Capitol Hill’s finest restaurant is moving… across the street

(Image: Lockwood)

One of Capitol Hill’s finest restaurants will celebrate its 15th year with a move across Broadway. Chef and owner Nathan Lockwood is consolidating his two Capitol Hill restaurants in late October by moving Altura across the street into the larger 7,500-square-foot space of its sister restaurant, Carrello.

“It’s a little bittersweet, but I’m looking forward to not running back and forth across Broadway every night,” Lockwood said in the announcement. “We’ll have everything under one roof, and I’ll be in the kitchen where everything is happening.”

Establishing it as one of Seattle’s premier tasting menu destinations through multiple James Beard Award honors and top rankings across the city’s food and drink media, Lockwood opened Altura on North Broadway in October 2011, transforming the space of a former art and furniture boutique.

The Carrello space (Image: Altura)

Altura currently has around 28 to 30 seats across its dining room tables and chef’s counter in its original 1,500-square-foot space. With the upcoming move across Broadway into Carrello’s larger space, Lockwood is adding just 5 seats to the tasting menu dining area to keep the main dining experience intimate, while utilizing the lounge and patio areas for à la carte dining and aperitivo service.

Carrello debuted as a rustic Italian concept with, as CHS reported at the time, “carts full of rabbit meatballs, roasted peppers, alici anchovies, fried artichokes, and albacore crudo, and salumi sliced ‘until it’s gone,’” across from Altura on the east side of Broadway in October 2019.

Its space had previously been home to the legendary 11-year run of Poppy from chef Jerry Traunfeld. Before the overhaul that the Northwest classic Poppy was part of, gay bar The Elite called this curve of Broadway home.

Now the space will undergo another transformation to make room for a slightly expanded version of Altura that retains a bit of the Carrello fun and still puts the patio and herb garden still growing from the Poppy days to work.

Carrello will serve its final dinner in late October, bringing both concepts under one roof. Lockwood says staff members from both restaurants are being retained and the transition will require only a few days of closure.

The Carrello cars will live on (Image: Altura)

Lockwood says Altura’s core tasting menu experience will remain intimate, adding only five seats in the dining area. The lounge and garden patio will inherit Carrello’s à la carte offerings, tableside wooden cart service, and a 4:30 to 5:30 PM Aperitivo Hour.

What’s next for the west side of Broadway is yet to be seen. Just down the street, a new chef is joining the neighborhood as Rene Erickson protege Ash Stockham is helming the build out as a former mochi doughnut and boba shop is being transformed into “Northwest Neo Bistro” Pearl Diver.

Lockwood, meanwhile, is busy planning menus, getting packed up, and a celebration. Ahead of the move in late October, Altura will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a special week-long menu change. In the meantime, both restaurants are offering 15% off all wine bottle sales to help lighten the load being carted across the street.

Altura will move into the space currently home to its sister restaurant Carrello this fall at 622 Broadway E. Learn more at alturarestaurant.com.

$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