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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Chow New in Restaurants: For Sale

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 2:49 PM

Wanna buy a restaurant? You're in luck—places are for sale all over town (maybe even your favorite place). A sampling from Craigslist:

FOR SALE

• Trattoria Mitchelli (closing down any day now, after approximately one billion years; Stranger reader-reviewers will not miss it by any means)

• Merchant's Cafe (at First and Yesler; this place has THE MOST BEAUTIFUL old-fashioned interior—I have long wished that it would be transformed into something marvelous)

5ca8/1237412778-lampreia-220.jpg

• Lampreia (perhaps Seattle's premiere fine-dining establishment; it is moving, not closing, which is good, because the stuffy, goofy decor needed a major overhaul anyway)

• Cafe Stellina (still open; reader-reviewers seem to fall into extreme camps of love or hate)

• the Triangle Lounge (still open after the departure of restaurateur Tom Hurley)

• Saito's Japanese Cafe & Bar (still open serving some of Seattle's best sushi, has been for sale for a while)

• Beato (closed for quite some time)

• Blackbird Restaurant & Lounge (ditto)

• Cyndy's Pancake House (which is apparently not becoming a strip club after all)

King Cobra is also for sale. Plus more, more, MORE restaurants—dozens of them, the ones that do not wish to be named—after the jump.

Yikes.

"Establised [sic] Downtown Coffeeshop", "Funky Eclectic Capitol Hill Restaurant/Bar", "Elegant Sake Bar & Bistro", "North Ballard Bistro", "Queen Anne Restaurant and Lounge", "Cafe, Sandwich lunch spot" (Belltown), "Restaurant Lounge" (U District/Wallingford), "Restaurant and Lounge in Belltown", "Restaurant with Lounge Bar" (Queen Anne), "Downtown Restaurant and Bar", "Club Lounge & Restaurant" (U District), "Sports Bar and Brewery" (Seattle), "Restaurant with wine and beer" (Madison Valley), "Take Out - Eat in Restaurant" (Queen Anne), "Restaurant and Lounge North Ballard", "Restaurant with Lounge" (Lake Union), "Restaurant and Nightclub" (Seattle), "Restaurant Nightclub Bar" (Downtown Seattle), "Sports Bar" (Greenwood/Green Lake), "Casual Dining Restaurant" (South Lake Union), "Dinner Club and Night Club" (Pioneer Square), "TERIYAKI on Greenwood AVE", "TERIYAKI & KOREAN Restorant" (King), "Busy Street Corner Location Downtown Seattle Bar", "Restaurant/Cafe" (Georgetown), "Teriyaki Shop in Seattle", "Belltown Restaurant", "Popular UW Coffee Shop", "Excellent Teriyaki Shop in Bellevue"

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$2 mil is way too much for Cyndy's -- they're selling the lot for development. Guess I can thank the tanking real estate market for my continued access to pancakes.

Posted by Fnarf on March 18, 2009 at 2:54 PM

I was really looking forward to eating pancakes while contemplating whether the dancer's life went wrong before or after she got that c-section scar.

Posted by Aislinn on March 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM

I will miss Merchant's Cafe, although I was only there once. I was in law school at the UW and did a favor for another student/intern. To thank me, he and his wife took me and my then-husband out to dinner at the Merchant's Cafe. It was gorgeous inside and the food was certainly good enough, but what was truly memorable happened near the end of the meal. Our host first went to use the restroom, and then my then-husband went (because guys never would go together). When my then-hubby returned he casually mentioned to our host: "There was a heck of a lot of blood in the bathroom."

Our host's wife and I thought (pretty much in unison): (1) what the fuck; and (2) Does "heck of a lot" mean "more than usually found in a guys bathroom"?

We went to check it out and on our way down the stairs immediately saw where the blood trail started, or stopped if you were coming from the pooled blood on the bathroom floor upstairs and toward the door. My ex was correct: there was indeed a heck of a lot of blood down there.

What was perhaps more appalling was how no one seemed to care. Not the guys we were with, not the staff at the restaurant, and not the two cops we stopped on the street after we left. Just another wild night in Pioneer Square!

Posted by KB on March 18, 2009 at 3:15 PM

Poor Cafe Stellina. They were just never able to capitalize on all the housing that went up around them and draw a consistent crowd. Possibly because their schedule kept changing. I walk by there almost every day and I can't remember the last time I saw it open for business.

Posted by genevieve on March 18, 2009 at 3:25 PM

I hate the word "funky" so much.

Posted by Nannerpuss on March 18, 2009 at 3:25 PM

Wow, I eat at Trattoria Mitchelli a lot and find the food cheap and passable. The meat sauce tastes just like my gramma used to make. My gramma is Mexican, but still, it was good. I've had worse (try Cafe Bengodi sometime, terrible).

I will mention that the food is inconsistent. But only hipster Seattle hacks like their food consistent. I like variety and surprises (no taste, over-salted,etc...that reminds me why good restaurants should be cherished and frequented rarely).

There were signs asking for rent money the other day, so I knew times was hard.

Posted by Medina on March 18, 2009 at 3:47 PM

This is a really really great time to start a restaurant.

You can get cheap long-term leases on some prime locations, and since it frequently takes quite a while for the whole permitting and profitability to work out, you should hit the curve ahead of the rest of the pack.

Just saying.

Posted by Will in Seattle on March 18, 2009 at 3:57 PM

the picture of lamprea stopped my heart.

twits.

Posted by always the same on March 18, 2009 at 4:19 PM

Dan better get in there and steal their awards before it's too late.

Posted by w7ngman on March 18, 2009 at 5:24 PM

Lampreia?? As in Lamprey? Has anyone ever SEEN one of those things? Icggh, now I don't even want to eat my own dinner tonight, much less from their restaurant.

Posted by partychief on March 18, 2009 at 7:14 PM

Did they miss a Zero in King Cobra's price? Only $165,000?!

That's dirt cheap.

Posted by TheMisanthrope on March 18, 2009 at 9:09 PM

I loved Cindy's... those weird high-backed chairs, the strange flavored syrups, the kind and incredibly normal staff. I'm so bummed out.

Posted by Jigae on March 18, 2009 at 11:44 PM

Good riddance Mitchelli's. You were the worst employer I ever had. Not only did you expect us to sell inferior (and often re-used) product, you wanted us to treat our customers like thieves. Its no surprise, though, since that's how you treated your employees. That you lasted as long as you did always surprised me. When the eviction notice went up in Stella's, I was happy. When you had to shutter half the restaurant, I was happier. Now that you're having to sell your "flagship" store, I almost feel a sense of vindication.

Posted by Jeremy on March 19, 2009 at 2:32 AM