Cafe Racer
Live music bar · Capitol Hill ·
Live music, art shows, board games, and craft coffee drinks
Live music, art shows, board games, and craft coffee drinks
"Located at 5828 Roosevelt Way, the former site of the old Cafe Racer (which closed in 2020), the storefront has been vacant long enough that it’s been broken into multiple times and the copper wiring has been ripped out of the walls, according to the Kraken owners who were cleaning when I stopped by; as a result, the new space will need a lot of work before it can become a fully functioning bar, restaurant, and venue." - Harry Cheadle
"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
"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
"And although we make our coffee drinks at home, usually, the closing of Cafe Racer was a blow — they were such a part of the community." - Gabe Guarente
"A longtime artsy coffee shop and performance venue in the U District, Cafe Racer closed its location at 5828 Roosevelt Way NE in July and has pivoted to an audio-only model with a free online music station called Cafe Racer Radio; owner Jeff Ramsey says the idea was conceptualized by a customer on the cafe's last night of business. The station currently features only music from Washington—primarily Seattle—has a library of around 10,000 tracks, and includes artists from Pacific Northwest independent labels such as Sub Pop, Barsuk, Youth Riot, and Hush; it mostly runs a shuffle mix now but Ramsey says shows, commentary, interviews, and other content will be added in September. Over its 17 years the cafe was a much-beloved, quirky neighborhood hangout known for excellent espresso, a selection of local beer, and a room called the Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA) filled with kitsch. The cafe survived a 2012 tragedy in which a gunman shot and killed four people—an event that almost prompted then-owner Kurt Geissel to close but ultimately led to a community rally to keep the spot alive—and in 2017 Ramsey bought the business and steered it toward a more family-friendly vibe with brunch items like omelets, Benedicts, and corned beef hash; the OBAMA room remained, the back area was stocked with books and board games, and the dining room even featured a cafe racer motorcycle kids could sit on. Ramsey says he's in talks with a landlord to reopen somewhere in the same neighborhood once things are back to normal." - Gabe Guarente
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