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Chef Brendan McGill’s Café Hitchcock Express, or CHE, opened this morning in Seattle. CHE is all set to provide the downtown crowd with a stellar selection of coffee, wellness lattes, and cold-pressed juice, plus the fabulous food that sibling Café Hitchcock is known for—all packaged and ready to grab and go.
Located in the Exchange Building, the same art deco building that is home to Café Hitchcock, CHE is open Monday through Friday from 7am to 3pm. CHE is slated as a pop-up through the end of summer, but is hoping to make the former Tully’s location on the southwest corner of Second Avenue and Marion Street a permanent home.
The café has large windows and a roll-up door that opens to the lobby of the building giving the space a welcoming vibe. The room boasts white walls, furniture custom built from reclaimed wood, mid-century chairs, a stunning Kees van der Westen espresso machine, and original artwork by Aleks Dmitrijevic.
The menu offers organic Caffe Vita coffee and espresso, house-made syrups, organic milk and nut milk alternatives, a selection of health lattes, cold-pressed juices, house-made sodas, and a rotating selection of Iggy’s Honeybrew Kombucha.
Grab and go options include a selection of sandwiches, breakfast items, salads, and bowls.
A sample menu is as follows:
Sandwiches (served on Sea Wolf Bakery demi-baguette)
- Beef & Blue: roast beef, blue cheese, aioli, romaine
- Jambon Brie: smoked ham, brie, arugula
- Bacon PB&J: crispy bacon, CB’s peanut butter, fruit preserves
- Nicoise: preserved tuna, boiled egg, capers, pickled haricot vert, olives, onions
Grab and Go
- Yogurt & Granola Parfait: house-cultured yogurt, granola, rhubarb
- Raw Oatmeal: overnight oats, cacao nibs, banana, walnuts, maple syrup
- Coconut-Chia Parfait: coconut milk, chia, raw honey, bee pollen, hazelnut
- Beets: whipped yogurt, pistachio
Grab and Go Salads and Bowls
- Rice Bowl: jasmine rice, herb pesto, kale, feta, avocado, pickled onions, fermented hot sauce
- Hitchcobb: organic baby greens, crispy bacon, boiled egg, blue cheese, roast chicken, vinaigrette
- Grain Bowl: quinoa, lentils, wheat berries, young greens, yogurt, shichimi spice
- CHE is located at 821 2nd Avenue in Seattle, Washington. For more information, call 206.682.0500.
About Brendan McGill
Opened in 2010, Hitchcock is chef Brendan McGill’s highly acclaimed flagship restaurant located on picturesque Bainbridge Island, a quick 30-minute ferry ride from Seattle. McGill offers a menu of inventive and vibrant Northwest dishes inspired by the season, as well as a chef’s tasting menu. Much of the product is sourced from McGill’s Shady Acres, a working farm where he also raises heritage pigs.
McGill was voted the “People’s Best New Chef” by Food & Wine in 2013, and in 2014 was honored with a James Beard Foundation semifinalist nod for Best Chef Northwest and named “Chef of the Year” by Eater Seattle. In 2015, StarChefs presented McGill with a Rising Star Chef Award and Rising Star Artisan Award for his charcuterie program.
McGill’s restaurants include Hitchcock, Hitchcock Deli, and Bruciato on Bainbridge Island, as well as Hitchcock Deli and Café Hitchcock in Seattle.
When not in the kitchen or out on the farm, McGill can be found exploring the world with his wife Heidi and their two young sons.