(Image: Capitol Thrill)
Capitol Thrill, a new Pike/Pine shop from an owner who has helped turn small design ideas into a sneaky-big Seattle company, is now open on E Pike.
“Every time I’ve imagined having a store, it’s always been local,” Jeff Gonzales tells CHS. “I don’t want to go full PNW.”
Having already nearly accidentally conquered the edges of the Pacific Northwest custom screen printing industry with Choke Print Shop — Gonzales and husband Matt Thompson told the Puget Sound Business Journal in 2015 they “aren’t artists, aren’t printers and don’t even consider themselves businessmen” as they were growing Choke into a $2 million a year business, Gonzales says opening Capitol Thrill scratches an entrepreneurial itch to bring his aesthetic and designs onto real-world shelves.
You will find those shelves in a familiar Pike/Pine retail space.
Capitol Thrill has moved in to the former home of Throwbacks Northwest after the vintage sports and fashion shop moved a few blocks west for a larger space at 11th and Pike. Meanwhile, around the corner on E Pike, Big Little News has reinvented the newstand with bottles of champagne and 250+ foreign and domestic magazines, newspapers and zines, giving Pike/Pine’s core a solid burst of new retail energy as it reopens from the pandemic. Another Pike/Pine retailer is also investing in the area but in the other direction. Standard Goods has moved a few blocks closer to downtown with a new space that has doubled the size of the local design and retail shop.
At Capitol Thrill, the shop’s location on E Pike just above 12th Ave is well suited to his personality, Gonzales says, a small, modestly sized space, just a little off a bustling, highly populated street — “a little more tucked away.”
Once he scored the lease, Gonzales description of developing his business plan sounds a little like the Choke approach — “Oh fuck, I need to start a store,” he said he realized. It started with apparel, accessories, and “kind of expanded from there” to include his shirt designs, pins, and greeting cards plus merchandize from other independent brands and creators he met at trade shows and in the industry over the years.
After years of screen printing for everything from Starbucks and Amazon, to Lifelong and Pratt Fine Arts, to Seattle Out & Proud, Quake Rugby, and the Diesel bar, Gonzales says he is enjoying seeing customers encounter his designs in the flesh.
“Everytime someone comes up to the register, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I love that,'” Gonzales said.
He should. He either created or chose to stock it. Gonzales says his own personal style underlies the items for sale at Capitol Thrill and on the new shop’s website. Gonzales said his friends say his apartment looks like a colorful grandma, “a Mexican abuela — there’s just colors everywhere.” At Capitol Thrill, this translates to the current tastes with hats and shirts in retro hues and lines of brownish oranges and mustard yellows.
Having his own shop space also provides an opportunity to play. The store’s decommissioned freight elevator serves as a pop-up area to feature a focused set of items that will be available for a limited time. Currently, the elevator pop-up zone is a “Pup-up” with creations for Capitol Hill canine friends including a LickCroix – Barkin Berry chew toy.
Capitol Thrill is also an opportunity, Gonzales says, to showcase the art, designs, and creations of the neighborhood’s queer creator communities. In the back of the store is a space perfect for a small gallery where Gonzales hopes to feature local artists and take part in the monthly Capitol Hill art walk.
Capitol Thrill is now open at 1205 E Pike. You can learn more and shop online at capitolthrill.store.
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