Tag Archives: jefferson

HoneyHole cousin Beck’s Bar and Grill could be pushed aside by re-started mixed-use development plans

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One design concept on the table for the E Jefferson development

From the short-lived E Jefferson HoneyHole days

If you’ve been waiting to enjoy the new E Jefferson cousin in the HoneyHole Capitol Hill area restaurant family, there might be other plans.

A long stalled redevelopment of the corner restaurant property is moving forward with plans for a new 5-story, 52-unit apartment building with street level commercial space from Seattle real estate developer Lei Cheng. Land use signs have gone up on the block in recent weeks but the project has been in motion for years.

The project would demolish the 1950s-era building where HoneyHole spinoff Beck’s Bar & Grill has been lined up for in spite of the lingering development plan. Continue reading →

L’Oursin sibling Bar Bayonne has ‘train station-style baguette sandwiches’ by day, cocktails and jambon by night on E Jefferson

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Jonathan Proville and Zac Overman are creating their own Central District day/night food and drink scene along E Jefferson.

Bar Bayonne has made a late summer opening next to its Proville-Overman sibling L’Oursin. It is bringing “train station-style baguette sandwiches” by day and cocktails along with “freshly-shucked oysters, shrimp cocktail, moules mariniere” by night. On the bar, you will also find a hock of the namesake Jambon de Bayonne, the appellation d’origine contrôlée-worthy ham of southwestern France.

CHS reported in March on the plans for the project that has helped fill in L’Oursin’s block after the fall 2022 closure of the neighboring cask ale-focused Capercaillie Pub. Continue reading →

The HoneyHole has a new owner

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(Image: The HoneyHole)

A new owner is busy restoring the reputation of one of Capitol Hill’s favorite hangouts.

Former employee turned new owner Evan Bramer took over the HoneyHole earlier this summer and tells CHS his hopes are to repair the damage done during the rough recent years for the business after it was acquired from its founders in 2021.

“I know the HoneyHole standards. I know what it should be brought to. It has always been a 100% inclusive place,” Bramer said.

CHS reported here on the management issues and struggles around diversity that plagued HoneyHole after the purchase of the E Pike sandwich shop by wife and husband team Kristin Rye and Patrick Rye.

Bramer tells CHS the Ryes are now out of the picture with the previous ownership retaining only a small stake for continuity on the liquor license. Continue reading →

The HoneyHole emails: a fired employee, thousands of dollars in rotten meat, and a Capitol Hill sandwich legend struggling with staffing and management issues — UPDATE

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A message HoneyHole ownership says was sent by a disgruntled employee after they were fired Sunday

It has been a rough two years and three months in the sandwich business in Seattle.

Sunday, things got a lot rougher for the HoneyHole.

“HoneyHole Owner Harasses Employees,” isn’t the kind of subject line you typically see on a marketing email blast to thousands of customers on a Sunday afternoon. HoneyHole’s social media accounts also lit up with the same message. “For the last two years under new ownership, hundreds of employees have been retaliated against, harassed, discriminated against, demeaned, degraded, and treated like a subhuman species,” it began.

“We Were Hacked,” read a second message that arrived a couple hours later.

But the damage was done. The first message spread across social media with calls for everything from a boycott to a sandwich protest as fans lamented possibly having to go without The Gooch and the Veggie BLT.

HoneyHole owner Kristin Rye, who purchased the legendary Pike/Pine sandwich shop and bar with her husband Patrick Rye and moved to the area in 2021 to grow the business, tells CHS that the HoneyHole remains open on E Pike and the “hack” was the actions of a manager who Rye said was fired Sunday. Continue reading →

Bar Bayonne will add day/night cafe and market to L’Oursin’s E Jefferson home port

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(Image: L’Oursin)

(Image: L’Oursin)

L’Oursin is using lessons from the pandemic to help invigorate its block on the edge of the Central District-Capitol Hill intertidal zone as it shapes a new market and bar project on E Jefferson.

Jonathan Proville tells CHS Bar Bayonne should be up and running by summer next door to the nearly seven-year-old French and Pacific Northwest restaurant that brought the flavors of the Salish Sea to what was then a bustling area of food and drink projects along E Jefferson in 2016. A pandemic later, other businesses and the neighboring Honeyhole expansion have gone dark.

Up the street, bike cafe Peloton has doubled down and expanded. L’Oursin’s Proville and Zac Overman are gearing up for a similar ride after the fall 2022 closure of the neighboring cask ale-focused Capercaillie Pub.

