SEATTLE’S BAR AND RESTAURANT CLOSURES, MARCH 2024

Though Seattle has emerged from pandemic lockdowns, the restaurant industry remains on uncertain ground. Even at the best of times, running a restaurant is a stressful, low-margin proposition, and these days the margins are tighter than ever. Rising food and labor costs have led to reduced hours at many restaurants and bars, and in some cases businesses have been forced to close because of these challenges. In other cases, restaurant operators may decide that the rewards aren’t worth the effort that they put in and choose to move on to other opportunities.

Here, we track and memorialize notable restaurants and bars the city loses each month, even while exciting new businesses appear. New restaurant names will appear as we confirm closures. If you know of a restaurant that has closed, please send us a tip by emailing [email protected].

This list goes back as far as December 2023; for older closures see this post.

For all the latest Seattle dining intel, subscribe to Eater Seattle’s newsletter.

April

INTERBAY — Champagne Diner, a tucked-away gem owned by Bryn Lumsden of Damn the Weather, is closing on April 7, Lumsden announced on Instagram. “Thank you for taking a chance on our dreamy little diner tucked behind an orthodontist’s office somewhere between Ballard and Belltown!” the post read. The restaurant won high praise from the Seattle Times in 2019 for its inventive, high-quality versions of Americana classics.

March

PIONEER SQUARE — The flagship location of Bellevue-based chain MOD Pizza closed this month, reports Puget Sound Business Journal. According to that paper, this location was “larger than a typical MOD Pizza store, giving the Bellevue-based company a culinary lab for ideas and equipment that eventually could be introduced at other locations.” MOD did not immediately respond to a request for comment; we’ll update this post if the chain gets back to us.

BALLARD — Long-running Irish bar and music venue Conor Byrne Pub will close its doors after March 31, co-owner Diarmuid Cullen said on Instagram. “This industry is changing. Habits are changing. One seems less inclined to visit an old dusty pub anymore,” he wrote. Maybe most famous as the place where the Head and the Heart formed, the bar was one of several well-known music venues on Ballard Avenue. It’s also one of the oldest continuously operated bars in Seattle — it opened as the Owl Saloon in the early 1900s and changed its name in the 1990s.

MADISON VALLEY — The Madison location of vegan Thai restaurant Araya’s Place is closing on March 29, the owners announced on Instagram. The chainlet still has locations in the University District, Bellevue, and Los Angeles.

COLUMBIA CITY — The Hummingbird Saloon, a dive-y spot that served Cornish pasties along with pints, closed on March 25 after 11 years. “Like many restaurants, we were significantly impacted by covid, and subsequent prices increases on, well everything,” the owner wrote on Instagram. “The amounts coming in have not met the amounts going out; so it’s time to call it a day.”

GREENWOOD — After 37 years, Manna Smoked BBQ, a strip-mall barbecue joint located where Holman Road meets Greenwood Avenue, closed on March 23. According to Vanishing Seattle the original owners are retiring, though their son hopes to re-open.

BALLARD — The Ballard location of Cupcake Royale closed for good on March 17, according to an email from the store. The other four locations of the ice cream and cupcake chainlet are still up and running.

CAPITOL HILL — On March 17, Coping Cookies closed permanently. The cookie shop had its roots in 2020, in the depths of the pandemic lockdown era, when life partners Sam Padilla and Ashley Hernandez baked cookies as a fundraiser for Hernandez’s coworkers at Seattle Children’s Hospital. The duo went on to host pop-ups and opened a brick-and-mortar last year, but in an Instagram post announcing the closure, they said that a combination of factors, including a delayed opening and expensive equipment repairs, contributed to their decision to close.

GEORGETOWN — Long-running pizza joint Flying Squirrel Pizza ceased operations on March 1 and closed its final location. The owners said on Instagram that they “simply have not been able to make it work financially and have exhausted our resources.” The New York–style pizzeria was founded in Seward Park and expanded to Maple Leaf and Georgetown; its original location closed in 2020.

February

NORTHGATE — The last remaining Seattle location of Patty’s Eggnest, a breakfast mini-chain, closed on February 25. The building that this Eggnest occupied was slated for demolition and a mixed-used development will take its place, reports King 5. There are still five Eggnests in the greater Seattle area.

