Tag Archives: chophouse row

‘If your gut is healthy, your mind is healthy’ — Anbai is growing bento by bento from the Chophouse Row counter

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(Image: Anbai)

Another Capitol Hill counter expert has helped Anbai’s start — Rie Otsuka, right, has lended some of her experience growing Sankaku Japanese Onigiri Cafe and Bar to Mukohata (Image: Anbai)

By Emily Riehl

The mix of small spaces for shops and restaurants inside the warrens of Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row have provided homes for some of the neighborhood’s most interesting businesses.

One of those spaces is currently host to one of those ventures you — and your tummy — should check out.

Meanwhile, another food and drink project benefitting from Chophouse is ready to strike out for a new start away from the challenging and expensive environment of Seattle.

Tummy, meet Anbai, the latest resident of perhaps the most interesting space inside this 11th Ave collection of interesting spaces — the Chophouse Row counter.

“Focusing on improving your gut health through fermented delicious healthy food” is the guiding mantra of Anbai. Run nearly single-handedly by owner Fumiyo Mukohata, the eatery is just getting started, serving up a variety of bento boxes and nutrient-packed dishes designed to boost digestion, fight inflammation, and protect your gut from toxins.

About 20 years ago, Mukohata moved from Japan with expertise in the “the inner beauty diet” emphasizing fermented foods rich in probiotics that support digestion and gut health. After her daughter developed multiple allergies, Mukohata became deeply interested in how certain foods can benefit health, eventually discovering that traditional fermented Japanese foods like miso, and shoyu koji were particularly helpful.

“The gut and the brain are connected. If your gut is healthy, your mind is healthy,” says Mukohata. Continue reading →

XĂłm’s elevated Vietnamese now open in Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row

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Of all the spaces on Capitol Hill that feel deeply ingrained in the neighborhood, few were created in the last decade’s waves of redevelopment. Some will eventually weave their way into the fabric but the new spaces tend to be larger and more separated from the Hill, designed to fit a variety of possible commercial tenants. A rarity in this mix, the now eight-year-old Chophouse Row development’s core restaurant space a has new start this autumn and is full of neighborhood-ful life with the opening of XĂłm, a new “elevated” Vietnamese joint from an under-30 restaurateur who already has multiple openings under his belt.

CHS reported last month on the plan for Cuong Nguyen to take over the space formerly home to Marmite as Seattle food and drink veteran Bruce Naftaly planned his retirement from the industry.

Nguyen’s new restaurant has now moved in and added a few personal touches including new plants and indoor trees in the food and drink space at the core of Chophouse Row. The name was chosen to express the idea of a tight-knit neighborhood, Nguyen says. Continue reading →

XĂłm ready to create a new Vietnamese food+drink ‘neighborhood’ in Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row

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A young Seattle restaurateur will be filling big shoes — and big bowls — with his latest project XĂłm set to take over the space left empty by the closure of Marmite in Chophouse Row.

To add to the challenge, XĂłm won’t even be the first new restaurant 27-year-old Cuong Nguyen has opened this year.

It is a fitting changeover. Seattle restaurant veteran Bruce Naftaly created Marmite around his soup and broth creations. Nguyen’s XĂłm has his family’s contributions to the Seattle area pho scene at its base.

Nguyen was born in Vietnam, moved to Seattle in 2005. By 2008, his parents opened Pho Ha in Shoreline and he began working there as a teenager. While it was first seen as a task, he found his passion in the family-owned business. While managing Pho Ha, Nguyen opened Ong Lam Bistro in Greenwood in January.

“I can’t go back home too often. I wanted to make something like home work here, especially for a lot of the elder immigrants that got here in 1970-80. Because of the political issue, a lot of them still avoid trying to go back, even though they miss home because that’s where they are from,” Nguyen told CHS.

Continue reading →

PopRox Studio bringing ‘all genders, all levels, all bodies, all ages, all fun’ dance to Capitol Hill with new location in Chophouse Row

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(Image: PopRox Studio)

(Image: PopRox Studio)

By Soumya Gupta, CHS intern

PopRox Studio, a Seattle dance studio that offers “confidence building, judgment free dance classes for kids and adults,” has announced its plans to open a new studio on Capitol Hill in the Chophouse Row commercial development.

It will be the growing business’s second studio, after its first location in University District.

Co-founders of PopRox Studio, Kinsey Flores and Cathy Barnett, officially announced plans for the new studio this week.

“We explored the neighbourhood quite a bit, and absolutely loved what the community had to offer to help us grow,” Barnett said. “The Chophouse Row is also a unique location, which hosts brands with a similar ethos like ours.”

The new studio will be located on the lower level of the 11th Ave Chophouse Row building where a series of businesses have rotated through. But the PopRox effort to create the new studio will be a larger investment. The new PopRox will debut in January 2024. Continue reading →

A Capitol Hill retirement: Marmite will close in Chophouse Row and make way for new Vietnamese restaurant Xom

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Bruce Naftaly

Pioneers in Seattle’s farm to table culinary movement are ready for retirement.

