Kirby Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff’s “all time favorite spot in their all time favorite neighborhood” will be available again.

The OOLA Capitol Hill restaurant has shuttered while its Georgetown craft spirits distillery will carry on.

The 14th and Union restaurant had been shuttered for a prolonged “temporary closure” that is now permanent. CHS checked in with Kallas-Lewis a few weeks back but the owners weren’t certain about their plans. Over the weekend, they posted the sad decision:

Kirby and I want to share with you that we will be closing our OOLA Capitol Hill Restaurant, effective immediately.
It has been a true pleasure sharing our little oasis on Capitol Hill with you all. Thank you for the magical moments and energy you’ve brought into the space, and for being so present for this great experiment.

But the couple reports the OOLA Distillery “lives on.”

“After we take a breather, we’ll be hosting some episodic fun at the distillery. And, of course, making spirits and living a spirited life,” they write.

OOLA started as a craft distiller at 14th Ave and E Union, but switched its license to a general distiller in order to start importing bottles of rare scotches for retail. That venture never panned out, but the license has allowed OOLA to innovate in other ways. OOLA’s Three Shores Whiskey, for instance, blends Highland scotch and Canadian whiskey aged in American oak barrels. In late 2020, CHS reported OOLA’s pandemic-rushed plans to move its distilling facility to Georgetown.

CHS reported here in the late summer of 2023 as OOLA opened its new bottle shop, cocktail bar, and restaurant at 14th and Union across the street where they first jumped into the distillery business in 2011.

The restaurant the new OOLA food and drink project was replacing at 14th and Union, meanwhile, moved a few blocks east and is now happily part of the mix of Black-owned and neighborhood businesses at 23rd and Union. CHS reported this fall on Marjorie’s new start in the Central District as Donna Moodie’s longtime Seattle favorite became the second small business in the city to take part in its Business Community Ownership Fund, a first of its kind program hoped to give owners more control over rents — and their futures.

Now with OOLA’s restaurant shuttered, the old Marjorie space is again open for the next food and drink entrepreneur to move in.

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