Someday, Starbucks may have to make amends with the National Labor Relations Board for closing down cafes across the country in its ongoing battle with union groups.
But any mandated reopenings around Capitol Hill are getting more complicated.
The corner of Broadway and Denny is moving on from the coffee giant’s labor tiff with plans for a neighborhood favorite to move in,
CHS has learned that Hillcrest Market-born Carmelo’s Tacos is making plans to open a new restaurant in the space formerly home to the Broadway and Denny Starbucks.
Permit paperwork with the city shows the planned new Carmelo’s taking over the Capitol Hill cafe marked as the first Starbucks to unionize in Seattle and shuttered by the coffee giant in December 2022 as it closed stores over what it said were public safety concerns amid the ongoing labor battle.
“Unfortunately, despite several mitigating efforts, safety and security incidents at our Broadway and Denny store have continued to escalate,” a company spokesperson told CHS at the time, adding that Starbucks remained “committed to our hometown.”
The coffee shop opened there in 2017 in new construction in the 101 Broadway development that rose on the site where Broadway’s post office once stood. The busy corner is on the west side of Broadway just across from the Capitol Hill Station light rail facility and its mixed-use developments.
Carmelo’s Tacos, meanwhile, is ascendant. CHS reported here in April 2021 as the tiny Capitol Hill food and drink venture grew into a new space on 12th Ave and added full tables and seating to its offerings.
In 2018, CHS met with former silver miner Carmelo Gaspar and his team about their start with the tightly packed counter inside Summit Ave E’s Hillcrest Market. “We saw the teriyaki guy was out, so we started talking to the owner and we got an opportunity to start,” one of the Carmelo’s crew said at the time.
The silver mining theme lives on in the Carmelo’s logo that will soon, apparently, be found on three corners across the area.
The Asada Tacos at Carmelo’s
The Carmelo’s plans come as another contested Starbucks shutdown is being reshaped by a community business. At 23rd and Jackson, Black Coffee Northwest has already grown into a neighborhood presence and has plans to debut in the overhauled cafe in the coming weeks.
As for Starbucks, the federal labor board could eventually force the company to reopen its shuttered locations. But, at 23rd and Jackson, and, now, on Broadway, it will have to find new spaces. Its old cafes are now taken.
Carmelo’s Tacos is located inside the Hillcrest Market at 110 Summit Ave E and on 12th Ave at 1223 E Cherry. There is no announced opeing date for the new location at 101 Broadway E. You can learn more at facebook.com/carmelostacos.
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Nice! Anything but Starbucks. Love it!
locally grown fortune 100 companies are just the worst, amiright?
This is a troll response, but yes, they do
Starbucks employs more than 5000 people at their HQ here – glad to see that you’re hoping to see them lose their jobs.
An upgrade, honestly.
Funny how Starbucks moves out and they install a giant chain gate near the entrance.
Perhaps the property owners are the ones worried about safety?
Wouldn’t you be?
That is the one on Olive and that place was their most expensive store to operate given the renovations and the size of the property. Honestly I am surprised if there aren’t plans underway to turn that site into a 6-8 story apartment building, a single-story commercial building makes not sense in Capitol Hill anymore
The Denny and Broadway location was closed on the anniversary of the store unionizing, the retractable gates were installed to stop people from building a camp at the open corner
Good, no one should camp on the streets.
The gate was installed the day after a fire across the street under another building mentioned here https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2023/03/911-deadly-hit-and-run-update-movie-theater-burglar-bust-first-hill-gunfire/
In the days/weeks before the fire there were increasingly more tents under that corner, including the one that was eventually lit on fire.
Starbuck’s is the Boeing of the coffee world: Once a source of hometown pride. Now a shamefully diminished corporate game-player interested only in short term results.
Shamefully diminished? Starbucks is doing just fine, look at their all-time stock chart.
Um, yeah. Boeing got very focused on share price until their planes started crashing and falling apart mid-air because they cut corners, and stopped respecting their workers. Sound familiar?
Diminished? Maybe on Cap Hill, but stuff closes every week around here. Venture out of the CH bubble and Starbucks is doing fine.
¡Viva Carmelo’s!
¡Al diablo con Starbucks!
BEST news ever, so glad that corner is going to be used again!!!!
I was a barista at that location for two years, so happy to see that space go to a local joint like Carmelo’s.
Congrats, Carmelo’s!
Are there any sbux storefronts (excl. the ones inside grocery stores) left on the hill? It’s always surprised me how many we used to have considering all the better, truly local coffeeshops in the neighborhood.
Not a one. It’s interesting that Starbucks claimed it closed the Hill stores due to “safety and security” issues rather than labor issues, yet it continues to operate stores in statistically much more dangerous areas throughout the city.
Just realized we still have the “roastery” on Pike & Melrose…
I think of that area as part of First Hill but OK, fair enough.
No fair enough about it. It’s north of Pike St. Definitely NOT First Hill. If it was on the south side of Pike, maybe you’d have an argument. Maybe.
still waiting for Carmelos on broadway to open
Permitting and work continues. Some projects really have long timelines these days with city’s permitting cycles