BELLEVUE — Blazing Bowl, a restaurant serving hot pot and Laotian food out of the Crossroads mall, closed permanently on February 25. But all is not lost for Blazing Bowl’s fans — in a follow-up Instagram post, the restaurant said its chef would be cooking its Lao dishes at Renton’s Flavor Lao Bowl.

CAPITOL HILL — Coastal Kitchen began its life as a seafood-focused neighborhood restaurant in the ‘90s and gradually acquired a more upscale identity. It added an oyster bar in 2012, and dropped much of the diner-y parts of its menu following a 2022 remodel. These changes were insufficient to keep Coastal Kitchen alive, however, and owners Dan and Jonathan Tweten, who run Sound Restaurant Family, closed it at the end of February. The Tweten brothers plan to focus on their other restaurants.

CAPITOL HILL — In another blow to Capitol Hill, Ristorante Machiavelli closed on February 15. The restaurant had an impressive 36-year run, but owner Suzette Jarding (who worked at Machiavelli before buying it) told Capitol Hill Seattle Blog that it had to close due in part to staffing shortages and “a very difficult negotiation process” with her landlords.

SOUTH LAKE UNION — Japanese restaurant Teinei announced its closure on February 24 in a short Instagram post that was light on details. It referred to “sudden circumstances” that necessitated its closure, and promised to return. Eater Seattle reached out to the owner on Instagram and will update this post if we hear back.

PIONEER SQUARE — Three months after filing for bankruptcy, smashburger chainlet Burbs Burgers closed all five of its locations in late February. Opened in Pioneer Square by longtime restaurateur Josh Henderson during the pandemic lockdown era, Burbs expanded quickly — in part, Henderson told Eater Seattle, because he was trying to grow capacity in order to pay off debt incurred during lockdown. That gambit didn’t work and now Henderson, most famous for founding Skillet, is temporarily without any restaurants.

January

BALLARD and WEST SEATTLE — The well-known gluten-free bakery Wildflower has closed permanently. The owners closed both of its Seattle locations — in West Seattle and Ballard — in mid-January, and shortly afterward closed the Bellevue location as well. Visitors to the Wildflower website are now directed to go to the employee-owned NW Gluten-Free Baking Co. instead. Eater Seattle has reached out to this new bakery for more info and will update this post if we hear back.

CAPITOL HILL — Beloved Greek restaurant Omega Ouzeri has closed, owner Tomas Soukakos announced on his website, because he is “hanging up my apron and moving to Greece!” Soukakos has been running Greek restaurants on the Hill since 1994, when he opened El Greco; that was followed by Vio’s Cafe in 2004 (both places have since closed). The last day of service at Omega Ouzeri, which opened in 2015, was January 31.

CROWN HILL — The Holman Road location of Patty’s Eggnest has closed, reports Vanishing Seattle, after the diner lost its lease. Patty’s Eggnest was founded by Patty Papadopoulos in Greenwood in 1989 and expanded to locations all around the Seattle metro area before Papadopoulos sold most of them to the Chin family in 1999. (The original location was sold to Pete and Voula Sideris, and is now called Pete’s Eggnest.) The Wallingford Patty’s has also recently closed and the one in Northgate is slated to close as well, which is the last one within Seattle city limits. (There are five locations outside Seattle.)

LAURELHURST — The Laurelhurst location of Jak’s Grill closed on January 7, the owners announced on Facebook, after a 20-year run. The Issaquah and West Seattle locations “aren’t going anywhere,” the owners added.

December

BALLARD — Mexican restaurant Raiz has quietly closed down sometime in December for unknown reasons. Eater Seattle reached out to the owners via their website to ask what happened but hasn’t heard back. A new restaurant called Ginger and Scallion (from the owners of nearby Secret Congee) has opened in its place.

WALLINGFORD — Neighborhood institution Julia’s closed on December 31 after an apparent conflict over the rent with its landlord — original namesake owner Julia Miller. The brunch spot was opened in 1981 by Miller and bought by Karsten Betd, who worked his way up from busboy at the restaurant, in 1993. Karsten’s daughter Lauren now owns the restaurant and according to Vanishing Seattle had been trying to buy the property from Miller for 15 years. “But Miller refused to sell, decided she wanted a different tenant and raised the rent — which forced Julia’s to close permanently,” the local blog wrote. Eater Seattle reached out to Julia’s for more information and will update this item if we hear back.

