‘Portuguese-style’ joins the fray as Port of Peri Peri Chicken prepares for the great Central Seattle chicken war of 2027

(Image: Port of Peri Peri Chicken Kirkland)

The walk down 12th Ave can open up access to a wealth of food and drink alternatives beyond the Capitol Hill core.

A few like L’Oursin at 14th and Jefferson have stood the test of time.

Two new projects are taking shape in a recent mixed use building on a block of 12th Ave that saw a skirmish over small business displacement play out during the project’s development.

Paperwork shows the new restaurants taking shape together on the street level of the Tapestry apartments building at 12th and Fir.

One space is being prepared for Cheng’s Dumplings and Noodle, a Taiwanese concept from first-time Seattle restaurateurs Ya-Tzu Cheng and Yu-Fen Liu.

The other will be home to an expansion of Port of Peri Peri Chicken, a fast-casual restaurant chain specializing in Portuguese-style flame-grilled chicken seasoned with African bird’s eye chilis. The franchise chain already has locations in Kirkland and Bothell among nearly 30 outlets in 11 states nationwide.

The arrival of Port of Peri Peri will add to what has become a comically intense wave of new chicken openings across the Capitol Hill area.

High profile investments include the arrival of the San Francisco-born Starbird Chicken chain on E Pike in a portion of the block’s emptied Amazon grocery store and Char the Chicken, the launch of a new grilled poultry concept from the backers of the scuttled Mt. Joy chicken sandwich chain and a popular food influencer.

Meanwhile, the recent food and drink history on 12th Ave where Cheng’s and the new Port of Peri Peri are being planned includes the unsuccessful fight for Saba Ethiopian to keep its space after it lost its lease on the block amid plans for demolition to make way for the development six years ago.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support