Music, dive bars, pizza, Italian

Understanding the tangled web

One of Seattle's endearing qualities is the number of people who come together to operate a business, grow into other businesses together, maybe with other people, or maybe not. This could be happening everywhere, but seems a very Seattle thing that the business part doesn't overtake the personal part. Relationships weather differing opinions and ownership changes, and move on to new opportunities. The group spotlighted in this story also have a love of the city and desire to pay homage to the past, keeping parts of old Seattle alive.

Above: Jason Lejeunesse and Joey Burgess of Guild Seattle

An overview:

It seems straight forward, but there's more going on. Both Lajeunesse and Meinert (at right) have music promotions companies (Sealed with a Kiss-Lajeunesse; Onto Entertainment-Meinert-as well as Seattle Event Series, and 5 Point Cafe; McConnell has Vita Records, as well as Café Vita, Via Tribunali, and fingers in many pots-see our 2014 story). Mike Meckling and James Snyder (Sam's Tavern) are co-owners of the Canterbury on Capitol Hill. Mike Meckling and Jerry Everard are not only involved in Fokus Industries, but also Happiness Funtime Rainbow, LLC.

"This grew organically," says Jason. "I was a musician, house painter, dishwasher. I started playing drums at 16, played with multiple bands, and toured. Because I knew the bands, I started booking bands at a concert venue/bar. After three years of booking shows, I created Sealed with a Kiss to do music promotion, which I've been doing for 18 years. The bar and food stuff came into play over the past eight years." He was the founding talent buyer at Neumos, buying in as partner two years in.

After creating Moe Bar with partner Mike Meckling, Big Mario's came next. Jason co-managed the project. "It was my first time being involved in a restaurant build out. There was certainly a learning curve. Mike McConnell had more experience and he was involved not only in creating the concept but really helping keep things on point." It was followed by Jason and David Meinert building Lost Lake Café. "We'd wanted to do a diner on Capitol Hill. For the name, we wanted something familiar to people. David pointed out that there are Lost Lakes all over the country; everyone has been to a lost lake. And he was right. A 24-hour business is a unique challenge. It's a tough business to control, being consistent with staffing and food 24 hours a day; it's taken us a couple of years. You have to do volume to sustain the model; your customer base has to be broad. Although food is conceptually more simple, operationally it's more complex." Joey Burgess started as a server with hours that worked with his school schedule to become a teacher. He was promoted to GM, then to Operations Manager for Guild Seattle. Ultimately he has become a partner in some of the projects. "We started Guild Seattle to create structure for managing our properties," explains Jason.

When the owner of the Comet Tavern walked away, the landlord had a number of suitors, but encouraged Jason/David/Joey to take it. "We invested a significant amount of money to restore it. It was uninhabitable. People didn't want to see the punk rock venue go, but I knew it wasn't financially feasible as it was. We wanted to keep the tradition of that space intact. We got information from former owners, had dinners and got photos from them. We reached far back when trying to pay homage to what it was. The punk rock venue era was the most recent, but it was just a bar from 1932 to early 2000."

When the Kingfish space opened, they put together a proposal for Ernest Loves Agnes. They got keys on March 15 and opened in September. Fortunate to have an extended development period, they took group trips, sampled food, and focused on what they wanted to achieve. They hired two chefs*, Mac Jarvis and Tia Hawley. "It's important to have a collective vision," says Jason. "This is different from our other properties in terms of having chefs vs. volume line cooks and a sophisticated wine list. The product is the big difference."

And there's more. The second Mario's opened November 6, on Queen Anne. More may open as they find good neighborhood fits. The Capitol Hill Block party will celebrate its 20^th anniversary in July 2016. Started as a small street fair, David and Marcus Charles took over and rebooted it into a concert festival. Jason worked for them as a talent buyer for five years, then purchased and began producing it five years ago.

"As people talk, ideas pop up. Sometimes everyone jives on something, sometimes not. We're all intentional in what we do. We want to preserve and/or honor history of the spaces we inhabit and meet the needs of the neighborhood they're in, and hope people will try them all. Lost Lake and Big Mario's are meant to be extremely affordable; that is important to us. But it's not the limit of what we're capable of. We can also put together an elegant restaurant like Ernest Loves Agnes that elevates the craft of food and wine when it's appropriate. The common thread in those spaces is quality and comfort. Our hope is you want to come back a couple times a week, not a month or year."

Seattle's culture is defined by these types of relationships, business and otherwise, and there are a number of groups doing it in various neighborhoods. It's a pretty great place to live.

Connie Adams/November 2015

Big Mario's New York Pizza
1009 E Pike St (Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA 98122
206-922-3875

815 5^th Ave N (Queen Anne)
Seattle, WA 98109
206-453-5841

www.bigmariosnewyorkpizza.com

Lost Lake Café
1505 10^th Ave (Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA 98122
206-323-5678

www.lostlakecafe.com

The Comet Tavern
922 E Pike St (Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA 98122
206-323-5678

www.thecomettavern.com

Grim's Seattle
1512 11^th Ave (Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA 98122
206-324-7467

www.grimseattle.com

Ernest Loves Agnes
600-602 19^th Ave E (Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA 98112
206-535-8723

www.ernestlovesagnes.com

* Chef change in 2016