Venerable Steelhead Diner and Four Sibling Restaurants Close Temporarily Due to Coronavirus Impact

As the Seattle food scene tries to calm diners’ fears over the novel coronavirus, one restaurant group decided it may be best just to shut things down for now. Steelhead Diner, Blueacre Seafood, Orfeo, Zane and Wylie’s Seattle Steakhouse, and Tempesta Coffee and Donuts all announced on Facebook that they are closing temporarily “due to the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 coronavirus.” Co-owners Kevin and Terresa Davis added in the statements that they hoped to open the places at a later date.

The Steelhead Diner is the first and probably the best known of the Davis’ restaurant portfolio. It’s been a Pike Place Market seafood mainstay since 2007, serving acclaimed Dungeness crab cakes, fish and chips, and gumbo in a chic setting overlooking Elliott Bay. Its success led to the subsequent openings of Blueacre Seafood downtown (which has earned praise for its raw bar) and Belltown’s upscale Italian restaurant Orfeo. The steakhouse and the small doughnut shop next to Orfeo were the most recent additions to the restaurant family.

But the challenges of the current environment in the downtown area and Pike Place, where some restaurants have seen sales drop as much as 70 percent in recent weeks, seems to have been too daunting at the moment. It’s unclear on what will happen to the staff at these restaurants during this closure period. Eater Seattle reached out for comment, but did not hear back before this piece was published.

• Steelhead Diner [Facebook]
• Blueacre Seafood [Facebook]
• Orfeo [Facebook]
• How Coronavirus Has Impacted the Seattle Food World [ESEA]