Vito's

A Real Ghost Kitchen: One Chef’s Encounters With Vito’s Friendly Ghosts | Eater Seattle

"Established by brothers Vito and Jimmie Santoro in 1953, the First Hill restaurant and bar has a colorful — and nefarious — past: in the 1960s and 1970s it was a smoke-filled, dimly lit lounge tied to Seattle’s underworld that brought together off-duty cops, politicians, Husky football fans, Catholic priests, and, depending on who you ask, murky connections to organized crime. The Santoros sold it in 1994; after changing hands and becoming a club it shuttered following a 2008 shooting, then owners Greg Lundgren and Jeff Scott revived it in 2010, restoring mirrored walls, a grand piano and the backroom formerly the Vagabond Room (now the Cougar Room with a taxidermied wildcat). As lead chef Michael Crossley describes, the restoration kept the lounge's sense of shadowy history, and since reopening staff have reported uncanny phenomena — flickering lights, heavy vintage doors opening and closing on their own, chills, knocks, and apparitions (sous chef Peaches regularly saw spirits, though manager Jana Howard said she was never spooked in 10+ years). Crossley recounts specific encounters: hearing heavy footfalls and seeing a pair of pressed slacks and Italian-style loafers descend the back stairs with no one there, and later, during the pandemic, catching the mirrors' reflection filled with bar patrons when the stools were empty — experiences he describes as crashing a 'ghost party' that, according to Lundgren, the spirits seem to approve of." - Eater