Seattle’s first — and only — STAY OUT OF DRUG AREA ORDER issued on Capitol Hill

A screenshot of a Seattle "STAY OUT OF DRUG AREA ORDER" for SODA Zone 4 on Capitol Hill

The Seattle Times reports that the city’s new criminal banishment zones aren’t being used by police or the justice system and only one person has so far been banned from a zone — a person arrested for drug use on Capitol Hill.

According to Seattle Municipal Court records obtained by CHS, the lone Seattle “STAY OUT OF DRUG AREA ORDER” was issued in December in a bust for smoking fentanyl outside the Harvard Market QFC.

“I observed XXX had a ‘tooter’ straw in her mouth. She had a piece of tin foil held up under the tooter straw,” the redacted SPD report on the incident reads. “Beneath the tin foil, XXX apparently had a lighter she used to ignite something on the surface of the tin foil and inhale the resulting smoke through the tooter straw.” Continue reading

Smoky garage garbage fire clears Capitol Hill’s Harvard Market

Thanks to reader Scott for this picture showing a smoky Broadway

Thanks to CHS reader John for the picture

Capitol Hill’s Harvard Market was evacuated Sunday after a rubbish fire in the Broadway at Pike shopping center’s parking garage.

Seattle Fire was called to the garage around 10:30 AM Sunday and found the fire being knocked down by the building’s fire suppression sprinklers. SFD said it used its hoses to finish the job.

Multiple businesses around the fire including the corner’s QFC were evacuated during the response and as SFD worked to clear smoke from the structure. There were no reported injuries.

Seattle Fire was investigating the cause.

The large response filled Broadway with emergency vehicles.

The shopping center is currently on the market, listed by its local ownership for $25 million amid an effort by city officials and business and community groups to address public safety issues centered on its block, CHS reported in September.

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AT&T closes store at Broadway and Pike as Harvard Market shopping center adapts to shifting Capitol Hill commercial real estate demand

From a Harvard Market lease promotion

The company says it is simply responding to changing “shopping habits” of Seattle mobile phone consumers as the AT&T store at Pike and Broadway has been permanently closed.

“Consumer shopping habits continue to change, and weโ€™re changing with them,” an AT&T spokesperson tells CHS. “That means serving customers where they are through the right mix of retail stores, digital channels, and our phone-based care team. In April, we opened a new store at 1504 6th Avenue in downtown Seattle. Itโ€™s less than a mile from the Pike location and is easily accessible to the public.”

AT&T says shoppers can also visit its University Village shopping center location.

“We take pride in our continued community presence and local network investments,” the spokesperson said. Continue reading

‘Luxury spa services, gourmet treats and premium pet nutrition’ — Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming coming to Broadway

(Image: Woof Gang)

Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming, a rapidly expanding franchise of pet food, supplies, and grooming services, is coming to Capitol Hill with promises of luxury spa days and fresh-baked treats along Broadway for the neighborhood’s booming population of fur babies.

“It’s been a fur-rific ride of rapid growth and expansion for us, and we’re pawsitively thrilled to be bringing our personalized grooming services and high-quality products to even more pet parents in these lively and vibrant cities,” a message from company CEO and fast food industry veteran Ricardo Azevedo said about the western expansion of Woof Gang with new franchise agreements rolled out in Arizona, Idaho, and Washington, according to the announcement.

“To enter three major states in such a short span of time is truly a testament to the power of our brand and our leading position in a thriving and dynamic industry,” Azevedo said in the announcement.

The chain’s Seattle expansion, part of a wave of what the company says is nearly 400 new locations in development across the country, will come in Capitol Hill’s Harvard Market shopping center above Broadway and Pike. Continue reading

Feeling rejected, Capitol Hill? Crane’s Landing embraces its neighborhood with pho and banh mi — and good vibes

You ordered too much (Image: Crane’s Landing)

As one of the biggest companies doing business on Capitol Hill is rejecting the neighborhood, one of the smallest is very happy, indeed, to be here.

Without advertising or even signage, people from the neighborhood have been trickling into Crane’s Landing, now perched above the busy intersection of Pike and Broadway in the Harvard Market shopping center.

“When we opened, it was word of mouth,” Chap Le said. “The people have been great.”

The new Vietnamese restaurant is doing steady business, Le says, with standards focused around pho and banh mi and a “good vibes only” attitude. Continue reading

Chicken Factory: Living Capitol Hill’s future dreams of Korean fried chicken — and corn dogs — on every corner

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The different spices and flavors of Korean fried chicken are multitude. So are the number of Korean fried chicken joints you can now walk to around Capitol Hill.

The latest — Chicken Factory — quietly opened a few weeks back and has put the former home of the popular Marination Station back into motion for the first time since the popular counter joint shut down at the height of the pandemic in September 2020 after a decade of business above the intersection of Pike and Broadway.

Don’t let Chicken Factory’s name and its seemingly ripe for national expansion logo fool you. It’s a homegrown business from Seattle restaurateur Kim Young. The chicken is made to order and comes hot and crispy. Ownership honed its logistics with Korean dishes and drinks at Tig Kitchen and Bar in the University District. Continue reading

Refining ramen, Ooink celebrates five years on Capitol Hill

Chong Boon Ooi (where the extra โ€œoโ€ in โ€œOoinkโ€ comes from) is passionate about ramen. Itโ€™s clear in how he prepares it but also how he talks about it. โ€œYou canโ€™t just add a couple ingredients and get umami, this is a process.โ€

The ramen joint is celebrating five years this month at their location above QFC on Broadway and Pike, which he calls an โ€œinteresting placeโ€ and why they decided to move here.

โ€œI just love this location, the people, the nightlife. Itโ€™s a unique place.โ€ย  Although the challenges of owning a restaurant are ever present, the pandemic has forced Chong to โ€œmove forward and find a solution.โ€

The menu hasnโ€™t changed much since he opened Ooink with his wife Jiaxin Wang five years ago. Chong has chosen to focus on refinement, not change.

โ€œWe still try to refine what we do and achieve better. I donโ€™t like to create new dishes, I like to do what I do and make it better.โ€ Continue reading

Aloha means goodbye: Capitol Hill’s Marination Station announces permanent closure as Seattle’s catering business dries up

(Image: Marination)

Marination Station, the first foothold in what may have been Capitol Hill’s most successful blossoming of a food truck into Seattle brick and mortar street food empire, is shutting down after nearly a decade of business above Pike and Broadway.

“Our team was small and mighty as was that store,” Kamala Saxton tells CHS about the decision to permanently close the longest running fixed-place location in the Marination food and drink family.

Saxton says the Station, while known to neighbors and weekend nightlife visitors as a place for fast Hawaiian-Korean style chow, also was the company’s catering core with the busy kitchen supplying lunches for Seattle’s voracious corporate appetites. As catering opportunity has all but disappeared in the city, Saxton said it didn’t make sense to keep the Station open. Continue reading

About that early Saturday morning gunfire you heard on Capitol Hillโ€ฆ — UPDATE

If there is truly a staffing issue at Seattle Police and in the East Precinct, it wasn’t evident early Saturday morning after a bout of nighttime gunfire drew a small army of officers and ended with at least four people cuffed and in custody.

Five or so gunshots reportedly rang out across Pike/Pine just before 3 AM from the area near the Harvard Market parking lot. Police had already been responding to a large fight disturbance in the Broadway Mud Bay parking lot when East Precinct radio dispatches reported the firearm activity nearby. Continue reading