(Image: Hawk Dogs)

A space in the heart of Pike/Pine lined up for an expansion of the neighborhood’s Comet Tavern will instead become home to a new restaurant venture from a familiar face just in time for Capitol HIll Block Party.

There will also be a familiar recipe — Casablanca Express will feature “Moroccan Mediterranean food,” Abdel-haq “Hawk” Asfour tells CHS. His new restaurant comes after Asfour has made the Hawk Dogs hot dog stand part of the nightlife fabric along E Pike. Now he’ll be opening a new restaurant on the same block.

It’s the same recipe that came together for the space’s previous tenant, Ikina Sushi, which opened in July 2016 from Shinsuke Nikaido, the man behind Seattle’s Gourmet Dog Japon carts. Ikina shuttered during the pandemic.

Asfour says the hope is for Casablanca Express to be open as soon as next week — maybe starting July 4th.

(Image: Hawk Dogs)

Meanwhile, it’s not clear what the development could mean for the planned expansion of the Comet. CHS reported in April on plans for the bar to expand with a “speakeasy” area and new connection with sister cafe Lost Lake that would have involved the restaurant space now destined for Casablanca. We’ve checked in with the Comet folks and will update if we learn more.

The crew from the Comet and Neumos are gearing up for the 2022 Capitol Hill Block Party to fill their streets starting Friday, July 22nd, picking up where the three-day music festival left off when it was last held in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic set it.

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