L’Oursin’s new sibling in the former pub space will represent a major shift for the business with plans for daytime hours. Continue reading →

HoneyHole’s E Jefferson expansion has been ‘temporarily closed’ for weeks — UPDATE

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(Image: HoneyHole)

At what point is a temporary closure no longer temporary?

The expansion of Capitol Hill’s much loved HoneyHole toasted sandwich joint onto E Jefferson has apparently gone cold. The location just off 12th Ave across from Seattle U’s Championship Field has been closed since at least late January.

A sign went up around that last week of January announcing the temporary closure. Weeks have passed and the space remains dark.

Calls to ownership haven’t been returned and messages to the HoneyHole social media accounts have so far gone unanswered. A check of the city permit paperwork, meanwhile, reveals no clues about any work planned or underway at the location and court records also don’t indicate anything amiss. Continue reading →

Peloton ‘Cafe Bike Shop’ expands on E Jefferson

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After seven years as E Jefferson’s only combination cafe, bar, and bike shop, Peloton Cafe has expanded.

“I love this neighborhood,” owner Dustin Riggs tells CHS.

Riggs’s success showed him what he knew, that growth was needed, but space was limited. “The kitchen was tiny,” Riggs said, but he had a hard time imagining moving away. “We were looking for a new spot, talking to some real estate people, but we did not want to leave.”

So, they waited, and in 2021 they decided to expand. With Nate’s Wings and Waffles closing next door in August of 2020 due to the pandemic and increased costs, Peloton approached the landlord while they were showing off the space and asked to see it. They signed a lease and according to Riggs, “we just sort of threw ourselves into it and got in over our heads and forced ourselves to actually do it.” Continue reading →

Cakes + Trees now growing on 13th Ave with granny cakes, ‘parm night’ pop-ups, and plants

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(Image: Cakes + Trees)

(Image: CHS)

By Jethro Swain

13th Ave’s new Cakes + Trees is attracting pastry-lovers with its homestyle cakes and keeping them coming back with a changing menu, pop-up dinners, and an array of indoor flora for sale.

“Once we got the place and started building it out, we really focused on making a little spot where people could walk in, forget about all the crap, indulge in a piece of cake, enjoy the plants and just not worry about things for a minute,” said Alison Odowski.

The new shop, located on 13th Ave just off of E Jefferson, opened earlier this summer from Seattle food and drink veterans Odowski and Erik Jackson. Jackson has been a chef in Seattle for over 20 years, and Cakes + Trees is the couple’s second small business venture, after creating Good Day Donuts in White Center.

Odowski and Jackson lived in Capitol Hill for three years before moving south to be closer to Good Day Donuts, so they’re familiar with the area.

“We weren’t specifically looking to be over here, or anywhere, but this space [we’re in] dictated the move because we fell in love with it,” said Odowski. “It’s really old, the building was built in 1910, which I love. With so much new stuff in Seattle it’s also fun to be in something really old.” Continue reading →

With ‘the charm’ of the Capitol Hill original, HoneyHole has expanded to E Jefferson

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(Image: HoneyHole)

The new HoneyHole is open (Image: HoneyHole)

If you’re already feeling a little weird and out of place as Seattle reopens from months of COVID-19 restrictions, be careful visiting HoneyHole’s new Central District location.

For one, E Pike’s tiny dive of big sandwich love got its shit together enough to expand? Whoa! For two, the new joint is so enormous that you’ll probably never have to stand in line and they might never run out of house pastrami. And three, a HoneyHole patio?

But all of this bizarro world HoneyHole exists now on E Jefferson where the Pike/Pine born sandwich bar has opened in a gigantic new space and gnawed out a new home in a bunker-like former modern steakhouse. Continue reading →

HoneyHole to expand to Central District with second, ‘three times larger’ location

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(Image: HoneyHole)

Pike/Pine classic sandwich joint the HoneyHole is expanding with a second, much larger location only a few miles from the original where the Central District meets the edges of 12th Ave and Seattle University.

The new owners of the classic sandwich joint are hoping to bring together a recipe inspired by the E Pike original to transform the new second location on E Jefferson, a restaurant space most recently home to Central Smoke before that venture shuttered pre-pandemic in early 2020.

“We’re super excited about the opportunities this larger location provides,” HoneyHole owner Kristin Rye said in the announcement of the expansion. “We can host parties, pop-ups, community events and even live music, which were all a bit of a challenge at our Cap Hill location.” Continue reading →