RAINIER VALLEY – On December 31, halal pan-Asian restaurant Olympic Express closed after more than 35 years, reports Vanishing Seattle. Started in 1987 by Abdulnaser Abdulmalik and Rohimah Ton (and now owned by Al and Suaidy Les), Olympic Express was a longtime gathering space for Seattle’s Muslim community and members of the Cham ethnic group. According to Vanishing Seattle, the Les family plans to reopen a new restaurant in the space.

RAVENNA — JuneBaby, one of Seattle’s most acclaimed and controversial restaurants, closed on December 31. The soul food restaurant opened in 2017 to rave reviews, but in 2021 the Seattle Times ran an investigative story in which 15 women accused owner Eduardo Jordan of sexual misconduct including unwanted touching, accusations that the chef largely denied. JuneBaby closed briefly following that story, but returned in 2022. Jordan told Eater Seattle that the closure was partly due to labor and food cost difficulties, and partially because he was feeling creatively blocked.

BALLARD — Well-regarded restaurant WeRo has shut its doors as of December 30. Owner Wes Yoo converted the restaurant, formerly a gastropub called the Gerald, into a Korean restaurant in 2022 and attracted good reviews. He also opened a lunch bowl spot called Bapshim in the space in 2023, earning an Eater Award, but the restaurant struggled financially and was forced to close.

CAPITOL HILL — Blotto, one of the most celebrated pizzerias in recent Seattle history, closed on December 30. As Eater Seattle reported, the landlord was selling the building but the owners also wanted to move onto new ventures. “We’ve always known there would be a decision point of some sort,” said Cal Hoffmann. “When we found out the building was being sold… it just made sense that this would be the time that we end the project.”

WEDGWOOD — Thirty years after opening, the Wedgwood Ale House and Cafe has closed, owner Kip Caputo said on Facebook. Opened in 1992 by Rob Paulson, the neighborhood bar and restaurant was struggling financially when it was sold to Caputo, a longtime employee, in 2021. Caputo wrote that he was “hoping for an eleventh hour hail Mary change of situation, but I must come to the realization that the Alehouse is going to have to close at the end of the month, probably the 29th to be exact.” He is accepting donations for a severance fund for his employees, whom he describes as “family.”

CAPITOL HILL — The Capitol Hill location of healthy bowl joint Bounty Kitchen closed on December 23. According to Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, “Bounty Kitchen never really took off on Capitol Hill,” though the original Queen Anne location is continuing operations.

DOWNTOWN — December 23 was the last day of service at Brandon McGill’s Bar Solea. McGill said in a press release that he hopes that this will be a temporary closure, and implied the reason was that downtown foot traffic and office occupancy rates were too low to support the pizzeria and bar. “We look forward to coming out of hibernation once folks decide to return to the office in our part of downtown Seattle,” he said.

CAPITOL HILL — On December 4, the owners of pop-up hub Rose Temple Bar posted on Instagram that they had decided to sell in February to their friends, who will be renaming it Wash Bar. “When you hear about bars, closing, you always think of a relationship that was broken or something that failed,” owners Ben Smith and Austin Polley wrote. “But we’re really fortunate that we’ve had so much community support and that we got to help our friends live out their dream.” The pair still owns Donna’s, which opened earlier this year.

PIKE PLACE — In 2022, Hamid Majdi, a Moroccan immigrant who worked as wine director for Il Bistro, opened a fine-dining restaurant called Shama in Pike Place Market that was an ode to the food of his homeland. But less than two years after opening, Shama has closed, Hamid announced on Facebook on December 4. In its place is a new Portuguese-influenced cocktail bar and restaurant called the Lonely Siren.

CAPITOL HILL — Rancho Bravo, a taco joint across the street from Cal Anderson Park that occupied a former KFC, has closed, according to Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. CHS reports that owner Freddy Rivas “had faced challenges after nearly 15 years of business on E Pine and was in a month to month lease recently that was no longer penciling out with a menu of $5 tacos at the level of quality he wanted to maintain.” A new owner has turned the restaurant into a Mexican restaurant called Teto’s Cantina. The Rancho Bravo in Wallingford is still open.

PIONEER SQUARE — Pioneer Square D&E (short for “drink and eats”), which was known for having some of the best fried chicken in town, closed on December 2 after five years in business. In the Facebook announcement of the closure, owner Jonathan Fleming wrote, “In another five years, I wonder what we’ll be saying about the pandemic, the staffing challenges, inflation, and all the other growth opportunities we’ve faced since opening.”

2024-01-31T20:34:41Z dg43tfdfdgfd