Cafe Racer Plans New Capitol Hill Location for September After Closing Its U District Space | Eater Seattle

"A much-loved live-music coffeehouse that spent 17 years in the U District, the cafe is about to begin a new era on Capitol Hill at 1510 11th Avenue after closing its original shop in 2020. Co-owners Jeff Ramsey and Cindy Anne plan preview shows over the summer with an official grand opening targeted for September 10. Known for serving espresso and a selection of local beer in a quirky space that included a kitsch-filled room called the Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA), many of those elements—particularly OBAMA—will carry over to the new location. The menu will include snacks such as salads, sandwiches, and breakfast burritos, plus a full bar highlighting local distillers, and will carry a line of pot pies from Pot Pie Factory chef-owner Logan Niles, “fitting the vibe of comfort food”; Ramsey also intends to bring back the cafe’s popular brunch. To better support local artists the new venue will be more expansive with a sizable mezzanine and a top-notch sound system, and in the interim the cafe developed an online radio station with 40,000 tracks from more than 3,000 artists. Moving from the U District is bittersweet—Ramsey bought the business in 2017, five years after a gunman shot and killed four people inside the cafe and the community rallied to keep it open—but he hopes to create a new family on the Hill with something more homey and less polished." - Gabe Guarente