Dave’s Hot Chicken Is Planning a Capitol Hill Location

It’s a busy time for fried chicken chain news. Raising Cane’s, the popular Louisiana chicken finger chain, has filed permits indicating it was considering opening a location in a vacant storefront on the Ave, which would be the first Raising Cane’s outpost in Seattle. And Dave’s Hot Chicken, the Nashville-style chicken chain that counts Drake as an investor, could be coming soon to Capitol Hill.

Last year the Los Angeles–based Dave’s announced that it was planning an expansion into the Seattle area, saying that it was looking at real estate options and would open up to 10 locations. It appears to have figured something out, as Capitol Hill Seattle Blog has reported that Ajay Keshap and Sana Keshap, a father-daughter team that runs dozens of Denny’s and Papa John’s franchises, is planning to open a Dave’s on the corner of 12th Avenue and Pike Street, where the Little Big Burger used to be.

The Capitol Hill area is awash in fried chicken, with more on the way. There’s Shota Nakajima’s Taku, Chong Boon Ooi’s Ooink, Ma’ono, Pelicana, Bok a Bok, the Chicken Factory, and probably some others we’re forgetting. If that’s not enough, Korean chain Sodam is planning a location on Capitol Hill as well. But there’s always room for one more.

The Hello Kitty Cafe is coming to Southcenter

The roving dispensary of cookies and cute merch rolled up to Bellevue this spring and this Saturday, August 12, it will be coming back to the Seattle area, parking itself outside the JOEY restaurant at the Southcenter mall. Merch on sale includes a a “NEW” Hello Kitty Cafe hoodie, according to a press release, plus the usual Hello Kitty Cafe stuff — macarons, cookies, lunchboxes, etc. You’re either on the Hello Kitty Cafe or you’re off the Hello Kitty Cafe.

Hotel 1000 has a swanky new cocktail bar

In news that has nothing to do with a cartoon, Hotel 1000 — the downtown Hilton property on First Avenue — has just unveiled a full remodel that includes lobby and spa upgrades, a Topgolf Swing Suite, and a bar called Rosebay. This is a luxury spot in a luxury property that offers small bites — we’re talking like, smoked geoduck, razor clams, even caviar — and an array of cocktails designed by mixologist Lindsey Matteson of the Walrus and the Carpenter. The bar even has “large format” cocktails, which serve four to six people and cost more than $200. This is one of many remodels and reopenings of downtown restaurants and bars since pandemic lockdowns ended.

Fonte Coffee adds new Bellevue location

The coffee roaster is expanding its footprint not long after opening a flagship bar and restaurant in downtown Seattle. Its newest cafe is in Bellevue’s Civica Commons on 108th Avenue Northeast, and as a press release notes, this is the third opening for the company in eight months, a pretty rapid expansion for the coffee roaster, which was founded in Seattle in 1992.