spags moved to the hill with a bag of buy out cash and remodeled the building, now site of the Satellite.
When, maybe 15 years ago…. historians speak.
I ate there maybe three times. The food was meh, bar food. The drinks were drinks. The seating was uncomfortable, the atmosphere garish. I never found another reason to go inside, so I stopped.
Meh.
What is the oldest bar on the Hill? I heard the comet may have been there since the 20s.
Spags was the chub bar, yes? Was it the one owned by a police officer?
One of the things I loved about The Satellite was the jukebox. Once when I was there a Journey song came on (“Don’t Stop Believing”, I want to say) and the whole place started singing along. Yeah, their food wasn’t that great, but it’s places like this that help give the neighborhood character (in a good way). Even though I didn’t go to the Satellite that often, I will still miss it.
This location hosted Spag’s, a “bear” bar for a number of years before The owners of The Comet Tavern purchased and opened the Sattelite lounge. Rumors on Pike street hint that they had been having trouble paying the rent (for many months), which explains the eviction. Jseattle stated she was looking for a tenant who would rent the basement, which isn’t grounds for eviction as they were protected by a lease, and judging by the ‘basement space for lease’ sign I think She’d settle for two separate tenants.
Thanks for the info. Definitely agree that you don’t get evicted only because your landlord is looking for a different kind of tenant. I should have clarified.