by Amanda Ong


After virtually seven months of in-person closure, Cafe Red in Othello reopened its doorways for service in April. The return of the beloved neighborhood café comes with a brand new all-vegan menu, loads of items from native corporations, and a renewed dedication to neighborhood.

Greater than something, co-owners Jesiah Wurtz and Haley Williams hope that by their considerate area, meals, and occasions, they’ll provide the neighborhood a spot of affection, security, and authenticity. 

“All of us simply sort of want some grace, and so love is de facto essential to me to have the ability to create an area the place anyone can stroll by the doorways and really feel like they belong, the place it simply seems like you’ll be able to present up and simply be your self absolutely, authentically,” Wurtz mentioned. “And I believe, traditionally, there haven’t been a ton of these areas.”

It’s been an extended pandemic highway for the all-vegan café that initially began as a bicycle cafe pop-up in 2015. In March 2020 they closed the café because of the onset of COVID-19. Then they reopened August 2020 to August 2021, then shut down till reopening this April. 

For Williams and Wurtz, veganism is an important side of the café’s capacity to serve the South Seattle neighborhood. “Individuals discuss lots about how South Seattle is a meals desert,” Wurtz mentioned in an interview with the South Seattle Emerald. “If individuals are searching for plant-based choices, [they’re] fairly few and much between. Some individuals care about animal welfare and struggling. Different individuals care in regards to the environmental impression of their choices. Different individuals want to concentrate to their well being … However one of many greatest boundaries is accessibility, and so we simply sort of needed to make it simple for individuals to make that call.”

“Once we began we really opened up vegetarian,” Williams mentioned. “However we’re each vegan, and [the pandemic] gave us an opportunity to shut and rethink why not simply be absolutely vegan? If we’re failing veganism, our personal values, why not incorporate [veganism] into the precise café?” 

“I believe it at all times felt unsuitable to supply issues on the menu that we wouldn’t even eat ourselves,” Wurtz mentioned.

Wurtz and Williams are each notably excited for a few of their new menu choices and partnerships with different vegan eating places and foodmakers. They’re working with No Bones Beach Club, a women-owned vegan firm that had eating places in Ballard and Portland, however have since closed due to the pandemic and are operating from a wholesale mannequin. Cafe Crimson will likely be providing their artichoke blossoms and cauliflower wings, and hope former followers of No Bones Seashore Membership’s Ballard location will come attempt them.

They’re additionally partnering with one other woman-owned vegan firm known as Snacktivist Foods, that focuses on gluten-free baking mixes. They’re utilizing their elements to supply new pastries to their menus, together with chocolate chip cookies and shortly, brownies. 

“Hopefully subsequent month we’ll have this out, however I grew up in Ohio out at a small bakery there,” Wurtz mentioned. “Previous to me being 10 years previous, I’ve numerous recollections from that. And we’re engaged on veganizing these recipes.”

Their sandwiches and their mac and cheese use tofu from ChuMinh Tofu, which is thought for his or her community mutual aid work and whose tofu manufacturing unit is down the road from Cafe Crimson. Their bread comes from Moon Village Bakery in Skyway, which Wurtz says is run by a younger South Seattle household. 

“[Moon Village Bakery] has simply actually superb model new particular recipes for breakfast breads,” Wurtz mentioned. “They name them Moon muffins. It’s mainly a twist on English muffins. They’re somewhat bit larger and denser than English muffins, and are only a actually particular recipe they made for us.”

In addition they are working with the Apple Guy, who in flip works with farms in Jap Washington to deliver apples on to individuals and skip the distribution middlemen, in order that farmers can get higher costs. 

Wurtz is especially enthusiastic about supporting Fulcrum Coffee, which is run by Blas Alfaro from his roastery in SoDo.

“Fulcrum Espresso is run by a fifth era Costa Rican, queer, espresso farmer, [whose family has] grown espresso for the reason that early 1800s,” Wertz mentioned. “And so they have grown up actually selecting espresso as a child on a espresso farm. [Fulcrum] actually has such a deep coronary heart for the expertise of espresso farmers, understands their wrestle, and is simply so intentional about discovering methods to assist them … it actually does greater than I’ve seen another roaster in Seattle do to actually assist the communities [Alfaro] sources espresso from.”

Previous to the pandemic, Cafe Crimson was internet hosting a number of occasions per week prioritizing artists from South Seattle, and Wurtz and Williams are notably involved with housing points and sweeps within the space. Previous South Seattle-based performers have included Ready Ron Beats, Essam, Esai, and Planet 39. They’ve additionally hosted nationwide acts, like Carnage the Executioner.

“That is what the individuals in South Seattle are doing, what’s up,” Wurtz mentioned. “That’s sort of what we see the area as. We would like it to be a stepping stone the place individuals can are available and be themselves and do their factor and use it as a stepping stone to get to wherever they’re off to subsequent.”

Cafe Crimson doesn’t plan to host as many occasions per week as they did previous to the pandemic, however hope to start internet hosting open mics quickly. A reopening celebration on Could 20 featured artists from Prepared Ron’s Takeover Music Collective and Shubzilla/Bill Beats’ Noir Grime label, and free vegan donuts from Dough Joy had been obtainable for the primary 125 attendees. 

Go to Cafe Crimson at 7148 MLK Jr. Blvd S. The café is open for each dine-in and patio seating Tuesday by Sunday. From Tuesday by Friday, they’re open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday they’re open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Individuals also can order forward or for decide up on the Joe app.


Amanda Ong (she/her) is a Chinese language American author from California. She is at the moment a grasp’s candidate on the College of Washington Museology program and graduated from Columbia College in 2020 with levels in inventive writing and ethnicity and race research.

📸 Featured Picture: Beloved neighborhood spot Cafe Crimson has emerged from the pandemic with an all-vegan menu and a better dedication to neighborhood. (Picture: Marcus Harrison Inexperienced)

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