Winter is all the time a tricky season for eating places, because the chilly, darkish, and rain retains individuals house. However the begin of 2025 has thrown a further curveball on the trade, as town’s tip credit score for small companies has expired. Now all companies should pay a minimal wage of $20.76 per hour to all staff, tipped and non-tipped. That’s an enormous bounce from the $17.25 minimal wage for tipped staff that was in place in 2024.
Trade watchers predicted final 12 months that this variation will reshape how eating places do enterprise, with extra doubtlessly switching to counter-service or QR code–based mostly programs to chop down on labor. And any improve in value, after all, will push eating places already within the purple (or barely within the black) to shut.
Already, a number of restaurant house owners which have closed their companies in late 2024 and early 2025 have blamed the minimal wage hike for primarily forcing their arms — together with one proprietor, Bebop Waffle Store’s Corina Luckenbach, who vocally helps the rise. On prime of those closures, there’s the standard churn of eating places shutting their doorways as house owners promote, retire, or pivot to different alternatives.
Listed below are a number of the extra important restaurant and bar closures in December and January:
WEST SEATTLE and SODO — Native barbecue chain Peco’s Pit has closed down all its areas as of January, experiences the Seattle Occasions. On its web site, the house owners mentioned that “the challenges from COVID-19 and rising prices have made it not possible to proceed.”
MAGNOLIA — Queen Margherita Pizza closed out of the blue in January and its web site and social media accounts have disappeared. Pizza lovers in Magnolia is probably not mourning all that arduous, nevertheless, because the area is now house to the second location of Renton-based Smoking Monkey Pizza.
CHINATOWN–INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT — On January 22 Comfortable Meals, a Chinese language restaurant in Little Saigon that we known as out as one of many neighborhood’s finest new eating places, closed after lower than a 12 months in enterprise.
CAPITOL HILL — Ian’s Pizza on Capitol Hill closed completely on January 16, reported Capitol Hill Seattle Weblog. The pizzeria — identified for its mac ‘n’ cheese slices — will proceed operations at its Fremont location.
BALLARD — After 17 years, the Stepping Stone bar closed completely on January 15 after landlord Eastlake Hill Properties instructed the house owners to vacate, reported MyBallard. Homeowners Liz Nielsen and Darren Miller, who purchased the bar in 2013, are searching for a brand new location.
WEST SEATTLE — Lower than a 12 months after opening, the bakery/cafe Bel Gatto closed, West Seattle weblog reported on January 6. Proprietor Peter Levy — who runs the CHOW Meals restaurant group — put up an indication on the bakery blaming the rise in minimal wage for the closure.
CENTRAL DISTRICT — Native legend Jackson’s Catfish Nook has closed after 40 years in enterprise in a number of areas. Its final day of enterprise was January 2. Proprietor Terrell Jackson mentioned on Instagram that the closure was as a consequence of adjustments within the neighborhood (which isn’t as Black because it as soon as was) and the brand new minimal wage legislation. Based on the Occasions, nevertheless, Jackson could reopen in February.
CAPITOL HILL — In a significant loss for Seattle’s vegan scene, Makini Howell closed down each Plum Bistro and Plum Chopped on January 2. The well-known chef — whose household has been in vegan meals for many years — will concentrate on her tofu firm, Makini’s.
WEST SEATTLE — Funky breakfast fave Bebop Waffle Store closed down on New Yr’s Eve after 10 years. On Instagram, proprietor Corina Luckenbach wrote that “the cash simply isn’t there after the minimal wage improve (which I absolutely assist).” Luckenbach plans to transform the venue into an occasion area.
BALLARD — Bizarre one: D’Ambrosio Gelato closed in Ballard on the finish of 2025. However Seattle Met’s Naomi Tomky experiences that the little store is now a world model after being purchased by Nomura Enterprise Capital. Now the D’Ambrosio Gelato web site says, “We had been born from the synergy between greater than 60 years of expertise into the Italian Dairy financial system of a dairy facility within the Alps and the business dynamism and a enterprise imaginative and prescient of a younger and energetic entrepreneur.” Based on that web site, there are actually a half-dozen D’Ambrosio areas in Italy, Paris, Taiwan, and Virginia.
CAPITOL HILL — Rapport, the well-known self-pour wine bar, closed on December 29. Based on Capitol Hill Seattle Weblog, “an individual with information of the closure mentioned the shutdown was as a consequence of a private household determination with the possession.”
CAPITOL HILL — One other Capitol Hill bar closed on December 29, with the Jilted Siren shutting down. Based on Capitol Hill Seattle Weblog, the house owners blamed “quick sighted, negligent choices” by the Seattle Metropolis Council for the closure, an obvious nod to the brand new minimal wage legislation.
WEST SEATTLE — Alki Cafe, a little bit diner close to the West Seattle waterfront, is closed as of December 16, experiences West Seattle Weblog. There was an eviction discover on the entrance door, the weblog famous, a discover that follows a 10-month authorized battle between the restaurant’s house owners and the owner.
BALLARD — Brunch mainstay Watson’s Counter, which grew to become identified for its Fruity Pebbles French toast and had lately pivoted to concentrate on espresso roasting, closed completely on December 12. “This subsequent chapter of my private life is concentrated on being a father and in that there’s not any room for a enterprise that doesn’t present revenue whereas occupying most of my waking hours,” proprietor James Lim wrote on Instagram, including that he’ll proceed to roast espresso and promote espresso subscriptions.
AURORA — Indo Cafe, one in every of Seattle’s few Indonesian eating places, has closed completely as of December 5 after 15 years in enterprise. “We’ve accepted a proposal from one other restaurant operator. Subsequently, we are going to shut Indo Cafe indefinitely,” the house owners wrote on Fb.