With so many eyes on Broadway, thanks in part to the city's recent and controversial zoning decision, and the even more recent Pride parade's relocation news, it's easy to miss Capitol Hill's latest upstart just a few blocks away.
Nineteenth Avenue East, between Aloha and Madison streets, has experienced a commercial and residential upswing during the last year as new businesses and new housing made 19th their new home. Together, they're turning the once sleepy street into an active business district. Such new commercial activity alongside such mainstays as Monsoon and Kingfish have created a vibrant new attitude and street life.
Fuel, an independent coffee shop, opened its doors in March of this year while just next store, the Washington Ensemble Theatre entered its new digs only a few months earlier. Fuel owner Danielle Cone, a 14-year veteran of the coffee industry, wanted to open her own café for the better part of a decade and chose 19th for her entrepreneurial premiere.
"I focused my search on finding a spot on Capitol Hill that is still a little untouched, a pocket of a neighborhood that would be receptive to an independent," she said. "It is a great advantage to be situated not only on a bus line and pretty busy thoroughfare, but to also be neighbors with two amazing and popular restaurants and a successful and talented theater that is connected to our space."
That theater is currently in mid-production of Kenneth Lonergan's "This is Our Youth," directed by Mark Gallagher. It runs until Saturday, July 16. Gallagher spoke volumes about the theater itself, noting its core strengths - intimacy and location.
The Washington Ensemble Theatre, (WET), which took over the former digs of The Little Theater and Wiggly World Studios, produces four shows per year and espouses a unique community-centric mission. Marya Sea Kaminski, WET's director of publicity, feels 19th is a perfect location for the group's focus on well-produced, professional theater created specifically for the immediate area residents.
"We wanted to connect to a community and neighborhood so it seems like a good fit," she said. Indeed, she remarked proudly that WET's building managers can frequently be found front-row with their daughters.
While she described WET's first year as, "baptism by fire," she can't say enough about the unique combination of traditional and non-traditional residents who live in the area. "The welcome's been great."
Thomas Soukakos, owner of Vios on the corner of 19th Avenue East and East Aloha Street, has worked in the restaurant business for 30 years and previously owned ElGreco restaurant on Broadway. However, he ultimately chose 19th over his old locale and opened up shop in June 2004.
"I wanted a community place, not just a restaurant. I needed a place with a big heart and good food," Soukakos said of his location, which used to be the site of the old Neighborhood Service Center.
He showcases a commitment to community with large, family style tables, a menu that encourages sharing and an area in the back of the restaurant for children to play. Likewise, Vios combines a family-style sit-down restaurant with a take-out business and upscale grocery.
From Fuel's windows sitting over a steamy cup of cappuccino, it's easy to see the changes many long-time residents and business owners similarly note. Parents with double-carriages mingle amongst pierced 20-somethings with jet-black hair as local joggers hustle by. Anecdotal evidence suggests these new businesses act as a magnet drawing the community living near 19th together.
If Vios, WET and Fuel are the infants on the street, Kingfish and Monsoon must be considered their elders. Tucked away on 19th for more than eight, Kingfish has long been known throughout Seattle's restaurant scene despite its relative distance from the more commonly known downtown hot spots.
Yet, what might scare other business owners away from 19th Avenue East - less street traffic than Pike-Pine and less foot traffic than Broadway - actually makes it a perfect location for co-owners and sisters, Lori and Wesley Coaston.
"People find us," Wesley beamed.
Each of these businesses sits amongst a thriving yet diverse neighborhood. Nearby, the Miller Community Center offers day camps to keep summer kids busy while The Country Doctor offers community health services and patient support for those with little or no medical insurance. Similarly, they run the local Woman Infant and Children program that provides supplemental nutritional support for low-income families.
Even more changes are on the horizon as the block between East Republican and East Harrison streets is slated to be rezoned from "single family" to "low-rise." Combined with the recent completion of the Capitol Court apartments, a shiny new 44-unit complex located at East Republican Street, with space for retail and commercial businesses on its ground floor, 19th Avenue East's recent surge in activity shows no signs of slowing.
For businesses that have been here for years, the upswing in activity mirrors a more general increase in business. Housed in an eclectic design and theater space, Moonjar creates financial literacy tool kits for children. Mary Ryan Karges, director of sales and marketing, reported that their products are carried not only at local stores but soon will be carried internationally. Discussions with Martha Stewart Inc. are also in the works.
Karges agreed that the recent increase in commercial establishments on 19th has translated into more drop-in traffic for Moonjar, and more drop-in traffic naturally means more profit.
Ethan Huggins, Fuel barista and a one-year resident of the neighborhood, envisions a bright and bustling future for the strip, "I hope it's going to become the new 15th," he said, referring to the popular retail district a mere four blocks to the west.
Perhaps Cari Dorey, manager of the Capitol Court apartments and a more recent 19th Avenue East transplant, summed up 19th's new attitude and atmosphere best.
"I will probably never move," he said.
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