After $350,000 Makeover, Coastal Kitchen Reopens With Sleeker Look, New Chef

Coastal Kitchen, Capitol Hill's original upscale diner, has a new look after completing a $350,000 remodel, reports Puget Sound Business Journal. Installed is a marble oyster bar and a custom-made cocktail bar, a garage door that opens on to 15th Avenue, as well as other design changes. It also has a new executive chef, Jason Jones, who's worked at Poppy, The Herbfarm, and Nell's. Why all the renovation?

Doesn't look it, but owner Jeremy Hardy told PSBJ that the building, originally a house, is about 100 years old. It needed attention. It also had to keep pace with all the newer restaurants around 15th Avenue East, places like Ethan Stowell's latest restaurant, Rione XIII and Heather Earnhardt's inviting new bakery and café,The Wandering Goose.

"It was time to redefine ourselves and re-emerge as something with the same DNA, but different. We decided to forgo the Band-Aid solutions and get it right. This, is the restaurant I want to go to," Hardy told the Business Journal. Hardy said also that he wanted to "frame the experience more toward dinner," with a classy bar in one window, the oyster bar in the other, and the bamboo floors upstairs. "I wanted still to have a little grit and whimsy. I have no desire to be fancy. We're not going to be putting out foams or fusion. We don't blend cuisines," he said. "I don't want fancy. I want dynamic."

The renovations were done with minimal impact. The restaurant closed for four weeks, but otherwise, the front of the house stayed open. Hardy and general manager Eli Britt were able to reconfigure while maintaining capacity – about 135 seats, plus another 25 on a back patio and sidewalk seating outside new garage-style glass doors.

· Coastal Kitchen Restaurant Keeps Pace on Capitol Hill with $350K Remodel [PSBJ]
· All Coastal Kitchen Coverage on Eater [-ESEA-]

[Photo: Coastal Kitchen / Facebook]

—Kery Murakami