Bruce Naftaly has announced Marmite, the restaurant he and wife Sara Naftaly opened six and a half years ago to fill in a major hole in Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row, will close at the end of the month.

“I sincerely thank everyone who has supported us with love, enthusiasm, and a shared desire to embrace and enjoy life one meal at a time,” Bruce wrote in the brief goodbye message posted to the restaurant’s social media.

Naftaly said a new Vietnamese restaurant called Xom from Cuong Nguyen will fill the prime Chophouse space. Continue reading →

After 12 years at Melrose Market, Butter Home finds a new Capitol Hill home in Chophouse Row

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(Image: Butter Home)

Butter Home, a woman-owned brick-and-mortar store known for its unique and functional products, is relocating from Melrose Market to Chophouse Row on 11th and Pike. The new location is just a 13 minute walk, eight blocks away.

Claire Corley opened Butter Home 12 years ago. She says that her background in retail and her husband’s small business experience made the process of opening her own store less daunting.

“I really wanted to find a way to connect artists and independent makers with the community,” Corley said.

Butter Home shifted and flowed into available space over its 12 years at Melrose Market, an indoor food and retail market on Capitol Hill’s west side. They occupied two different spaces within the market for six years each. The first location was a small loft and according to Corley, they did not have the experience to know what they needed to succeed in the space.

Things are more clear now. According to Corley, the opportunity for Butter Home to move into the new location at Chophouse Row arose during COVID, as the previous tenant, florist shop Marigold & Mint, had permanently closed. This allowed Butter Home to design and build the space with their specific needs in mind.

“The company that is doing the buildout for the space, Vertical Ledge, they’ve made kind of modular birch popup pieces for retail people that do pop ups, and they’re launching a line for retail stores, and this is going to be kind of a beta project for them,” said Corley. Continue reading →

With lasagne by the square, panini, and an Italian happy hour, La Spiga’s little sister La Dispensa now open in Chophouse Row

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Lasagne to stay — or go — at La Dispensa

Part deli, part meals to go counter, part Italian cafe, and all through the Instagram-worthy filter of Chophouse Row, La Dispensa is adding new life to the weekday Pike/Pine lunch and happy hour scenes.

The new offshoot of 12th Ave’s Osteria La Spiga has opened for business in the internal counter space of the Chophouse development with “delicious house-made lunches, satisfying take-home meals, a lively Italian happy hour, cooking demos and more.”

CHS reported earlier this year on the project from La Spiga executive chef Sabrina Tinsley and the rare new venture from La Spiga, one of the few Black-owned restaurants and bars on Capitol Hill, that has been part of the neighborhood for nearly 25 years, moving to 12th Ave from Broadway in 2006. Continue reading →

Biker bar: Good Weather Bicycles and Tailwind Cafe celebrating five years in Chophouse Row with new chef — and cocktails

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(Image: Good Weather)

Try a Fresh Lunch Bowl (Image: Good Weather)

Just as any Seattle bike rider needs to pick their route through the city’s hills and boulevards, fans of Capitol Hill area bike cafes can also choose their own path where bikes, food, and drink meet. Good Weather Bicycles, part of a still going strong pack of area bike joints, is celebrating five years in Chophouse Row with new boozy offerings and a new menu approach at its Tailwind Cafe sister.

The upgrades include a full liquor license and additional indoor seating for winter, “as well as big changes to their food offerings,” Good Weather announced. “These changes help to facilitate people working remotely throughout the day, and offer a nice space for those in search of cocktails, beer, wine, and snacks later on in the evening.” Continue reading →

La Spiga to go? La Dispensa ‘small Italian deli and gastronomy concept’ coming to Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row

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Borghesi and Tinsley (Image: La Spiga)

The husband and wife team behind Capitol Hill Italian classic Osteria La Spiga are readying a small but hearty new addition that will bring pastas and takeout lasagne, meats and cheeses, plus deli treats like panini and piadina sandwiches to Chophouse Row.

La Dispena — or, The Pantry — will create a new counter concept at the retail and office development’s coworking Cloud Room space with plans for a debut this fall.

La Spiga executive chef Sabrina Tinsley and co-founder and manager Pietro Borghesi are preparing for an opening later this year of the small counter space in a ground level lobby of Chophouse Row envisioned as “a small Italian deli and gastronomy concept.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill, your adaptogenic mushroom coffee joint is ready — Wunderground Cafe planning Hilloween opening

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A sneak peak of the Electric Coffin art installation, Wunderground’s Brainchild coffee and a brain wash vanilla latte (Image: Wunderground Cafe)

Adaptogenic mushroom coffee joint Wunderground Cafe is planning a Hilloween debut.

The project from founder Jody Hall and chef Alyssa Lisle to create a new grain bowl, bone broth, and mushroom coffee cafe in the space formerly home to Hall’s E Pike Cupcake Royale location is set to open on Halloween, the newly launched Wunderground company announced. Continue reading →