Three West Seattle businesses will close soon (Sept. 30) due to the sale of the building they occupy. Heartbeet Cafe, Youngstown Coffee and Launchpad Co-Working space in the 6000 block of California Ave SW are all affected. Heartbeet will also close their original location on Queen Anne. It means the loss of those jobs and a source of organic foods in the neighborhood. The owners of Youngstown Coffee shared the news via an email to friends and customers:

Dear Youngstown Customers, 

As the summer sun starts to set earlier and the breeze has picked up, it’s a reminder that fall is coming and everything has an end. So it goes for Youngstown Coffee. It’s heartbreaking to share the news that we’ll be closing our doors on September 30th. While there are a handful of reasons we’re closing permanently, ultimately fate has decided for us with the sale of our 100 year old building and the closure of our sister businesses HeartBeet Cafe and Launchpad Co-Working space (all closing on Sept 30th).

Monica, myself, our kids, and our amazing staff will exit with our heads held high proud of the magic we made in our tiny corner of West Seattle called Morgan Junction. With your support we’ve built a beautiful community and have accomplished so much together in these short but long 3+ years. From our Pride marches, to fundraisers, and supporting local marginalized businesses at our markets, we’ve all made an impact together. We’re so proud of you and all of us. 

We're asking you continue to support the incredible small businesses in Morgan Junction. Supporting small is so vital to the health of our people! When Youngstown’s busiest week on record in 3 years was when Starbucks closed for a remodel, I’m afraid we have a long way to go as a society to dismantle systems that continue to drive a wedge between the working class and inflated corporations. Small business owners deserve to thrive and be able to support their families without having to take out loans and work 2-3 side jobs!

Our final word is a BIG THANK YOU to our staff, vendors, and small businesses in our shop. Tess was our first hire and will cross the finish line with us. Her beautiful relationship with our customers is unmatched in West Seattle. Our oldest Juliet faced fears taking on her first job and grew up before our eyes, with you. Thanks to Chef Jason, Marc, Shelby, and Mel for keeping WS fueled on the best breakfast burritos! Our hearts are so full of pride and love for having this staff. 

Finally, we have Youngstown baristas and HeartBeet staff that will need new jobs. If you have any leads for them please email us hello@youngstowncoffeeseattle.com They’re all amazing and whoever hires them will be super lucky. We’ll have an online tip jar coming soon for our staff and for final closing costs. If you’re able to help us out, it would be much appreciated. 

Long, Long Live Youngstown, 

We had the time of our life fighting dragons with you! 

Autumn and Monica 

The owners of Heartbeet Cafe also shared a message with some things you can do to help them during this transition.

Dear Beloved Customers & Friends,

My dear friend would always tell me, "This too shall pass."  It's an old Persian adage that reflects on the temporary nature, or ephemerality, of the human condition — that neither the bad, nor good, moments in life, ever indefinitely last. 

The realities of that all-too-familiar saying I've heard a hundred times, have finally arrived here... with us, today, as I write with a very heavy heart to let you know that our time has come, and your friends at HeartBeet will be saying goodbye, and serving its last cashew, on September 30, 2023.

This may come as a shock to many of you, and maybe for others who know the struggles we have had, not so much. The list of reasons for our closure is long and mostly financial-related, but we are proud of our accomplishment of making it nearly 15 years in Seattle, while all odds are against small businesses. During that time, we’ve sold well over 100,000 dishes of our very popular Buddha Bowl, we served roughly 1.1 million customer meals (wow!), and tens of thousands of hacked coconuts. Together we've made it so far with the events affecting HeartBeet: a flood, a major light rail construction project, snowpocalypses, heat domes, multiple burglaries, and even a global pandemic!

The ultimate last straw prompting closure is the loss of our main production facility in West Seattle, due to the pending sale of our 100-year old building. Were we in a better financial position, were financial institutions more supportive of small restaurant businesses, were the delivery service fees through UberEats and DoorDash (which comprise a large volume of our sales), not 30%, and were it not getting so hard to hire staff, things might be different….

Gratitude

We are incredibly grateful for the meaningful relationships we’ve developed over the many, many years we served you, both with our staff members and customers alike. We are humbled by the support received when we have faced challenges in the past. So many great memories. From our original Thrive Cafe opened in Roosevelt in 2018, to the Vitality Shop, to the Thrive Wellness/Retreat Center, to HeartBeet in Queen Anne, our adventures with our experimental side brands Pure Pies and Seattle Smoothies… we are now, unfortunately, joining the list of the many wonderful “Seattle Ghost Cafes,” that have come before. We’ll count on you to tell stories, share your memories, and think of us whenever you pass by one of our previous locations, and smile whenever you see a copycat Buddha Bowl® in another restaurant.

Rolling Shutdown

Although it is our intention to stay open through Saturday, September 30, we are treating the closure as a “rolling shutdown” and have given our team members six weeks’ notice. As they find new positions, we expect it will be harder to maintain our current operating hours – so please be sure to look to our website for menu item availability and hours of operation as the upcoming weeks' march on.

Gift Cards

If you have a HeartBeet, Pure Pies, or Thrive gift card that you have been gifted, you will have until we close to use it so don't delay!  After that, you will be unable to redeem your gift card for any value.  Be sure to come in and use it while you are able to!

What Can You Do?

It would be un-HeartBeet-like to go out without at least a few requests of support from our community, so let’s get to it:

1. JOBS. We hope to see job leads for our wonderful team members. Please send any openings you know of to hello@heartbeethealthy.com and we will share them with the team. We have about 15 employees who will be looking for jobs.

2. STUFF FOR SALE. HeartBeet’s physical assets will be for sale once they are no longer needed for the cafe operation - if you’re interested in restaurant equipment, leftover supplies, or leftover ingredients, please let us know HERE. 

3. RECIPES. We are also considering the various ways we might share our recipes with you so you can keep HeartBeet alive in your own way. If this is of interest to you, you can sign up for updates on this project HERE.

4. FRIENDS, NOT FOOD. Remember, you vote with your money! The animalsof the planet are counting on you, especially all of the enslaved cows, piggies, turkeys, chickens, and ocean-life who have no life to live when we eat them. Because animals are not food (click here for more on this).  That’s why it’s so important to continue to eat plant-based when possible and to support and buy local, plant-based foods.

5. SUPPORT SMALL & LOCAL. With booming technology driving big business, and truly so very little support from the financial system, smaller, local restaurants are on a pathway to extinction. HERE is a recent partial list of local, awesome vegan restaurants published just a few days ago that you can support!

6. VIRTUAL TIP JAR.  Support the team at HeartBeet as much and as often as you can while we remain open, and help us go out with a bang! And, if you have some spare money to throw around, we have set up a Venmo account HERE that will serve as our virtual “forever tip jar” to help with both closing costs and support for our team members.

VIRTUAL TIP JAR

It has been a true pleasure and an honor to serve you. A special thank you to all of the people who have made HeartBeet what it has been to our community (you know who you are!!).... and to all of you who have shared us with your friends and family over the many, MANY years we have been open, we love you!

Farewell,

Monica Colgan 

The Founder

P.S. If you would like to share some last words of encouragement for our staff and let them know what HeartBeet meant to you, there is a space to do so here.

SHARE YOUR WORDS HERE