Fuel only lasted a year on the Broadway grind. The coffee chain says it will shutter its walk-up counter on the street this week.
“We have made the tough decision to close the walk-up in order to focus on our three other locations (Capitol Hill, Montlake, and Wallingford),” the company’s announcement of the closure reads. “This is not a decision we take lightly, and we are bummed to be leaving Broadway so soon after opening there.”
Fuel took over the walk-up last fall, overhauling, improving the space, and adding a colorful burst of neon to Broadway in the stand made famous for decades as Vivace’s walk-up bar.
CHS reported here in May of 2020 on the Ada’s family of cafes and bookstores acquisition of Fuel from founder Dani Cone as Danielle and David Hulton set out on a plan to expand their mix of cafes and bookshops across the city.
The coffee counter closure is the latest in a small wave of food and drink shutdowns across Capitol HIll including two recent Broadway goodbyes as Olmstead has exited the old Broadway Grill space and Queen of Sheba brought its long run of Ethiopian classics to a close just around the corner on E John.
As usual, new restaurant projects are incoming including the next about to open on Broadway — Capitale Pizzeria from Seattle restaurant veteran Rodrigo Parisi.
In its announcement, Fuel said it turned out the Broadway walk-up and its 6 AM openings weren’t a good match for the cafe chain.
“We take our employee well-being seriously, and by closing the Broadway location, we can focus on the work environment that we’ve found is best for our team,” the announcement reads “We love our Broadway team members, and have offered all of them positions at our other locations if they’d like to stay on.”
UPDATE: Owner Danielle Hulton tells CHS it wasn’t public safety issues as much as business and logistical issues that led to the closure.
“I do not think Broadway specifically is unsafe for workers. We did have some safety incidents, but those were not the driving factor behind the decision, and not necessarily unique to Broadway,” Hulton said. “There are many businesses still on Broadway that we should all support and frequent.”
“The walk-up model was an experiment for us, and it just wasn’t what we expected in terms of busy-ness,” Hulton writes. “There is a really wonderful community of regulars that we are going to miss on Broadway, but we are closing at this time to focus on the cafes that have indoor seating and are just more busy in general.”
“I’m sad to be leaving Broadway,” Hulton said, “but at this time, it’s the best for our team and the company.”
As for the neon, Fuel will be taking it with them with plans for the future.
“There are hopes for it shining again someday,” Hulton writes.
Fuel says the 321 Broadway E coffee bar’s final day of service will be Sunday, September 29th.
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Far too many challenges on that block to survive. It’s sad, that block used to be the center of the community on Broadway Ave. But since pandemic the character has changed significantly, and at this point I’d argue it is more “people experiencing crisis” of some kind outnumbering people just doing normal pedestrian things.
Joy Hollingsworth are you listening? Broadway Ave north of John used to be a major hub of Capitol Hill; some good places still exist, but there are crisis zones now on every block. Wasn’t always like this. Is now though.
I don’t know what JH listens to but the people in her district it ain’t
Depends on your perspective.
Smoke a doobie and suddenly all your ideas are great! And do we REALLY know what is going on in that head? I 100% believe she hears voices.
Yet another small business throwing in the towel because of the security situation created drug addicts and dealers that the city progressives have enabled to destroy the city.
They didn’t fail because of the drugs. They failed because they were attempting to serve overpriced coffee drinks with no seating area in a location full of competitively priced high quality cafes.
After watching a guy pee in the side area between them and the bank parking lot one morning, I decided just to go to Post Pike because it wasn’t as gross and sketch. There are often people in drug or mental crisis in that area. I’m not going to wait for a coffee order with a guy screaming in the parking lot next to me.
If you read the article and read between the lines, it is clear that they closed because it wasn’t safe for employees due to the drug zombie apocalypse. The prices reflect progressive employee mandates including the highest minimum wage in the country. You seem to be living in an alternate reality.
“If you read the article and read between the lines,”
Yes…If you ignore the facts from the horses’ mouth.
Then insert your dogma of propaganda falsehoods and outright lies? Then you can say whatever you want. And you do. Fact free ignorance. You are deliberately obtuse to spew your narrative.
