Copine’s run is coming to an end. On December 9 the acclaimed French-influenced fine dining restaurant announced that it would be closing its doors when its current lease runs out at the end of May. The last day of service will be just about two years after it was nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant.
Copine has been a hot restaurant since it opened in 2016. Co-owner Shaun McCrain cooked at New York’s three-Michelin-starred Per Se before drawing raves for his stint at Seattle’s Book Bindery, where his wife and business partner Jill Kinney also worked. Copine has been a staple of various best-of lists over the years, but the couple began to see a slowdown in business last year. “The guests were still very happy, but it was just a lot less of them,” Kinney says. By the summer, the owners were openly contemplating changes on Instagram, writing in July, “The hospitality industry and the economy have both become so unpredictable that it’s very difficult to see a path forward.”
Even if business had improved since then, Kinney isn’t sure they would have renewed Copine’s lease, even though the landlord (who is “wonderful,” she says) wanted them to stay. “Shaun and I need a bit of a break,” she says. The couple was also unsure about how viable a 3,300-square-foot fine dining restaurant would be over the term of a five-year lease extension. That kind of space was nice to have when Copine was doing 70 to 100 covers a night, Kinney says, but they aren’t doing those numbers anymore.
Copine is the latest acclaimed Seattle restaurant to announce a closure in the last several months, a list that includes Stateside and Mamnoon. Other restaurants have pivoted to more affordable models, with Bainbridge Island’s Seabird becoming an all-day cafe and Lady Jaye, a barbecue spot in West Seattle, rebranding as a sandwich shop. Restaurants across the city are dealing with rising costs (including a major bump in Seattle’s minimum wage) and reduced customer demand.
Copin’s owners announced the closure months in advance so as not to surprise regular guests or leave their staff in the lurch; many of their employees have worked for them for years, some stretching back to the Book Bindery days. During Copine’s final months, it’ll scrap the bar menu while “streamlining” its prix fixe menu. “I want to focus the last five months cooking stuff that we really want to cook,” says McCrain. There will likely be more tableside elements to the meal and fewer accommodations for dietary restrictions. (McCrain is reducing his kitchen team from four to two.)
Kinney and McCrain have no set plans for what they’ll be doing after their restaurant closes. (“The last time Sean had some time off, he built a shed,” says Kinney. “He’s not real good at relaxing.”) They’re already musing a bit about what “Copine 2.0” might be — Kinney notes that there’s a trend toward more casual dining, but wants to resist that and stay “elevated,” maybe with less overhead than Copine had.
For now, the couple is focused on enjoying the last few months of Copine 1.0, and looking forward to guests coming in for the last time.
“It’s a little bittersweet, but at the same time, I feel like things have to change,” says Kinney. “There’s ends to everything.”