Beloved Seattle restaurant makes a comeback through city's new ownership program

If it feels as though your favorite restaurants are disappearing, you're not imagining things. Rising food and labor costs are contributing factors. But there’s another, lesser-known reason: rising rents.

Now, the city hopes to give business owners a way to have ownership of their spaces, too. It has already helped one restaurant make a comeback.

For Seattle restaurateur Donna Moodie, hospitality is in her blood. She can’t walk away from it. She closed her restaurant, Marjorie, after two decades in business, but not long after, Moodie announced Marjorie’s comeback, in a new location.

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In October, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell was on hand as Marjorie relaunched in the Central District, Seattle’s historically Black neighborhood, with other notable Black businesses like Communion, Jerk Shack, and Arte Noire. Moodie said being in the Central District gives her so much pride.

“Even when I walk in, I don’t feel like I’m coming to work,” Moodie said. “I feel like I’m coming home in many ways.”

Marjorie has a homey feel to it. Just past the entrance, there’s a vinyl turntable and a reel-to-reel tape player in the seating area. Moodie said she’s always been inspired by memories of her mother’s hospitality.

“We grew up in a very segregated South Side of Chicago,” Moodie said. “And my mom would have these awesome dinner parties that felt abundant, but we were in our bungalow on the South Side. People were sitting on the floor, plates on laps, great music playing.”

The original Marjorie opened in 2003 in Belltown, serving an eclectic menu at the time, like jerk chicken and lamb shwarma. Five years later, it relocated to Capitol Hill. From her perch, Moodie saw the city’s building boom, putting pressure on small businesses. Then came the pandemic. In 2023, Moodie closed Marjorie for good — or so she thought.

“I don’t want my last restaurant experience to be a struggle,” Moodie said. “For me this [reopening] is a love letter to the restaurant industry.”

Marjorie’s return is significant not only because of where it landed but also because of how it got here, at a time when small businesses struggle with rising rents.

And it’s not just rent.

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Rachel Yang is chef-owner of the restaurants Revel and Joule and the bakery Paper Cake Shop in Fremont. She said restaurants are also responsible for other property-related costs known as triple net lease.

“This includes property taxes, property insurance, maintenance fees,” Yang explained.

Yang said those costs have gone up, too. She tries to make adjustments like shifting workers’ schedules or buying less food as a way to control costs.

“But rent is something you don’t have any control over. And you really want to,” she said. “You have to make more every single year to pay escalations of your rent.”

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The city recently launched a program to address the rent piece of the issue. It’s collaborated with nonprofit Grow America and JP Morgan Chase to provide a path for business owners like Moodie to own their space.

“It’s a shared ownership model,” said Heidi Hall, with the Seattle Office of Economic Development.

Hall said the nonprofit provides financing, while the city provides subsidies, and the business owner becomes a member of that partnership.

“What we're trying to accomplish here is really take that real estate piece out of the equation, like solve the real estate piece so the business can do the business piece right,” Hall said.

In addition to helping stabilize small businesses, the program aims to reactivate commercial spaces around the city.

For Moodie, the partnership provides stability beyond the business. Marjorie, she said, is more than a restaurant — it’s a gathering space, a community hub.

“I want to contribute to keeping the legacy of the neighborhood and contribute to being a part of it,” she said.