Nosh Pit

Slideshow: Inside Li’l Woody’s on Capitol Hill

Seattle’s newest burger biz is a late night, kid-friendly shack on Pine Street.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Aug 02, 2011 at 02:07PM0 Comments

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The Woody’s mascot is a tot-friendly take on Sasquatch. “It’s fun to do something that’s not 21-plus,” the bar owner says.

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Lalario and a burger buff from Captain Blacks spent about five months building the regionally focused menu. Perfecting the recipes for the homemade sauces and spices also took some time. Eventually Lalario plans to sell those condiments as well as other local products, like the Boat Street pickled figs found on the Fig and Pig listed here. That and the chili–topped New Mexican are Lalario’s favorites.

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Woody’s will stay open until 3am on weekends. Though this part of the Hill is less trafficked at night, Lalario isn’t concerned: “I feel strongly enough about our burgers that people will wander down for them.”

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The mezzanine and ground level will accommodate up to 40 eaters.

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Lalario says the Painted Hills patties are cooked fresh—not frozen—and formed by hand.

UPDATE 8/23: The late-night weekend hours are coming soon.

Burger joints are the golden child of the restaurant world: Everyone flips for them yet they court even the ficklest gourmands, and they’ve thrived in a brutal economic climate (see this charticle of Seattle’s burger boom).

The latest joint to fuel that boom is Li’l Woody’s, set to open publicly the week of August 8, if not a few days before. Heading up the shack is Marcus Lalario. A familiar name on Capitol Hill (he co-owns Captain Blacks and HG Lodge and has stakes in a handful of other spots), Lalario toyed with going burger for years. He moved forward with the idea when a space neighboring Marination Station opened up, but when that fell through Lalario found himself rehabbing 1211 Pine Street, the sliver once belonging to Juliano’s Pizza.

Now much brighter and more open and with a meaty menu complemented by shakes, sodas, and floats, Lalario feels Woody’s is fit to become “the Peach Pit of Capitol Hill.”

To see if Nat would approve, and for a glimpse at that menu, click through the slideshow.

All photos by Seattlemet.com photographer Lucas Anderson.

Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Capitol Hill, Late Night, Burgers