I know who you vote for.
“No seating” is a HUGE risk.
Monorail Coffee has no seating. They have a velvet rope and there’s often a line. If you are parked under the convention center and adjacent to of near the Ritz and 4 Season Hilton mucky mucks. Who needs seating? Even Dick’s understands the “seating” thing. Up here on the Hill? Wallingford? No need. But the new stores and Queen Anne have seating. No seating is really unique. I am up there at 6AM and it’s a ghost town.
“Full of competitively priced high quality cafes”… where? Almost every early morning spot to get coffee on that strip is gone now with the exception of the main Vivace. Honor closed, Roy St closed, Kitanda isn’t terribly reliable, the Starbucks all left so that isn’t even a back up option. Many of the local spots if you want to walk further don’t even open until 8 or even 9 which is frankly too late.
Exactly. This quote from the article shows the reality that the street disorder on Broadway is closing many businesses.
“In its announcement, Fuel said it turned out the Broadway walk-up and its 6 AM openings weren’t a good match for the cafe chain.
“We take our employee well-being seriously,”
That is a really polite way of saying sketchy street people at 6 am have ruined our business model of serving delicious hot coffee to locals heading to work or out and about in the morning, or to construction guys showing up to go to work (TNT across the street thrived on this for years, a row of trucks lined up at 7:30 am)…
Bottom line, Seattle’s Progressive “harm reduction” has put an open air drug market and unsupervised mental crisis ward where a functioning middle class city commercial and social meeting hub street used to be. I have seen it all for 35 years. New arrivals lecturing me on various quibbles are not helping, nor are you telling the truth.
Really? 1/2 truths are lies you know? And you DELIBERATELY lied to make yourself “right”?
UPDATE: “Owner Danielle Hulton tells CHS it wasn’t public safety issues as much as business and logistical issues that led to the closure.”
Then…
““I do not think Broadway specifically is unsafe for workers. We did have some safety incidents, but those were not the driving factor behind the decision, and not necessarily unique to Broadway,” Hulton said. “There are many businesses still on Broadway that we should all support and frequent.”
““The walk-up model was an experiment for us, and it just wasn’t what we expected in terms of busy-ness,” Hulton writes. “There is a really wonderful community of regulars that we are going to miss on Broadway, but we are closing at this time to focus on the cafes that have indoor seating and are just more busy in general.””
So you left ALL of that out to prove a point that’s a lie? Why do you MAGA types simply ignore facts? Then lie?
The “Update” about the owner’s statement had not been posted when I made my comment.
Do you not think that public safety is what is causing people to not go, aka the busy-ness? No one wants to stand around outside to get coffee when there’s someone yelling and threatening you with harm out there.
“Reality” is you do this constantly. Blame something w/o facts or worse, as in this case, clearly states it was NOT the drugs et al. I mean c’mon man…Have some comprehension. Do you not take pride in what you say?
Maybe city council should’ve extended that zone to Roy street. So does this basically leave the Starbucks in QFC, Kitanda, and Vivace the only remaining cafes and coffee stands on Broadway E between Roy and John/Olive streets?
There’s the Post Pike spot by the post office, and then there’s French Guys and Basecamp less than a block off Broadway in this area…
Post Pike is a big win these days. They’ve managed to fuse elements of Espresso Roma or Vivace’, a modern take on Andy’s Diner, and Charlie’s Back Bar for community and drinks into a wonderful little oasis. Check them out if you haven’t already.
Yep, I’ve been a number of times and I really appreciate their commitment to being a full day spot, it’s hard to afford, but they have a great group of regulars and a solid thing going. I hope we can see more of that over time.
Andy’s and Charlie’s like?! I’m sold and will definitely be checking them out just for that, thank you!
There’s also Tous Les Jours inside M2M, which is decent. Post Pike is allegedly a cafe but I’ve only ever had alcoholic drinks there. And a new cafe recently opened by the AIDS Memorial Plaza.
