The bar at Marjorie would make excellent inspiration for whatever is coming at Boujie bar (Image: Marjorie)
(Image: Midtown Square)
So, what is this CHS hears about one of the leading Black restaurant owners in the city and a Capitol Hill community leader working on a project to become part of the impressive food and drink mix at the Central District’s Midtown Square development?
It’s true — though details are limited on exactly how Boujie Bar from 14th and Union favorite Marjorie’s Donna Moodie will take shape.
CHS included the coming venue here in our look at the 17+ Capitol Hill and Central District bars and restaurants to look forward to in 2023 as Moodie’s new bar and first new food and drink project in years will join a robust mix in Midtown Square at 23rd and Union.
While Boujie Bar remains a super secret work in progress and Moodie declined to provide details of the new project at this time, she has grown the now 20-year-old Marjorie into a Seattle favorite and remains one of the few Black owners in Capitol Hill area food and drink. The 14th and Union joint’s bar is also pretty swell and a good spot to enjoy Moodie’s “steel drum” plantain chips and a cocktail or a Red Stripe.
Born in Jamaica and raised in Chicago, Moodie would trail her mother around the kitchen as a young girl, and she gained respect for her “scratch” cooking, while using the highest quality ingredients supplied by local merchants and farmers. Moodie opened Marjorie in 2003 in Belltown as an homage to her mother, although the space relocated to Capitol Hill in 2010 on E Union.
Moodie, meanwhile, has also been busy with community efforts, becoming executive director of the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict program at the start of 2020. The Capitol Hill EcoDistrict was formed in 2011 as an effort to address growth by advocating for community priorities are reflected in the significant developments that alter the neighborhood. It is supported by affordable housing developer Community Roots Housing.
Moodie’s work at Midtown will put her in good food and drink company.
CHS reported here on the plans to bring back the spirit of Helen Coleman in the form of Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro in the development. The project planned to open by spring will join arts venue Arté Noir and a mix of neighborhood and BIPOC-owned businesses including a second location of the Jerk Shack Caribbean restaurant on the edge of the development’s internal plaza. A new home for neighborhood bar The Neighbor Lady should also open in the development later this year.
Jerk Shack, owned by Trey Lamont — who is also the head chef — is opening his second location in Midtown Square. His first location in Belltown has been a go-to for meaty dishes and lively music.
Raised Donuts, meanwhile, was the first to open in Midtown Square last spring after is move from its original location across 23rd Ave. The cafe regularly sells out quickly, and has added a unique mix of Asian and American style cakes to the menu.
Moodie is also a Capitol Hill EcoDistrict leader (Image: CHS)
Midtown’s roster of joints will also have good food and drink neighbors. Across E Union, the Liberty Bank Building includes Black-owned Communion with BBQ shrimp and grits, Seattle Soul, and a healthy helping of equitable development and Cafe Avole with the coffee flavors of Ethiopia.
The retail tenant selection process at Midtown began in the summer of 2019 and developer Lake Union Partners said it focused on finding locally owned, independent businesses and a large emphasis was placed on the inclusion of African American and minority-owned businesses before widening opportunities to a larger pool of candidates.
Arté Noir, the anchor tenant at Midtown Square, was formed as a way to bring attention to the city’s creators, and seeks to contribute Black culture to the Central District. CHS reported last year on Arté Noir’s desire to become a beacon for restoring and maintaining a sense of Black presence, Black pride, and Black art and culture in the neighborhood. The space looks onto 23rd and Union and is home to an arts center and shop from the nonprofit. Arté Noir also assisted the development with the selection of nine artists to create installations and giant murals in the square.
Midtown Square is located at 2301 E Union.
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Do you get it? It’s called “Boujie” like bourgeois. Ha! That means it’s okay to be bourgeois. /sarcasm
Hey, guess what, Jeffrey? I work hard*, and I enjoy unwinding once in a while in charming surroundings after doing so, and I could not possibly care less whether you think that’s “okay” or not. /sarcasm
* in education, not that it should matter
Cool.
14th and Union is the Central District.
Marjorie is in the Central District. Got it?
It’s not the Central District – it’s the no-man’s-land between Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Squire Park. Since it’s clearly not in First Hill, and no one knows about Squire Park except those who live there, Capitol Hill is as good a home as any for that intersection.
Wrong.The northern border of the CD is Madison, the western border is 12th Ave. There’s a sign on 14th and Madison that says welcome to the Central Area if you don’t believe me. 14th and Union is the Central District.
The Redline from the 80s, which is what typically made up the CD doesn’t cover that spot. That is also where like Skillet and such is. It’s very much part of the “capitol Hill” Pike/Pine corridor and side streets. CD is like 23/Jackson to me.
You provide no source and redline maps show where a discriminatory practice occured not necessarily the neighborhood boundaries. Again, the western border of the CD is 12th and the northern border is Madison.
14th and Union is, indeed, Capitol Hill.
Also, why on Earth do you feel strongly enough to be snippy about something so silly?
I feel strongly about it because it’s my neighborhood and you are spreading misinformation.
Here’s a map from the City Clerk’s office and I could care less about what anyone “feels” the Central Area is.
You don’t get to annex parts of the Central District you “feel” should be part of Capitol Hill.
Squire Park is a fake Google neighborhood and not a “district” or a neighborhood Seattle recognizes.
Squire Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Seattle, predating Google by a century. Up until Seattle’s infamous pedophile mayor Ed Murray cut the City’s ties with its own neighborhoods, the Squire Park Community Council was one of Seattle’s thirteen official neighborhood partners.
Tell us you are a newcomer to Seattle without telling us.
Fwiw, I agree with “Not Capitol Hill.” The neighborhood’s eastern boundary is 23rd (more or less) but I wouldn’t consider anything beyond Madison, at any point whatsoever, to be part of Capitol Hill. Madison is a major traffic artery that deliberately discourages casual crossing by pedestrians, which makes it a hard border (or “wall” if you will) dividing otherwise spatially cohesive communities. What the 14th and Union area should be called instead I have no strong opinion.
The EcoDistrict, which she is the director of, is funded and shares a space with Community Roots, who owns Midtown Square. Sounds like a huge conflict of interest.
Community Roots Housing did not develop Midtown Square. They’re the developer of the Liberty Bank Building across the street.
Thank you for the clarification on that. I was sure Lake Union Partners is the developer of Midtown Square.
Love that all these businesses are coming. It would be great if someone (the developer perhaps) lit a fire under some of them to get going I walk through the plaza often and far as I can see only The Neighbor Lady has actually begun building out their space. Neither Boujie Bar, Jerk Shack or Ms Helen’s appear to be anywhere near opening. Do these businesses need funding? Permit expeditors? Wonder what the hold up is.
It’s a lot of those things. The construction industry is seeing huge bottlenecks in labor and materials. This is pushing costs up at historic levels. The city is another bottleneck. Seattle City Light can’t get people out to install transformers etc.