One last night at Machiavelli
As diners paid their respect to Ristorante Machiavelli during one last night of service on Capitol Hill last week, the restaurant’s Melrose Market block just above downtown Seattle is undergoing a doughnut-centered makeover under San Francisco-based real estate company Prado Group that will transform its Pine facing edge after it acquired the property for $5 million in 2022.
A Voodoo Doughnut, the first Seattle location for the Portland-born company, is coming along with a near full-block turnover for the businesses that have called this stretch of Pine between Melrose and Minor home. The change is bringing and end for Machiavelli as well as its neighbors Pho 4 U and Lan Hand-Pulled Noodles.
For this small cluster of Capitol Hill businesses in the middle of real estate and development change, the situation around the ending leases have similar echoes of high costs and the fact that time has run out.
“Unfortunate, but amicable,” is how a Prado Group representative described the end of Machiavelli’s run after more than 35 years at the Capitol Hill corner.
“The lease negotiation for the five-year extension did take longer than we liked, which we share responsibility of,” the representative said. “We tried our best as the landlord here but there were other factors that were in play.”
CHS reported here on the decision to close Machiavelli as owner Suzette Jarding said challenging business conditions made agreeing on a new lease with Prado untenable.
Work is underway to fill Machiavelli’s space with a new food and drink venture.
Owners at Pho 4 U and Lan Hand-Pulled Noodles also appear to be in the middle of an “unfortunate, but amicable” split with Prado. The soup shop and noodle shop both remain open but will be closing to make way for the new Voodoo.
The situation for the Capitol Hill Italian classic’s ownership echoes across the restaurants shutting down to make way.
Yanlin Li, manager and son of restaurant owner Hongxin Li and his wife Bufeng Gao who run Lan says Prado has been fair in its dealings as it runs on a month-to-month lease in the space.
But even amid good intentions and fair dealings, there have been challenges and sore spots.
“Some customers came in a month ago and asked us when we were closing,” Yanlin Li, told CHS after we reported on Voodoo’s arrival in October. “I didn’t know what they were asking so I said we were closing at 8:30 like usual. They said, ‘No no no Voodoo Doughnuts is trying to replace this space’ and I didn’t know anything about that.”
Lan Hand-Pulled Noodles, which became the family’s only restaurant holding after a fire wiped out its Edmonds original, wasn’t planning to close but the Voodoo deal changed the math on the block.
Originally holders of a five-year lease, Lan had continued operating on a month-by-month deal as negotiations on a longer term deal got lost in the shuffle with Prado’s 2022 acquisition. With no longterm lease in hand, there isn’t much leverage for a mom and pop noodle shop.
Pho 4 U is in a similar spot and is now preparing to make way for Voodoo.
Before any opening, there is work to do to prepare the circa 1912 building’s interior for its new life including a new doughnut box-pink Voodoo paint job. The improvements will include an overhaul of the interior, new partitions, casework, and work to repair damaged roof joists.
The Prado investments followed another big real estate deal on the block in 2019 when Regency Centers bought the Melrose Market development for $15.5 million. The Market also has a wave of new tenants moving in including plans for a Wild Cherry Nightclub and Harry’s Good Times. The new projects will join another recent addition with the Levantine flavors and natural wines from Cantina Sauvage and Cafe Suliman from Sitka and Spruce veterans Ahmed Suliman and Marc Papineau.
On the other end of the Machiavelli block, a rendering of the future Pine Voodoo
One constant on the block will be Pine-born burger chain Li’l Woody’s which is celebrating its own expansion to Japan. The Marcus Lalario-backed burger joint is still flipping patties in the space where it was born in 2011.
But Prado says the rest of this stretch of Pine will soon have a new mix of tenants including the Machiavelli space. Prado is also looking for a new tenant for the long-empty nightclub space in the middle of the block. CHS reported here last February as the Mint Lounge shuttered amid nightlife gun violence concerns. The club was formerly home to the Baltic Room.
“We’re open to opportunities on the former nightclub space, but will be looking for a use that would have a positive impact on the neighborhood,” the Prado representative said. “If you do have any leads, please do send them our way.”
