Food & Drink

Star Seattle Chef Selling Two Restaurants, Opening a New One

Ethan Stowell is looking to sell Capitol Hill's Bar Cotto and Anchovies & Olives.

By AJ Rathbun September 26, 2017

bar-cotto-2

Want to start your own restaurant realm on a popular Capitol Hill corner? Bar Cotto and Anchovies & Olives on 15th Avenue and Pine Street are being put up for sale by Ethan and Angela Stowell. Why are they selling? Their “focus has shifted to other concepts on Capitol Hill and across the city,” according to an announcement.

Expounding to Eater, Stowell says the two adjacent spaces—which have felt like two sides of one Italian coin as they even share a window—will have more to offer the community if picked up by a fresh owner. Stowell also noted that while they weren’t exactly his most profitable restaurants, he thought he could keep them operating if he saw fit.

Opened in 2009 (not long after Stowell was named one of Food & Wine‘s Best New Chefs in America), the seafood, pasta and wine-focused Anchovies & Olives was another restaurant in the Stowells’ Italian fleet, which already included the beloved How to Cook a Wolf. The slightly smaller Bar Cotto opened in 2013. If memory serves, it was the seventh Stowell spot and has a more intimate feel as a combination salumi bar and pizzeria, one which wouldn’t have been out of place in a countryside southern Italy town. Bar Cotto also had perhaps the best cocktails of any Ethan Stowell restaurant, favoring Italian ingredients like amaro before they were omnipresent and getting on the barrel-aged trend fairly early. Though it’s been a while, I still remember a drink called the Old Loathsome Bastard, with Old Overholt rye, Averna amaro, Italian liqueur Strega, Pür blood orange liqueur and peach bitters.

Now, you could take over the 2,800-square-foot space with your own ideas, keeping it as two spots or making one bigger place. Stowell has also said that he’s open to talking about the possibility if a potential buyer would like to keep those concepts the same when purchasing the space. Those serious should contact Travis Rosenthal at travisrosenthal@gmail.com for more information.

But fear not, fans of Stowell-style pizza. It’s not all bad news coming from the Stowell camp. The Seattle Times reports that the restaurant power couple plans to turn the old Sullivan Steakhouse space into Cortina, another pizza-and-pasta Italian joint. The new concept could debut early next year.

It’s been an interesting year for local restauranteurs, with recent closings and reimaginings from another edible empire builder, Josh Henderson of the Huxley Wallace Collective, too. The restaurant and bar biz is rarely steady, but with Seattle’s rapid growth—both in population and buildings—it feels especially shaky.

Still, Seattleites have a nearly inexhaustible appetite for tasty new restaurants and bars. Hopefully the space(s) at 1550 15th Avenue don’t end up shuttered.

Follow Us

Seattle Restaurant Week Starts Sunday

Seattle Restaurant Week Starts Sunday

Get some great deals while supporting favorite establishments

For two weeks, you can eat your heart out in Seattle and surrounding neighborhoods during Seattle Restaurant Week. From April 14-27, prepare for exclusive, budget-friendly menus at over 200 restaurants throughout the city.

The Region's Best Mexican Food is in a Snohomish County Parking Lot 

The Region’s Best Mexican Food is in a Snohomish County Parking Lot 

Hidden Gems Weekend Market is again open for business

Among the 20 aisles of some 300 vendors selling everything from Native American beadwork to the classic flea market assortments of knickknacks and hardware, sits the Northwest's biggest and best assortment of regional Mexican cuisine, street foods, and snacks.

Tastes of Oaxaca

Tastes of Oaxaca

Alebrijes Oaxaca Kitchen food truck rolls into White Center 

Colorful strands of papel picado flutter above the new turquoise Alebrijes Oaxacan Kitchen food truck in White Center, as if flagging down bystanders to stop in for memelas, tlayudas, and masa-thickened mushroom soup.

Kitchen Conversations With J. Kenji López-Alt

Kitchen Conversations With J. Kenji López-Alt

The Seattle chef discusses online feedback, appropriation, and his goals as a noted food writer

Currently, he's juggling projects for his YouTube channel, working on a new cookbook aimed at everyday cooking, writing another children's book, and launching a podcast with Deb Perlman of Smitten Kitchen.