(Image: CHS)

The Capitol Hill area’s food and drink economy remains an important part of the neighborhood’s culture. These are the places where we work and play — or, sometimes, just sit and read. 2021 was filled with vital stories of surviving the pandemic, new beginnings, and sad goodbyes. Someday, this variant’s spike will pass and 2022’s Capitol Hill food and drink dreams will be waiting for you to visit. Order takeout and delivery while you wait. In the meantime, some of you will venture out and tell us what we’re missing. Here are the new restaurants, cafes, bars, and more to look forward to around Capitol Hill in 2022.

Grayson Corrales, right, finished 2021 preparing for her new restaurant with three-month internship at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Culler de Pau in Spain and a tour of Europe (Image: @graysoncorrales)

• MariPili Tapas Bar: Overshadowed in the sadness of Cafe Presse’s planned early 2022 closure, first-time owner chef Grayson Corrales will refresh the 12th Ave space with MariPili, a Spanish-American tapas restaurant with influences from Spain’s northwest Galicia region in a revamped venue that will shift away from the all-day, all-night ambience of Cafe Presse. The focus in the beginning will be dinner before eventual expansion to weekend brunch. Happy hour will eventually arrive and signal things are flowing well in the new venture. The central bar will not go to waste. Maripili’s focus will be on gin and tonics, and a sherry menu. The tap will switch out to Estrella Galicia and there will be exclusive Spanish and Washington wines.ETA: April
• Anchorhead Coffee: With MariPili handling the nights, daylight hours on its block of 12th Ave will be handled by the dark roasts of a new cafe and bakery from Anchorhead Coffee in the former Stumptown space next door. “When we saw this location, we had no plans to come to Capitol Hill,” Anchorhead co-owner Jake Paulson told CHS, “but we were like, ‘We need to get this.’” ETA: “Winter”
• Glo’s: E Olive Way classic Glo’s is moving to Capitol Hill Station and the change in scenery will open the way for more seating, more space for an expanded espresso and breakfast cocktail program, and an outdoor patio above the AIDS Memorial Pathway Plaza. But mostly, the change will be about the same Glo’s in a larger space as the longtime favorite upgrades from 830 square feet on E Olive Way to its new 2,900-square-foot home. ETA: June with what is hoped to only be a short closure during the move.
• Seasmith: Another new resident preparing to move into Capitol Hill Station, Seasmith is being built as part of the Burien Press and Moonshot Coffee with plans for “coffee, fresh food in morning, full kitchen, lunch, dinner, beer, natural wine” in the new development above the busy station. ETA: Spring.
• Sweetgreen: Another busy spot in the neighborhood in recent years will make space for a new Capitol Hill food and drink player in 2022. “Fast casual” salad chain Sweetgreen is planned to take over part of the huge space left empty by the exit of Stout at 11th and Pine. The corner was a centerpoint of protest and conflict with police during protests in 2020 and 2021. This turn will only feel weird for those who remember. For new visitors to Pike/Pine, the popular concept will likely fit squarely with the busy entertainment district. ETA: Unknown.
  

  Five Iron Golf

• Five Iron Golf: 11th Ave will add another national concept as Five Iron Golf teed up to join the Pike/Pine preservation-boosted Kelly Springfield building once home to Value Village and now the neighborhood’s massive WeWork facility. The virtual golf bar “will offer complimentary top-of-the-line equipment, custom club fitting at The Fitting Lab — recently named a Golf Digest Top 100 Clubfitter — widescreen TVs, shuffleboard, and a full-service restaurant and bar serving creatively curated and seasonal fare.” Folks visiting Macklemore’s nearby Bogey Boys will surely ask to play through. ETA: Originally planned for a 2021 debut, plan for a mid-2022 opening.
• 13th Ave ghost kitchen: Here’s a Pike/Pine pandemic-appropriate addition in the works. Former lab space on 13th Ave is being built out for a new kitchen facility from KBD Holdings, a company behind the creation of so-called ghost kitchens used as headquarters for swarms of delivery-first food and drink pop-ups, concepts, and promotions that will likely thrill plenty of Seattle home diners — especially those smashing those like buttons and eager to order the latest burger concept hyped by their favorite Twitch celebrities. ETA: Unknown.
• Otherworld Wine Bar: How about something a little more homegrown? Otherworld Wine Bar will bring new life to the overhauled building once home to Electric Tea Garden above 14th and Madison with a new project from Juice Club wine pop-up partners Matt Lucas and Ben Chaykin. ETA: Unknown.
• TacoOx and Money Frog: Another project set to expand the boundaries of Capitol Hill food and drink will arrive on 19th Ave E where Vios is making way for TacoOx and Money Frog, new projects from a group of up and coming chefs and owners including Khampaeng “KP” Panyathong, owner of Taurus Ox on E Madison, Joe and Lucy Ye of Hangry Panda in Greenwood, and Christopher Morgan of the Expat Supper Club pop-ups. ETA: The new Asian-flavored TacoOx is planned to take over at 19th and Aloha in January with plans to open the Money Frog bar are hoped to follow by March.
• Pizza Twist: A franchise with Indian-flavored ingredients and influences is making plans to open in the Broadway space previously home to Ammi’s Pakwan and New India Express which closed during the pandemic. ETA: Soon!
• Wasabi Sushi: Nope. Not that one. Pine just below Melrose’s new Pivot Apartments will add Wasabi Sushi from the Happy Valley, Oregon-based chain that boasts two sushi bars and a walk-up sushi trailer in Portland. ETA: “Spring.”
• Korn Dog: We’re still sad about Mia’s. But the happy planned arrival of Korn Dog with Korean-style corn dogs and tteokbokki, “the representative street food of Korea,” should help ease the sorrow. ETA: Unknown.
• Dick’s: It will still be the Dick’s you know and love but the 68-year-old drive-in will have had an overhaul of its kitchen, new windows, and a good scrubbing. Enjoy! ETA: Spring.
• The Comeback: It’s far off the Hill, but, eventually, you’re going to want to face the change and visit The Comeback, where the heart and soul of Capitol Hill’s R Place lives on in SoDo. ETA: Open!
• Club Comedy Seattle: The new club debuted on 15th Ave E in 2021 but the rise of the omicron variant has meant a slow start for the new venue. Make 2022 plans to visit. ETA: Open
  

