Even a patio like this couldn’t save Bounty Kitchen on Capitol Hill (Image: Bounty Kitchen)
Originally designed as a Linda’s joint, changes in the restaurant space on the southeast corner of 19th and Mercer will continue.
The Capitol Hill location of the Bounty Kitchen is shutting down to make way for a new food and drink project.
Bounty Kitchen customers of the 19th Ave E location are finding out about the closure but the next food and drink venture lined up for the space remains a mystery.
UPDATE: Bounty Kitchen’s final day of service on Capitol Hill will be Saturday, December 23rd.
Born into challenging times, Bounty Kitchen never really took off on Capitol Hill.
CHS reported here in 2020 on Bounty’s plans as COVID-19 ravaged the industry. The location pushed its way through the delivery and pick-up only era and finally opened to more regular service but never was able to hit its stride with its healthful approach to comfort food like the Queen Anne original.
Bounty’s Capitol Hill aspirations were born of another unsuccessful attempt. In 2019, Tallulah’s made an ugly exit in a cloud of financial problems after new owner Brad Haggen took over the Linda Derschang creation only a year earlier.
Tallulah’s debuted in December 2013 in a lighter vision, veggie-friendly menu, and more modern design design that was partly a response to Derschang’s reputation for vintage and dive vibes.
The corner in new construction can be an expensive address. The “lease asset” for the space hit the market before the pandemic with its “trendy brunch café & bar” at “$8,108 + $2,555 NNN” levels.
Not every food and drink venture on the block has been a struggle. CHS reported here last week on the 10-year anniversary of cookie shop Hello Robin. Next door, neighborhood grocery mart Cone and Steiner is also marking its decade of success. Both debuted with Tallulah’s but have outlived the centerpiece restaurant. Attention now turns to what comes next on the corner.
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No surprise. Every time I’ve gone there for brunch it’s like 1 other table. Also it’s sit-down priced but self bussed and counter ordering. Hopefully something that aspires to better than I inoffensive takes it’s place.
Was less than sit down price. It was counter but the staff bussed. However that made tipping really confusing.
Yeah – zero surprises, hoping that the new place will be more of a upscale community place – a focus on beer and cool pub food would be better!
Capitol Hill could use a beer place! Euro Pub is gone, Stumbling Monk and Outer Planet have no food, Stoup (née Optimism) has at most an unpredictable food truck. Chuck’s is too far away. The closest I can think of are Pine Box (far away for me) and Hopvine (small and limited menu, but decent, but also crowded).
Hopvine is cool, so is Brewlab and Optimist Brewery’s new people are worth checking out even though they brought back tipping which is awful
> even though they brought back tipping
That’s a shame; what a step backwards.
Elysian exists too. There’s enough beer already. And 19th is too far away to build a beer garden crowd
Sigh. Now there’s no healthy food left on the hill
I wouldn’t go that far but yeah, this sucks. BC was my go-to for less salty/fatty/sugary lunch options.
But thankfully we now have 47 new fried chicken places to choose from. Ugh.
It is sad the extent to which food in Capitol Hill is basically unhealthy junk.
So much easier to find good-for-you food in urban neighborhoods in Portland or Vancouver BC.
Or in any other city really. Seattle completely lacks that. Even the opening of Sweetgreen will likely get cancelled or it will shut down.
This isn’t surprising, I feel like this was less about “finding a fit” than it was about not pivoting when needed.
It was clear almost immediately the concept was not working, so the business should’ve shifted to something the space/neighborhood was looking for.
What that is is always hard to assess, but in my mind if they lost the “Kitchen,” became something along the lines of “Bounty,” and had a upscale-casual vibe with beer, wine, some spirits (maybe something special: absinthe, or maybe a selection of fancy whiskeys, something of that nature) + a limited/changing menu focused on American staples like higher-end burgers and the like, they could have made it.
This wouldn’t have even required a remodel, just a menu and concept change, some new signage, and you’re good to go.
But no….
Oh, that couldn’t have worked! I mean look at Money Frog just down the street. They had that weird little menu and no business then came up with Taurus Ox, a concept change for the better. And they’re full every night, critically acclaimed, and…Oh.
Um.. Taurus Ox was first, just in a different location. The food was always excellent and critically acclaimed, but the original space tiny (where Ox Burger is now) The 19th location has allowed the place to really blossom into a full service restaurant, but the following was already there.
100% ^
We already have a million places with burgers. When will Seattle get with the times and realize how far along the rest of the country’s major cities are with fast casual and healthy food? We don’t need more burgers and beer
It seems like every healthy casual dining place has closed. Seattle is an outlier with its lack of healthy options. Please no more fried chicken or Ramen places.