By the end of November, N 45th Street loses two businesses that served as gathering places as much as shops. Pam's Caribbean Kitchen closes for good on November 29, and Hawai'i General Store closes at the end of the month after 28 years. Both were known for live music, the couch with the shop dog, and conversations at the counter, more than for anything they sold.
Some of that has already moved in. Ten doors down from Pam's, at 1705 N 45th St, a new café has just opened with a stated plan to get people to sit down and stay. This month on 45th comes down to where people will spend their unhurried hours.
The block between 1705 and 1715
Pam Jacob's restaurant at 1715 N 45th St has been cooking Trinidadian food, jerk chicken and curries among it, for about a decade in Wallingford. Before that she ran a first location in the University District. Guy Fieri visited two years after the restaurant opened. Over the years the dining room has also hosted live music and dances.
"This restaurant is a community," Jacob told FOX 13 Seattle when the closing was announced. She also invited longtime regulars and first-timers to come in before the last day. She hopes to continue cooking through catering afterward, and the Pam's Caribbean Kitchen website already has a catering request page.
If you're planning a last dinner there, these are the hours the restaurant lists:
- Monday and Tuesday: closed
- Wednesday: 5 to 9 p.m., all you can eat
- Thursday: 4 to 10 p.m.
- Friday: noon to 10 p.m.
The Wednesday all-you-can-eat night is the one that's easiest to miss. From here, the last Wednesdays before November 29 are the 11th, 18th and 25th. The 25th is the night before Thanksgiving.
Now walk west to 1705. Uttam Mukherjee and Aakanksha Sinha, the owners of Spice Waala, opened Janta in the space Fuel Coffee used to occupy. Janta means "people" in Hindi. The model was the café at St. Stephen's College in New Delhi, where the couple met.
Seattle magazine's October 21 review notes that this is new territory for the owners. Spice Waala's three locations are mostly takeout and delivery, and Janta is larger than any of them. "We're asking people to come in and spend more time in the space," Mukherjee told the magazine.
Those plans show up in the room:
- The shelves that held Fuel's books are now stocked with books by South Asian authors that you can borrow while you drink your chai.
- There's a kids' table with crayons and picture books.
- In the evenings, the owners plan pizza nights, author talks and other community events.
The food goes beyond a grab-and-go fridge. There's a masala egg bun with Spice Waala's green chutney, aloo-filled puff pastries for under $5, toasties, brownies, and a chickpea flour energy bar made in-house.
So in one block, a dining room that hosted dances for a decade is closing, and a few doors away a café has opened with books to borrow and an evening program on the way.
Twenty-eight years at 258 NE 45th
At the east end of the street, Hawai'i General Store at 258 NE 45th St is harder to sum up, and Wallyhood's October 15 piece said as much. The shelves carry fresh leis, island snacks, aloha shirts, books, art and music. But the writer said those items only tell part of the story. She credited owner Gail Stringer and her staff with making customers feel "genuinely known."
Wallyhood's opening line explains why this closing reaches beyond the store's own customers: "There are places that fill a storefront, and there are places that fill a neighborhood." The same piece lists graduation leis, birthday gifts and last-minute Christmas shopping among the store's roles. It also calls the store one of the most festive floats in the Wallingford kiddie parade.
Then there's the couch. The store has had a shop dog for years, first a golden retriever named Ellie and now Duke. The Wallyhood piece describes Sunday visits spent petting him on the sofa, along with the store's Dole Whip, a pineapple soft serve with a sour powder on top.
The farewell party was on Saturday, October 17. The store stays open through the end of November, but no exact final day has been announced. If a lei, a Dole Whip or a holiday gift from the store is on your list, go early in the month.
New rooms you book by the hour
The other arrivals on 45th this fall are fitness studios. They're also places to spend an hour, but you sign up for them.
Jazzercise has opened at 2205 N 45th St. Its planned opening date was August 31, and it moved here after holding classes at the Phinney Neighborhood Association.
Coeur Pilates is a reformer studio at 1905 N 45th St, between Janta and Jazzercise. It was still listed as opening soon in early October, and its website gives November 9 as the updated target date.
Put those addresses together and you get a short walk west from 1705 to 1905 to 2205. A morning chai at Janta and a class down the street fit in one trip on foot.
Good Shepherd Center runs on a calendar
A few blocks north, the Good Shepherd Center at 4649 Sunnyside Ave N fills November with events. Like Janta, it's a place built around people showing up and staying a while. Most of these events are in the chapel or one of the building's numbered rooms:
| Date | What | Where in the building |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 6 and 7 | Wayward Music Series | Chapel |
| Mon, Nov 9, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | Free PLU School of Nursing health fair, no registration needed | Senior Center, Suite 140 |
| Nov 12 | Wayward Music Series | Chapel |
| Fri, Nov 13, 7:30 p.m. | Jigsaw Chamber Ensemble | Chapel |
| Nov 18 and 19 | Wayward Music Series | Chapel |
| Fri–Sat, Nov 20–21, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Pacific Northwest Needle Arts Guild holiday sale | Room 120, downstairs |
Wayward Music Series lists Stepping Off, Evan Smith, and Paurl Walsh + Pearl Trio among its November performers. The Jigsaw Chamber Ensemble's November program and the Needle Arts Guild's holiday sale page have the details.
Civic business happens in the same building. The Wallingford Community Council calendar lists a neighborhood meeting on November 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Senior Center, with the topic not yet announced.
The needle arts sale falls on November 20 and 21, about a week before Pam's closes and Hawai'i General Store's last days. For anyone who has bought holiday gifts on 45th, that makes it a handmade alternative close to home in the same stretch of weeks.
The last two weeks of November, in order
- Nov 18 and 19: the last Wayward Music Series dates of the month at the Good Shepherd Center chapel.
- Nov 20–21: the Needle Arts Guild holiday sale, Room 120, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Wed, Nov 25: the last all-you-can-eat Wednesday at Pam's Caribbean Kitchen, 5 to 9 p.m.
- Sun, Nov 29: Pam's Caribbean Kitchen closes permanently.
- End of November: Hawai'i General Store closes after 28 years at 258 NE 45th St.
After that, the block at 1705 will be one of the main places on 45th where people sit down and stay a while, with Janta's books and planned evening events running a few doors from the old Pam's storefront.
A street changing hands like this affects how a neighborhood feels day to day, and following those changes on 45th is part of how we know Wallingford. If you'd like to talk about this part of Seattle with people who keep up with it, PBNW Homes is glad to hear from you. Work With Us.