As for the block’s new centerpiece, Voodoo hasn’t announced an opening date yet but Prado Group says it is expecting the “new tenant” to be in place “sometime in the first quarter of 2024.”
With reporting by Emma Schwichtenberg
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Not exciting at all. Nothing new and innovative happening here. Capitol Hill is a bore. Not enough variety. Do three people own all the restaurants in this neighborhood? At least it’s not another chicken place.
You’re probably fun at parties
You are probably a bore at parties, but you THINK you are fun.
Yasss, Sis! Get out the claws! MEOW!
Why do we need a Portland-based doughnut shop to move in (we have plenty of great ones in Seattle now) while we lose three local f&d small business here?
Maybe another vegan donut place is what we need
Idk about vegan, maybe gluten-free doughnuts (if that’s a thing)? More importantly: a business that’s not owned by a private equity firm.
Prado Group and Fundamental Capital are both based out of SF. They’re here to make money not friends.
It is a thing! dudesvegandonuts.com
Cap Hill is a bore. It’s over priced. Drag brunch is so common, and expensive 35 dollars for a picture of mimosas, that it is nothing more than Saturday night’s bill all in one Sunday morning. Also shout out to Seattle legendary drag queen teriyaki temple, she was riot and all around a nice person, I think she moved to California sometime ago… ohh the hill, back when it was just lgbt(qia was just being introduced.).
Tim, my friend sent this to me. You seriously made my day! I live in Seattle and Portland these days. Half time in both places. I was in California for a while but missed the NW and came back. Feel free to add me as a friend if you’d like.
Actually please add me as people might think I wrote this myself. LOL.
How in the world does McMenamins still have a restaurant there and all these other great places going out of business??!
It’s about scale and the resources to surmount the ecosystem costs. Corporate entities have it, smaller entities mostly do not.
ESPECIALLY with McMenamins getting sued for wage theft of tips!
“Our market research shows there is huge market demand from people who think Mighty O isn’t expensive enough, but don’t like Top Pot’s fresh and local ingredients and chill ambiance, yet are too snobby for grocery store donuts.”
“–Let’s kick out a 35-year neighborhood fixture and two other local businesses and shove in a block-long franchise of the West Coast version of Kispy Kreme!”
“–YEAH!!!!! Mad value!” *high fives*
This comment is unfortunate but amicable.
QFC SELLS TOP POT
Can’t wait to see all the trendy sheep lined up in the rain for an over-priced donut. Predominately bored techies. Predominately white. All boring.
Why do you think that the majority of tech workers are white? Looks like at least Amazon and Microsoft corporate employees (ie the ones that you’re complaining about) are minority white, and if we look at just “tech” roles (remove marketing, finance, etc) then they’re overwhelmingly Asian. But Asians are boring right?
YEP.
Oh goody, crappy Portland donuts.
What a shame that a greedy landlord has caused an institution to shutter and now 2 decent mom n pop local joints to shutter soon. To make way for Gentrified overpriced donuts. I can hardly wait.
I liked the noodle and Pho place too, hope they can relocate but I know they may choose to just close which is a shame. Thanks conglomerate landlords.
It’s weird how this is positioned as all of these tenants are moving out because Donuts is moving in.
Because that’s literally what’s happening — they were renting month-to-month while waiting on a new lease with the landlord, but the landlord signed a lease with Voodoo instead, which requires the previous tenants to vacate.
1 donut shop lease is forcing 2+ tenants out? How big of a donut shop is it?
Why was it necessary to kick these guys out when there’s empty spots available in the same block. What nightmare landlords.
‘Unfortunate, but amicable’
This is NOT what I heard from people in these spots. But there’s only so much you can say publicly I guess.
Absolutely horrible. No doubt all three restaurants were month to month while the owner courted Voodoo Donuts, and the lease renewal fell apart because the owner wanted these three restaurants to pay what Voodoo was willing to pay. Stale-ass donuts took away my favorite restaurant in this city.
Pho 4 u was the best pho place in Seattle, mom and pop shop moving for some bunk vegan Portland bacon donuts. What a joke