After spending most of the last decade in the Seattle restaurant industry, I believe that the Seattle Freeze is leading us toward a future where our favorite local restaurants will be replaced by corporate chains. Admittedly, the Seattle Freeze is not the only reason why. Though it may be the only factor you and I have any control over. More importantly, ending the Seattle Freeze has the potential to save our most at-risk local spots, without tackling the institutional problems facing small businesses. To illustrate my theory, let’s examine the recent developments in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, the Seattle Freeze is our endearing way of saying that Seattleites are unfriendly or even antisocial in public. While this distaste for connection is not exclusively aimed at newcomers, the Freeze is more impactful to our newest Seattleites as they have fewer connections in the city. As such, it is very common for newcomers to feel isolated.

The Seattle Freeze phenomenon is important for my story today because we have more newcomers than ever.

Population Growth and Immigration

Post-pandemic data shows that the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro added nearly 66,000 people between 2023 and 2024, with nearly all of that growth driven by international immigration while the area lost domestic residents.¹ That indicates a significant flow of newcomers altering the city’s social makeup.

It is my understanding that these newcomers feel isolated from the locals. As a server at M Bar in South Lake Union, I met many newcomers who were surprised to meet someone from Seattle. In one case, the man I spoke to had lived in SLU for almost two years. He worked for Amazon and didn’t leave SLU much besides to go hiking. He told me his favorite restaurants and bars were all in SLU, and that he was interested in going to other neighborhoods but didn’t know where to start.

South Lake Union is nestled between Lake Union, I-5, Downtown Seattle, and Aurora Avenue (Highway 99). Take a quick walk and you will see the Amazon spheres, Google, Microsoft, and all their employees who seem to dominate the neighborhood. You will see great views of the Space Needle; if you’re lucky, seaplanes taking off and landing on the lake; and Cascade Park, which is really pleasant. There are a couple of hospitals and even some fun streetcars. Eventually you will notice the identical architecture. Aside from the tech hubs and hospitals, each building has storefronts on the bottom floor with a few levels of apartments above. Their repetition correctly suggests this place was developed fairly recently and in a hurry. In other words, this is Seattle’s most modern neighborhood.

Should you get hungry, you have a wide selection of chain restaurants. You know the type: the ceiling is going to be really tall and there will be art, but only from Amazon. The food will be fine, sometimes even good, though always expensive. The best word to describe these places is sterile. They lack the certain thing that we don’t really have any English word for (less cheesy than “charming”): authenticity earned behind the scenes. These places have not seen Seattleites the way our favorite restaurants have. These places cannot be changed by their customers, as they are part of a carefully balanced equation in a well-scaled (and admittedly successful) restaurant chain. I guess I should just say these places are hiding that they are a Chili’s or an Outback Steakhouse.

For example:

• “LOCAL Public Eatery” on Terry and Harrison presents itself as your everyday local sports bar. There is nothing local about it. This is a Canadian restaurant chain owned by the JOEY Restaurant Group.²
• The massive Buca di Beppo has dozens of locations across the USA and was recently acquired by Main Street Capital Corporation.³
• Nearby is Tapster, a self-pour bar concept with multiple locations including Chicago origins and outposts in Bellevue and beyond.⁴
• Hurry Curry of Tokyo has roots in Los Angeles with additional locations.⁵
• Even Sam’s Tavern pays homage to the original dive that birthed the Red Robin chain.⁶

I will not start with the Capital One Café.

Now I’m not saying these places are awful (they aren’t, with the exception of the Capital One Café; that place is). The rest are actually quite easy and fun; being such is their business model. What they are not is unique, and they do not make South Lake Union or Seattle a more interesting place. Even if you don’t care about how interesting or cool the restaurant is that you eat at, I hope you can appreciate that spending your money here goes (in some cases) to Canadian corporations or national chains rather than our local economy. Which brings me back to my main point.

It is unquestionable that the tech industry has brought this wave of affluence to the area, which is one of Seattle’s fastest-growing neighborhoods. No matter what you think about that, the SLU residents are now potential restaurant customers. From my conversations over the summer with many a middle manager, I believe that South Lake Unioners have the appetite to explore Seattle’s restaurant scene. They just need the excuse. It is so easy to leave work and walk to the nearest open spot for happy hour, but Ubers, Lime bikes, and that damn trolley are easy too. Let’s all be the person who shows the newest Seattleites where the spots are that are worth that 11-minute commute. Break our city’s curse that is the Seattle Freeze. So take a walk around Lake Union Park, check out MOHAI (presented by Jeff Bezos), and introduce yourself to that person in the Patagonia puffer vest with the key card badge clipped to their belt. Don’t be scared; it’s only a conversation. Ask what they like to eat. Trust me, it’s not so bad; I do it for a living. Other than imparting some wisdom, you may even make a friend. Besides, if you do anything other than tech, you are already much more interesting, and these guys are not shy with the company card. It could end up saving your favorite restaurant and even changing the appetite of South Lake Union toward something local, special, and maybe even worth commuting in for.

¹ Axios Seattle / U.S. Census Bureau, March 2025
² JOEY Restaurant Group official site and reviews
³ Buca di Beppo bankruptcy and acquisition reports, 2024
⁴ Tapster official site
⁵ Hurry Curry of Tokyo official site
⁶ Sam’s Tavern history and Red Robin origins