The northwest corner of 23rd and Jackson is busy once more as Wally’s NW Soul Experience is now doing its thing in this core of the Central District.
The soul food restaurant from longtime caterer Walter “Wally” Washington opened this fall in the space left empty by the exit of Catfish Corner to start 2025.
Its arrival is part of new energy at 23rd and Jackson where the opportunities — and challenges — of small business ownership in Seattle have been fully illustrated over recent months.
In addition to Catfish Corner’s January closure, CHS reported in March on the end of the dream to open Black Coffee Northwest inside the former 23rd and Jackson Starbucks, a sad ending for the shop’s coffee entrepreneur and an outcome that left Seattle City Hall and property owner Vulcan Real Estate with hard questions.
Another Black-owned spot has also closed at the intersection as 2022-born 23rd Ave Brewery announced it was shuttering its neighborhood tap room.
Looming over it all, of course, are uncertainties around the corner’s largest tenant. In 2021, Amazon Fresh opened its 35,000-square-foot grocery as part of the major redevelopment at the corner from Vulcan on property formerly home the Promenade 23 shopping center and the neighborhood Red Apple grocery. This year, Seattle officials are rushing to put in new protections to prevent so called “food deserts” as the big chains continue to shut down stores in the city. For now, it is business as usual at the Central District Amazon Fresh.
For Wally’s, its opening in the ground floor of the Patricia K. Apartments and Jackson Heights buildings is part of what has been community-focused leasing in the space below the mix of market rate apartments and the Patricia K.’s affordable, permanent supportive housing for people with mental illnesses.
With a menu of catfish, mac n cheese, po boys, prawns, wings, burgers, and, if you are feeling fancy, lobster tails, the new joint is busy with regulars and door dashers. If you are lucky, you might stop by when Wally’s smoker is out front and fired up along Jackson.
Wally’s NW Soul is located at 2218 S Jackson. Follow @wallys_nw_soul for updates.
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