Life After Starbucks, Airport Burrito Bargains, and the Return of Thai Curry Simple

Hungry for news? Welcome to our Friday Feed, where we run through all the local food and restaurant news this month—and maybe help you figure out where to eat this weekend.

What We Get When We Lose a Starbucks

Late last year, Starbucks closed seven stores and two roasteries in Seattle, then five more stores this spring, raising questions about what happens when the coffee mega-giant leaves a neighborhood. Right now, it seems like we are getting the best possible answer: Those spaces are filling in with independent local shops. Everett’s Narrative Coffee recently announced it will open in the former Starbucks space at 6th and Stewart, on the edge of downtown Seattle, and any minute now, the nonprofit coffee shop and job-training program Coffee Tab will open its third location in the storied former Starbucks at 23rd and Jackson, in the Central District. This follows the recent announcement that local bakery Petite Pierre will open in the Ballard location early next year and the quick flip of the Seattle Center Armory location into The Groundskeeper, from Chad Dale (better known as the real estate partner for Renee Erickson’s Sea Creatures group). Anchorhead Coffee is moving its roastery into the Alaska Junction location, and Moment Coffee lives in the former Starbucks space in Fremont. Only the drive-thru SODO location breaks the pattern, becoming the first Seattle location of Oregon-based chain Dutch Bros.

Big News in Famous Spaces

Some of Seattle’s most iconic spaces are getting culinary refreshes this fall, starting with the Seattle Art Museum, where the FeedMe restaurant group closed its seafood spot, Market, in the spring. In October the same Edmonds-based group announced an October opening for its Bar Dojo concept, with casual comfort food drawing on Chinese and Mexican traditions, like birria eggrolls, carne asada fried rice, as well as a multi-course taco omakase.

A few blocks away, at Pike Place Market, Tamra & Co preps to open its first retail outlet, a Saudi-inspired café and store selling its signature packaged stuffed dates, matcha, and date-centric treats.

Meanwhile, Chihuahua-style Mexican restaurant Taco Street opened in the central terminal at SEA (along with a shiny new Olympia Coffee), selling single tacos starting at $4.75 and breakfast burritos for $10. Originally, the restaurant opened near the Othello light rail station, but that outlet closed. It currently operates two Tacoma locations (Tacoma Mall and Point Ruston)—but will return to Seattle soon, in the former Blind Raven/Pig Iron BBQ space in Georgetown.

The historic Fremont trolley barn from which Redhook Brewery and Theo Chocolate each produced iconic Seattle products will come alive again with three new businesses from waterfront brewpub Here Today. The trio plans to open this fall and includes a new Here Today taproom called Glitter Paw Lounge, Good Bones Coffee, and Marigolds, an oyster and cocktail bar.

A Few Quick Goodbyes

Madison Valley’s Cagette bowed out this month, with a note that it might reopen again soon, and this Sunday will be the final day for Pioneer Square’s Luigi’s Italian Eatery. The restaurant is the final remnant of the late Luigi DeNunzio’s “Little Italy” collection of restaurants, which have been on that corner for decades and run by his wife since his death.

Other Changes

• Why did the restaurant cross the street? Well, in Altura’s case, it’s to expand. The 15-year-old Italian Northwest fine-dining restaurant will merge with its sibling restaurant Carello, filling the latter’s much larger space. Carrello will technically close, but the wooden service carts and many of its dishes will join the Altura menu. The change will be quick, with Altura serving in its current location until October 10, then opening October 16 in the new space.
• Filed permits show that the folks behind Herkimer Coffee have taken over the former Sophon space adjacent to its Greenwood Ave cafe; Redditor u/carowasalreadytaken says that it will be to expand its roastery and increase production.
• Terrell Jackson has been working for years to keep his grandparents’ legacy alive. Woody and Rosemary Jackson first opened the beloved Catfish Corner in the Central District in 1985. They sold it in 2009, and it closed in 2014. Jackson grew up working there and, since it closed, has run it as pop-ups and a restaurant that closed early last year. Now, he’s back with a truck.
• After more than three years away, A la Mode Pies will return to Phinney Ridge later this year. The planned return will see them come back to the same corner, but in the replacement building.
• Just down the hill from there, legendary diner Beth’s Cafe announced it will return to 24-hour service. Since 2020, the restaurant has been closed, open, closed again, changed ownership, and ran with limited hours. No longer! Eggs all night!
• Bellevue Thai restaurant TemSib has closed and the same team will open a new, different Thai restaurant in the same space, called Suda.

What’s Open Now

• In a move that ranks in at least the top couple resurrections of all time, Thai Curry Simple has reopened in its original Chinatown—International District digs. In the (only) words of its website, “Yes, we’re back.” The business sold Thai desserts (Wann Yen) and prepared foods (as Mark Thai Food Box) in the University District in between.
• Bellevue’s Tres Sandwich now serves egg salad, katsu, and strawberry Japanese-style sandos in the former Hiroki Desserts space in Tangletown.
• Downtown is quickly becoming dumpling heaven, and the latest addition is Bao Home, opened in the Olivian.
• Chef Ethan Stowell’s first post-ESR restaurant, a steakhouse called Cut Club, now serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner from inside Hotel Max.
• The folks behind Capitol Hill’s Sugar Hill have collaborated with La Dive and are serving noodles, dumplings, and assorted other snacks inside the natural wine bar under the brand Chiew Chiew.
• When Loxsmith Bagels closed its Beacon Hill store, it dropped a hint that a sushi place was moving in, and now Takumi Sushi has opened its doors.
• The bowls are back in town, or at least back on trend, and this time, they’re Pakistani, at Capitol Hill’s Lahori Bowls.

What’s Next?

• Tomo alum Ash Stockham will open their own place on north Broadway, called Pearl Diver. “Truly, the vibe that I’m going for is a dinner party at the floor of the ocean,” they told Puget Sound Business Journal, which is extremely promising.
• If you’ve been looking for another omakase sushi spot, boy, are you in the right town! The latest one, Taz + Kohta opens later this month (reservations available on OpenTable), from a mentee of Ltd Edition Sushi’s Keiji Tsukasaki.
• Uttam Mukherjee and Aakanksha Sinha, the folks behind Spice Waala, the Indian street food restaurant with locations in Capitol Hill, Ballard, and Columbia City, will soon open Janta, a coffee and chai café in the former Fuel location in Wallingford.
• Tacoma caterer Om Eldonia is bringing classic Egyptian dishes to the former Strega space in Ballard with Cairo. It comes at the perfect time, as Ballard’s other Egyptian restaurant, Seattle Koshari, is currently on hiatus while searching and fundraising for a new location.
• Nearby, the former Nua Thai restaurant appears to be turning over, again, now registered as Sam Yan, from the co-owner of a number of Thai restaurants in Skagit and Snohomish Counties.
• White Center is getting its third(!) wine-focused spot in a year, with the announcement of Half Glass, coming soon.
• Meanwhile, White Center’s Boss Drive In plans to expand southward, opening its second Burien location this weekend.

Oh, BTW, here’s what you missed last time.