A block off Broadway you of course also have Glo’s and Basecamp, the latter of which is IMO the best coffee you’ll find in this stretch, outside of Vivace
Glos, where a menu made 30 years ago by a working class woman with actual community ties, where everything on the menu was $6 or less … has evolved into a living museum of the American Diner, prices in the $40 range, Required 20% surcharge.
The food is still good, but good lord the prices now. And they still act like they’re just normal regular workin’ folks….
I’m really curious what you eat there that is $40. Is it actually on the menu? Or are you calculating in drinks and additional sides?
Personally, I’m in and out of there for about $25 after tax and tip, usually with coffee. Hard to beat that for a full-service breakfast with actual protein on the hill.
Just tracking national inflation, anything $6 three decades ago should be selling for $11 today in your little scenario… Adding on a business model that pays a living wage and moving to a premium location and prices might go up some from that, but Glo’s is pretty reasonably priced all things considered.
If you want someone to make you coffee and eggs for less than that you may need to work on spending less time here and more time making some friends that could invite you over for breakfast.
Tous Le Jours unfortunately doesn’t open until 9, which is frankly too late to replace a lot of what’s been lost around there.
If you expand slightly you’ve also got French Guys and Seasmith, both serving excellent coffee.
The drinks they advertised on the board were too fancy and complicated to drink early in the a.m.
And the prices–absurd!
That spot needs a pro-union cuppa Joe type brand.
You should open that pro-union place where Fuel is vacating. Offer basic coffee at a very low price, but pay your staff handsomely. You’ll lose your shirt within 3 months, but that’s okay, because you will be doing the righteous thing
This forum software needs an “upvote” or a “like.”
I like that you have to comment to like or dislike. You can’t vote for yourself either.
With a $20 minimum wage those prices are here to stay. I’m happy to pay for a great barista, but I only get a coffee out once a week now that the prices have risen so much at Vivace, Fuel, and elsewhere…
Probably not possible to survive there with the number of unfortunates camped out along Broadway.
Then how does other businesses survive? Their business model was wrong for that location. If they had seating? It would have flew I bet.
The united auto workers Java division will surely have it reopened soon
The brand new SODA zone (south of Thomas Street) will be great for North Broadway, I’m sure…
They drew a line with my neighborhood just on the other side of it, with an already non-trivial crime and drug user issue along Broadway north of John.
Let’s see how things go. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
My dream is for this to become a Blade Runner style walk-up late night ramen spot. But I suspect with the issues that little nook of the neighborhood has right now, that might not be the best option right now.
Previously shopped at qfc, but since bike stolen out front in middle of day with lock cut, it’s off to uvillage. I believe qfc will exit Broadway locations when they can. I wonder how long they have left on lease..
So you saw all the people hanging out on the sidewalk and thought “Yeah, this is a good place for my bike?”
I’ve never had a problem at QFC, and capitol hill would have no legitimate grocery stores west of 15th ave without it.
Talk about victim blaming. Yes/No question – do you think the addict who stole their locked bike should spend at least a couple of days in jail? I do.
How can one separate lack of customers from perceptions/reality of public safety for a sidewalk cafe?
Well…The owner did just that. Spent 3 paragraphs and even updated it to make it as clear as possible. IT WAS NOT THE SECURITY ISSUES!
You need to work on your reading comprehension. Workers and customers aren’t the same thing.
Bummer…They sound like amazing people. Someone I’d bust my ass every day for. It’s always warm to here there’s still business owners out there who really care about people. Especially the people who work for them.
The crime issue was mentioned but not blamed. I suspect I’ll here that excuse in the comments below. It’s kinda a funky area as far as foot traffic. One thing I noticed about “off hours” businesses is that it’s hit and miss depending one the day. The street vendor’s face that too. I see them on Fri thru Sunday 8PM to 3AMish. They have them lined up 10-15 deep. And other times it’s just a steady trickle. Then other nights it just isn’t busy. They serve Mexican and it’s fabulous. They set up at the college on the NW corner behind the sign pedestal on E Pine and Broadway. Across from Walgreens. I highly recommend them. There’s even parking there on the curb.