For Capitol Hill neighborhood bars, mergers and acquisitions tend to be friendly takeovers. Changes at Rose Temple won’t mean the end of community and opportunities like food and drink pop-ups on E Olive Way.

Southwest-themed bar The Wash is opening in the former Rose Temple space this week. The owners Emilio Esparza and Nick Fizer have brought a new look to the space with a blend of Route 66 nostalgia and Yuma flair. The first-time owners also brought support from Seattle’s food and drink community to the mix.

“We’ve been in the Seattle bar scene for over a decade and have built strong connections,” Esparza said. “We’ve received mentorship and support from other local bar owners, which has been invaluable.”

The Wash aims to contribute to that community. “We want this to be the kind of space that it was at Rose Temple, welcoming, safe, comfortable, inclusive,” Esparza said.

CHS reported here in January on the plans for owners Austin Polley and Benjamin Smith to sell Rose Temple after five years of business. The Renee Erickson restaurant group veterans said the sale would give them the opportunity to focus their efforts — Polley is a new father and was preparing to go back to school to be a history teacher while Smith was planning to continue working in the food, drink, and nightlife industry. Polley and Smith also remain connected to the Hill with Donna’s on E Olive Way where they opened the new lounge with bar pasta, cocktails, and the spirit of Vito’s last fall.

“We’ve been talking about buying something and opening something for a while,”  Esparza said. “And right when we started looking we came in and had a chat with Austin and then he called me the next day and he was like, what would you think about buying this place? You know, and they were kind of in a transitionary period with just opening Donna’s. He had just had a baby and you know, so they put that in front of us and we couldn’t say no.”

The deal is part of a few changeovers around the Hill this spring. CHS also reported on new owners taking over at Broadway’s Corvus and Co.

For Esparza, Fizer, and the team, taking over the Rose Temple space and creating The Wash meant leaning heavily on industry experience and community support. The build-out has been a hands-on effort.

“We’ve done pretty much all of this ourselves with an interior designer and there’s been some contracting work that we just don’t have the skill set for but everything else has just been the three of us,” Esparza said. “We didn’t really change anything structurally. So we actually didn’t have to get a lot of permits for that and liquor licensing was really not that hard.”

Esparza, who hails from the Southwest, says The Wash has been designed under a dozen different influences from the area but named after a common feature of the landscape. A wash, he says, “is a dried out river bed, that during a monsoon, can flash flood. It’s just a reference to the southwest in general, without being ‘Cactus Bar.’”

“This bar is mostly supposed to be like a Southwest roadside motel, like a Route 66 Motel,” Esparza says. Although there’s no actual neon in the bar, yet, the bright colors are a salute to the noble gas.

The drinks menu also nods to Southwestern influences. “A big part of our bar program is going to be our agaves,” Esparza said. “We want to have some popular staples that you find in most bars, but also to be able to bring up some of the smaller brands or just fun stuff that we really liked that it’s not as prevalent and be able to get those names into the world.” If you’re not drinking alcohol, they’ll have two Aguas Frescas always going and a few NA cocktails on the menu.

There must be something appealing about the dry desert to Capitol Hill’s drizzly nightlife scene. The latest update to 11th Ave pop-up bar The Woods also has arid vibes in the shape of The Mystic Motel.

On E Olive Way, The Wash’s soft opening has been underway with the official grand opening set for Friday. The bar will offer a food menu Tuesday through Saturday until 1 AM, and will feature pop-up events on Sundays and Mondays, reminiscent of those hosted at Rose Temple.

With a busy June ahead, including a range of Pride events and community-focused activities, The Wash is set to make a splash in Capitol Hill.

“Let’s get ready to party,” Esparza says. “We have a ton of events lined up, and we can’t wait to welcome everyone to The Wash.”

The Wash is located at 1801 E Olive Way. Follow @thewashseattle for updates.

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