What a difference a year makes. Capitol Hill’s coffee and cafe scene has gone from shrinkage to growth with the start of 2024. Fuel is rocking its new place in the Broadway streetscape, the reborn Bauhaus is born again, and Overcast has added its pulls to the Pike/Pine mix with a new space on 12th Ave.
At the top, the famed Vivace walk-up counter has new life as the books and coffee business family behind Fuel took over the caffeine bar with an end of 2023 neon-lit debut on Broadway.
CHS reported here on Fuel’s overhaul of the space below the Casa Del Ray apartments to be its fourth Seattle location and second on Capitol Hill as Vivace decided to end its decades of service at the counter over challenges around staffing and proximity to its Broadway Brix location.
The bar had been dark since May before Fuel’s bright restart earlier this winter. Returning to a long tradition of serving early risers, the bar begins weekday service at 6 AM and pulls its first weekend shots by 7 AM on Saturdays and Sundays. For now, its days don’t extend into Broadway nights with service ending at 5 PM.
Off Broadway’s north end, the rebirth of Bauhaus on Capitol Hill in 2019 has been a challenge. In new mixed-use development on Harvard Ave E, the cafe’s place near the buzz of Broadway bust just off the main drag hasn’t been the most successful recipe and the location struggled to remain open through COVID shutdowns and the pandemic recovery.
But the cafe in the Rubix Apartments building seemed to have regained its footing with a December remodel and reopening under the ownership of Smita Patel, Bauhaus founder Joel Radin’s spouse. Now much reduced from its loftier days on E Pine and multiple cafes, Bauhaus appears ready to roll on in its smaller place in Capitol Hill cafe culture on Harvard Ave E.
It has also added Hog Island Hoagie as a lunchtime option inside the cafe.
Another Capitol Hill coffee player upgrading its presence in the neighborhood is Overcast Coffee as the small chain has moved its E Union counter inside the Metier cycling complex to 12th Ave between Pike and Pine.
You can find the new Overcast in the space left empty by the summer 2023 exit of Pakistani soul food joint Karachi Cowboys.
Overcast’s new view (Image: Overcast Coffee)
Overcast owner Jonathan Pak seems excited about some of the more practical aspects of the change.
“The long awaited move has happened & we’re here to soft launch our new location,” Overcast’s announcement reads. “Chairs with backs ?? SAY LESS.”
Pak’s Overcast Coffee quietly became part of the Capitol Hill coffee scene in 2020 during the pandemic as he took over the walk-up counter space on 15th Ave E next to Kaiser Permanente.
We’ll need to check in with Metier to find out more about any plans to replace Overcast’s presence in its cafe and connect with the work by Rodney Hines to grow the cycling concern’s Metier Brewing cousin and its new E Cherry taphouse.
The caffeinated start to 2024 comes after some uncertain times for the neighborhood’s cafe scene as options dwindled during the pandemic and following the loss of yet another of the largest coffee spaces with the exit of Kaladi Brothers from E Pike last summer. The barbed-wire end for the E Olive Way Starbucks added to the sense of coffee loss.
But there are signs of slow roasted hope. Outdoor gear rental and community company Gearhouse added the Basecamp cafe to its new Capitol Hill hq when it opened on E Thomas last May. And more new Central Seattle cafes are coming soon. On Broadway, Seasmith will finally arrive above Capitol Hill Station to add a new location to the Burien Press family of businesses while an important space at 23rd and Jackson will be reinvigorated as Black Coffee Northwest is working to reopen the shuttered Starbucks location.
Meanwhile, expanding horizons for your pepped-up beverage options are also changing the cafe scene. Back on Broadway, the former Starbucks at Pike on the Neighbours and Pride Place block is slated to reopen as COMEBUYTEA, the latest in a wave of bubble tea joints on Capitol Hill.
The Fuel coffee bar is located at 321 Broadway E. Learn more at fuelcoffeeseattle.com. You can find Bauhaus at 515 Harvard Ave E. Learn more @bauhaus.strongcoffee. Overcast Coffee is now located at 1517 12th Ave. Learn more at overcastcoffee.co.
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fuel’s coffee is mid, I’m surprised by all their expansion
overcast was a good fit for métier in that their products are much more expensive than nearby retailers with the same stuff.
Thank you Fuel for stepping in to revive a 30 year cultural institution that activates the Broadway streetscape going.
Given that the NLRB is currently trying to get Starbucks to reopen the locations it closes, it will be interesting to see what happens if they are forced to reopen a space that has been reoccupied.
It is a pointless question because it is not going to happen.
Need an all night coffee place, or at least one open until midnight or so again…. what the hell happened? We used to be a proper city
What happened? We adopted the highest minimum wage in the country, which makes it cost prohibitive to operate a business at off-peak hours
Agree. It’s sad, that not many seeing that connection.
Yes, this is the only thing that happened
Agree. Nothing open after 7pm for the coffee. Only the Hot Cakes, but I would like a regular cafe, with the pleasant vibes. Starbucks reserve is always super crowded. It’s like a museum for the tourists destination. It’s always crazy and loud. I have to go to Hot Cakes, as no other options available. I’m from CA and in SF and Berkeley, where are many young people, many cafes are open late, some are even to midnight.
Is Bauhaus owned by the same couple that screwed their employees a few years ago?
No
I hope bauhaus can pull it together! Used to really love that place. I had no idea they even reopened (again) until I happened to walk by a couple weeks ago. Look really nice inside! Hope they can keep regular hours and keep food on the menu.
This is such a downgrade for Broadway. Fuel’s coffee is just not good. Their shops are all style, no substance. They should have stayed in Montlake.
Fuel has been on Capitol Hill on 19th Ave East for twenty years. Come on over to this side of the hill once and awhile. Who knows, you may even enjoy yourself.
Yes, it’s been there a long time, but the people that bought it a few years ago are rapidly expanding, spending lots of money on design of the cafes and the coffee is still not good. They clearly just have too much money.
Also Metier is a men’s cycling shop, I have to assume the coffee is for only men too.
Weird hostility to new businesses filling vacant spaces in these comments.
They’re not men, they are lycra daddies.
I realize the price of goods and services is steep, but wowzers, those sandwich prices at Hog Island. Yikes. Wish the best to the new coffee shops.
Just in case you don’t know, the term “soul food” represents American Black Culture cuisines for hundreds of years. It’s misleading to label other restraurant establishments as part of the cuisine emerged from the African diaspora.