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Cafe Juanita Pops Up at the Original Lark Next Month

Allecia Vermillion
Author: Allecia Vermillion
1 min.read

It’s handled.

It’s as if Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope showed up as the new head warden on Orange is the New Black, or if Olivia Pope showed up to help sort things out on Homeland. It’s bound to be 1,000 times better than that Simpsons/Family Guy crossover episode.

Holly Smith is closing Cafe Juanita for three months while the restaurant undergoes a massive and long-overdue remodel. Meanwhile, John Sundstrom recently vacated his lovely Lark space on 12th Avenue to set up shop in the nearby Central Agency Building. The upshot: one amazing, James Beard Award–winning chef is temporarily stepping into the kitchen of another. And Seattle diners can experience Kirkland’s destination restaurant at close range.

The pop-up version of Cafe Juanita will only serve tasting menus. Dinner will run $135, and two levels of wine pairings will be $65 or $95. Eater Seattle has some details on the wine situation. The menu should be familiar to anyone who has done Smith’s Table 2 for 2 menu.

Smith’s a little nervous about doing away with a la carte menus for the duration of her stay, but says it’s the only way to make the relocation pencil out financially, especially in Lark’s notoriously, uh, intimate kitchen.

Cafe Juanita 12th Ave (somebody needs to come up with a clever nickname) will serve its first dinner on February 4, returning to its original home some time in early April…just before Cafe Juanita celebrates its 15th anniversary.

Seattle dinner service will happen Wednesday through Saturday and reservations require both a credit card and an up-front cash outlay for the base menu cost. The restaurant will start taking reservations via OpenTable on January 1.

  

 




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Allecia Vermillion
Allecia Vermillion
Allecia Vermillion has spent a decade at Seattle Met, arriving as food and drink editor, and expanding her role over the years. She served as the magazine’s editor in chief until moving into a newly created executive editor role in 2021. She spearheads Seattle Met’s food and drink coverage and oversees home design content. Allecia’s writing has earned her multiple journalism awards and two James Beard Award nominations over the years. A native of Portland, Oregon, Allecia began her writing life as a newspaper reporter in the Chicago suburbs before making a grateful return to the Pacific Northwest. She has an English degree from Washington University (no, the one in St. Louis) and a masters in journalism from Northwestern University. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two children.