Tag Archives: 14th and union

CHS Pics | With OOLA Capitol Hill, Kirby Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff share their ‘all time favorite spot in their all time favorite neighborhood’

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Kirby Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff

Summer isn’t over yet and OOLA Capitol Hill’s patio at its new 14th and Union bottle shop, cocktail bar, and restaurant is ready when you are.

It has been a few weeks since the craft distillery returned to its home turf with the new hangout in the former home of Marjorie. CHS reported here on the opening as Kirby Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff put the final touches on the overhaul with help from their new teammates executive chef Liz Blacker and beverage director Devan Lenning.

The new OOLA is across the street from where it began distilling craft spirits in 2011. Now, three years after its move to a larger, easier to manage production facility in Georgetown, OOLA is back with a space dedicated to showcasing its gin, vodka, and whiskey along with farm-to-table pairings and creative cocktails.

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Homecoming: OOLA Capitol Hill opening new bottle shop, cocktail bar, and restaurant at 14th and Union

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(Image: OOLA)

(Image: OOLA)

OOLA Distillery picked up its barrels and still equipment and left 14th and Union three years ago but the Capitol Hill-rooted owners behind the craft spirits maker never did. Now, OOLA is returning to its birth neighborhood with a new bottle shop, cocktail bar, and restaurant.

“Our production facility will remain in Georgetown, but the face of all things OOLA will be on the Hill,” founder and head distiller Kirby Kallas-Lewis tells CHS.

With hopes for a July opening if all the paperwork goes well, OOLA Capitol Hill is being readied to open in the former home of Marjorie next to Skillet on the northeast corner of 14th and Union. CHS reported here on Donna Moodie’s decision to move Marjorie nine blocks to a new home at 23rd and Union.

For Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff, the couple behind OOLA, the new project is a full melding of life, business, and making great gin and whiskey. They were married at Marjorie and still live “a stone’s throw” from the corner. Their plans include “fresh herbs, edible flowers and eggs from their chickens” from their “extensive” backyard garden and a promise for “a true farm to table urban oasis.”

“Expect to be hosted by KT and Kirby when you come by — this is the definition of ‘owner operated,'” they say in the announcement of the new project. Continue reading →

Not Boujie: Change in plans has Marjorie making nine-block move to the Central District

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(Image: Marjorie)

Fans of 14th and Union’s Marjorie already had some good news to soften the blow of Donna Moodie’s decision to shut the restaurant down after 13 years on the block and 20 years of business in Seattle. The busy restaurant entrepreneur and one of the few black owners in Seattle food and drink was preparing plans for a new Boujie Bar in the Central District.

Now, Moodie says she wants Marjorie to live on — Boujie Bar will have to wait. The restaurateur announced the switch in plans in a recent Seattle Times interview saying the 23rd and Union project will be “Marjorie 3.0” after her start in Belltown and eventual move in 2010 to Capitol Hill.

“I just couldn’t part with Marjorie,” Moodie told the Times. “It came to me when I was in the process of saying goodbye.” Continue reading →

After 13 years at 14th and Union, Marjorie will close with final ‘end of an era’ dinner — and new Central District bar project in the works

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(Image: Marjorie)

A Capitol Hill community and restaurant industry leader is ending her long run at 14th and Union.

Donna Moodie has confirmed plans that her Caribbean-inspired, “food for the soul” eatery Marjorie is closing this week after 13 years. The restaurant announced last week it would hold a final “end of an era” dinner party Wednesday, March 29th.

Moodie, reached via Community Roots Housing where she also works to lead the organization’s Capitol Hill EcoDistrict efforts, declined to say more right now about the abrupt closure but said she expects more “news” after what she expects to be “a hectic couple of weeks.”

Whether it is a sale to make room for a new concept or simply Moodie winding Marjorie down, Moodie is staying busy in the area — about nine blocks east. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Skillet Diner revamps dinner menu, extends nightly hours

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(Image: Skillet)

Another Capitol Hill food and drink staple born on the move is making a few changes.

Earlier this week, CHS reported on farmers market-born Kedai Makan’s decision to close down on Bellevue Ave after a decade of Capitol Hill food and drink.

Skillet was born 15 years ago in a converted Airstream trailer at the dawn of the modern “street food” era and vaulted to the next level of Seattle comfort food status with the 2011 opening of its first diner on Capitol Hill.

Now part of a four location family with Skillets also parts of the scenes at Seattle Center and Sea-Tac airport, the E Union diner is adding more evening hours and overhauling its menu with new appetizers and dinner items, the company announced. Continue reading →

Former Oola Distillery and La Panzanella bakery to make way for seven-story mixed-use project at 14th and Union

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(Image: King County)

Developers have filed early plans for a new seven-story mixed-use building at the corner if 14th and Union where a cluster of food and drink businesses has already faded away over recent years and one of Capitol Hill’s remaining light industrial spaces will be turned over to the ongoing demand for new housing in the neighborhood.

This corner of Capitol Hill redevelopment will play out in a slightly different order than most. This time, bars, restaurants, and the craft distillery that called the property home in recent years moved away before the plans for demolition arrived.

According to the early permit filings from Euclid Development and the Capitol Hill-based architects and Board and Vellum, the former La Panzanella bakery property recently home to businesses including Oola Distillery, gay bar Union, Restaurant Zoe, and Bar Sue will be demolished to make room for a seven-story, 80-unit mixed-use apartment building, with commercial space at street level, and underground parking. Continue reading →