Cafe Racer

Cafe Racer Closed Last Summer, But Uber Eats Continued Taking Orders | Eater Seattle

"After the longtime U District coffee shop at 5828 Roosevelt Way NE decided to close permanently in July 2020, I watched third-party apps—especially Uber Eats—continue to list Cafe Racer as open and accept orders through February 2021; owner Jeff Ramsey says he contacted Postmates, Grubhub, and Uber Eats to cancel services but kept receiving at least three calls per month, frequent robo-calls asking to reactivate delivery, and drivers showing up at the vacant location. Money occasionally hit the cafe's bank account before being reversed, and Ramsey worries customers who see the menu on the app and try to order are left disappointed. I know Ramsey bought the place in 2017 and had turned it more family-friendly with brunch items like omelets, Eggs Benedict, and corned beef hash, but Cafe Racer had been a live-music, coffee-and-beer hangout since opening in 2004 and even survived a 2012 shooting that killed four people after the community rallied to keep it open. Facing high third-party fees and pandemic-related capacity limits, Ramsey has kept Cafe Racer alive as an online indie-music radio station while searching for a new location hoped to debut in 2021; Uber Eats has apologized and says it has disabled orders for the account, though occasional robo-calls continued as they worked to shut it down." - Gabe Guarente