At The Counter Shoppe, Edgar Luna-Meza is living the Capitol Hill food+drink dream

Capitol Hill’s The Counter Shoppe cafe has a lot of energy behind it from a familiar neighborhood food and drink business family but there is one guy — and one baker — putting in 12 hour days to make it happen

It started at 15 years old in Mexico City. Decades later, after work in kitchens in Denver and Seattle, from Nate Robertson’s waffles to Mezcaleria Oaxaca to five years at the Peloton Cafe,

Edgar Luna-Meza says The Counter Shoppe is finally a place close to his heart.

Luna-Meza opened his counter-service café on E Pike in February and the neighborhood has shown up for him.

“The community is pretty amazing,” he told CHS. “A lot of people in the industry come here and support us.”

The café reflects the kind of hyperlocal, relationship-driven food business that Capitol Hill has always done best. Luna-Meza is careful about who he cooks for and how much he grows. He’s not chasing scale. He’s chasing something harder to find.

“The main reason I moved to Seattle,” he said, “was to open my own cafe or restaurant.”

The Counter Shoppe pairs the Fogon Capitol Hill food and drink family with Seattle baker Lauren Rae Witt. Witt might have helped create the best jamaica conchas shop on Capitol Hill.

Luna-Meza — most recently of the shuttered Mezcaleria Oaxaca where Double O’ Burgers, Cantina del Sol, and Uncle Dom’s Italian Kitchen opened on E Pine last year — is part of The Counter Shoppe’s ownership and the engine behind the new addition.

Luna-Meza has clocked 25 years in the food industry, starting as a teenager in Mexico City before relocating to Denver and eventually landing in Seattle in 2015. His résumé here is a tour of the Hill’s recent food history: he managed operations across Nate’s Wings and Waffles, Happy Grillmore, and Central District Ice Cream before moving to Brunswick & Hunt in Ballard, where he worked alongside chef Brad Walker. From there he helped build Mezcaleria Oaxaca’s multi-concept empire on Pine, the taco window, the mezcal dive bar, the rooftop, before spending five years running the dinner program and cocktail menu at E Jefferson’s Peloton.

CHS reported here on The Counter Shoppe’s February opening in the space formerly home to Half and Half Doughnut Co. at the corner of E Pike and Belmont.

Luna-Meza’s business partner Noel Cortez of Fogon also has deep roots in Seattle’s Mexican restaurant community,. “We’re both Latino owners, both from immigrant parents,” Luna-Meza said.

The support, he says, has come from all corners: industry colleagues, neighbors, the LGBTQ community, and fellow restaurateurs alike.

The Counter Shoppe’s offerings show Luna-Meza’s quarter-century of kitchen instincts. You’ll find elevated BLTs with goat cheese and basil spread, or grilled cheese with dark greens and a smoked tomato soup laced with paprika. The spice cabinet leans toward the Middle East, sumac, za’atar, seven-spice blends, woven into otherwise simple, familiar dishes.

“Very simple and tasty,” he said, “with my hint of Middle Eastern spices. I just love that complexity.”

Daily specials follow whatever caught his eye at the Sunday Capitol Hill Farmers Market or the Broadway Tuesday market once summer arrives. On a recent morning, he had come in with wild mushrooms.

“I just like to cook,” he said, “even if it’s like 10 orders.”

Baker and pastry chef Witt comes in early every morning to make everything from scratch.

The team Luna-Meza has assembled is also part of his connections to the city’s food and drink industry. Barista Milena Molina found her way to the café through a shared pastry pop-up history with the crew, and says the connection was immediate once the four of them sat down together.

“I really enjoy a lot of the creativity that kind of happens around here,” she said. “One person will be working on one thing, and the other person will be like, hey, how can I play with that? And we get to experiment.”

That spirit shows up in the coffee menu too, where unexpected combinations, like lemon in your coffee, have quietly become customer favorites. The neighborhood, Molina says, has noticed the difference.

“One of my favorite things that someone said: ‘Oh wow, this isn’t just a sterile white coffee shop where everything’s like counter and marble,’” she said. “They said, no, it’s warm. People are excited to taste the stuff that’s made fresh, made to order, made every day.”

Catering is part of the business plan to make ends meet but don’t expect Luna-Meza to go chasing corporate contracts across the city. He has his eye on Capitol Hill’s small business community, intimate lunches for 12 to 24 people, made with the same care as his café counter.

“I want to make something special for them,” he said. “I just want to keep it in the neighborhood.”

That instinct, to stay rooted, to stay particular, runs through everything he does. He’s at the café 12 hours a day, and when asked if he’s recognizing a dream come true, he doesn’t hesitate.

“Yeah,” he said. “Right now.”

The Counter Shoppe is now open at 516 E Pike. Learn more at thecountershoppeseattle.com.

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