  Métier Brewing Company

• Boylston mystery project: We don’t yet know what is being lined up as a full transformation of the interior of Boylston Ave’s Heath Printers building has been underway for months with a planned change of use to “eating & drinking establishment” and construction of “substantial alterations for tenant improvements of restaurant and office spaces throughout existing commercial structure,” according to plans filed with the city. The property just around the corner off E Pine is part of the near block snapped up by developer Asana Partners and was the home to Capitol Hill-born coworking company Office Nomads before that venture went fully virtual during the pandemic. Asana has brought on Capitol Hill-based Graham Baba Architects, the prolific firm behind many of the neighborhood and city’s most ambitious recent food and drink construction projects, to design the space. ETA: Unknown
• Métier Brewing Company Taproom and Umami Kushi: The Central District’s Rodney Hines will bring his Métier Brewing creations to his home neighborhood with a new taproom on E Cherry. The food end of things will be powered by another Black-owned business and the Japanese street food of Umami Kushi. “A moment of tension for me is when I walk around my neighborhood and when I think of whether new people who see the street signs honoring Rev. McKinney at Mt. Zion Baptist have taken a moment to know who he was,” Hines told CHS. “I fear that there’s a lot of new energy, a lot of new people… that can be good. It can be better if people can pause and look at history of who was here and give some respect for that.” ETA: February.
• Jerk Shack, Raised Doughnuts, and The Neighbor Lady: Massive 23rd and Union development Midtown Square is making homes for hundreds of new tenants in its apartments. It will also make space for a mix of local businesses with a new home for Raised Doughnuts and The Neighbor Lady bar, plus a new second location for Jerk Shack. ETA: Unknown.
  

  Sean Willis and Christopher Ballard of Dough Joy (Image: Dough Joy Donuts)

• Cafe Avole: Cafe Avole sources, roasts, and sells high-grade coffees from Yirga Ch’Efe and Guji and is planning to bring its Ethiopian coffee tradition to the Liberty Bank Building with a new expansion joining its Rainier Ave original. ETA: Unknown.
• Sea Wolf’s new Montlake bakery — ‘A Bagel Shoal’: Montlake is primed to join the golden age of bagels with a new bakery from the Sea Wolf Bakers family. Bagels have been part of the Sea Wolf offerings since its 2016 debut in Fremont with small, special batches available. They were still floating ideas for the name of the new Montlake bakery in late 2021, owner Jesse Schumann told CHS. ETA: “Early 2022”
• Dough Joy: Vegan doughnut shop Dough Joy is set to open its first brick and mortar shop in the former Old School Frozen Custard location on E Pine. ETA: Originally planned for late 2021, we’ll go with “soon!”
• Boca Argentine Bakery and Pizzeria: As a daytime sibling to the nearby Boca Restobar and Grill, Seattle restaurant veteran Marco Casas Beaux says his new bakery and pizza joint will be filled with Argentine pastries, empanadas, and pizzas worthy of Buenos Aires. ETA: Unknown.
• Solid State: The Pike/Pine arcade bar made the list in 2021 — and here it is again in 2022. Backers say the dream remains alive in the new year — but there might be a different name by the time the project finally buzzes to life. ETA: Unknown

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