Gee: Wait what?! Tutta Bella’s Columbia City restaurant is closing after 22 years

Wait, What?! Tutta Bella’s original Columbia City restaurant is closing after 22 years. Seattle owes its neighborhood staples more than a shrug.

How many times are we going to say “Seattle will be OK” while watching the places that helped make Seattle special say goodbye? Tutta Bella announced that its Columbia City and downtown Seattle restaurants, including Lobby Bar, will close Oct. 2. Its QFC kiosks in University Village and Kirkland Urban have already closed.

Columbia City is where Tutta Bella began in 2004. That’s 22 years of serving families and becoming part of the neighborhood. The company said it considered many options before deciding to close. With its Kirkland Urban QFC kiosk also shutting down, the closures reach beyond Seattle. Those details matter, and so does asking what led an established business to walk away from the place where it all began.

And there’s something about Tutta Bella that belongs in this conversation. Back in 2023, Tutta Bella Columbia City manager Jordan Mullner told “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio how he helped a young man suspected of breaking into cars get a second chance. Working with the city, he helped that young man obtain identification and find employment. Months later, the young man came back to thank him.

Think about that. A restaurant manager took the time to help somebody get his life back on track. That’s what community can look like, and that’s part of what we risk losing when we reduce a neighborhood business to another name on a closure list.

Yes, restaurants close, and businesses change. However, understanding those circumstances should be the beginning of the conversation.

Somewhere in all this reassurance that Seattle will be fine, we need to make room for the people that have been affected. There are workers who have to figure out their next move, and families losing their gathering place. Can’t forget about the people making the hard decision to close something they spent years building.

I know we’ve been talking about Seattle’s business climate a lot lately, and I realize that some probably think I’m beating a dead horse. I’m looking forward to the day that this conversation becomes unnecessary. At this point, this is an “all hands on deck” thing.

City leaders should be sitting down with owners and workers in the future and asking what’s making it difficult to operate. Listen to customers who say they can’t afford to eat out. Figure out which problems the city can address, then tell us what will change and when.

While workers deserve to earn a living, owners need a business that can pay its bills. Customers need prices they can afford, and those of us who can afford to support neighborhood businesses need to show up while they’re still open. Seattle, we cannot keep celebrating what makes this city special while shrugging as businesses disappear.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.

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