(Image: Tim Durkan)
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A lot of people lined up to say goodbye to the Vivace sidewalk coffee bar this weekend. A lot of people did not, preferring to remember the walk-up counter with some final visit from before the closure was announced.
Thanks to Capitol Hill shutterbug Tim Durkan, here is one final view that doesn’t involve a line. Durkan, yes, the mayor’s brother, and the most regular of the Broadway coffee bar’s regulars, was there as “the Vivace barista family past and present” gathered with founders David Schomer and Geneva Sullivan to mark the end of the counter’s day on Broadway.
They’re holding a portrait of Vivace manager Brian Fairbrother who died in a bicycling crash in 2011.
CHS reported here on the decision to close the Vivace sidewalk bar after decades of service as it faced challenges around staffing and its proximity to the Broadway Vivace cafe. Sunday was its final day of business.
With all that coffee talent around Broadway over the weekend, surely a few of the Vivace alumni might have been thinking about what it would take to make the counter a viable business again. There’s the money of course. But also the effort of early morning openings for one of the street’s tiniest business opportunities. It’s not clear if coffee, alone, would cut it.
For now, the counter and the Broadway hangout it provided remains shuttered.
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There should be Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence burning sage to deconsecrate a Capitol Hill holy space. I’m crying.
I’m assuming someone else could open a coffee bar unless they own the building ? Just like Joe Bar up the street, new owners arrive and hopefully grow the business. Perhaps we could have the Italian approach where they switch to Spritzi in the evening :)
Drank lots of coffee there all through the 1990s and 2000. Will miss them lots.
Sad to see this go, but it’s understandable given what the owners told this very blog.
I mean, two locations within several blocks of each other is, well, not viable however that arrangement fell together.
I have to believe that there is room for sidewalk walkup counters such as this one, tho.
I’m really surprised they haven’t tried to branch out to Ballard — Papa Chango’s was a gem and it closed in January, I believe. They had a similar situation in a small space, which isn’t a walkup obviously but is a similar type of business.
An espresso-focused walkup would do well in Ballard and a few other areas I can think of.
Also, do businesses in Seattle not realize they need to update signage and brand identity? It’s really time for some updating, Vivace. Come on….
The manager who passed was Brian Fairbrother, not Fairchild.