The 5 Corners Market Bar & Kitchen, which replaced Lombardi’s at the corner of 22nd Ave NW and NW Market Street, is closed.
“I went by there last night at 9pm and they were closed,” Hovie Hawk emailed us. “I asked around this morning and it seems they have, indeed, closed down.” Their website says nothing but, “Thank you for your support. We are currently closed.” The restaurant just opened back in December. We’ll update this when we get more information.
5 Corners Market & Bar ‘currently closed’
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Never got a chance to make it in there – seems that a lot of companies lately have been investing so much in their opening that they aren’t able to put away enough to last 6-12 months.
If they do reopen, one has to wonder if they were closed for an alcohol or (eek!) health code violation.
Re: “health code”
I don’t see anything turning up in a quick search through King County Public Health website.
This is especially sad considering the lack of choices in Ballard for restaurants and bars.
That’s too bad. Like everyone else I hadn’t had a chance to make it in there yet, and I guess that’s the problem, not that I would’ve kept them in business, but that not nearly enough of us made it in there to keep them going.
Hopefully the next occupant can make it work as it would be a shame to have that corner empty.
when places are closed for health or alchol violations they are required to post a notice from the liquor board or health dept. so…
I did eat there and they were very expensive, too trendy for Ballard and not very good. Bring back some neighborhood Italian!
a quick yelp search has 188 “choices” for bars and restaraunts.
I found the food and the bar to be awesome. They have a great cocktail selection and were almost always full. I hope they come back
Well if they had just called it “5” or “The Corner Market” “the Corner Bar” or something a little bit catchier…
But with a impossible name like that I could never tell anyone to meet me there, if I did it would go something like this” hey, you wanna meet at that place where Lombardies used to be?”
Great location hopefully something cool will take the spot.
Perhaps he meant it ironically. As befits the downtown Ballard scene.
Was a decent place. I went there several times, but I haven’t been in a few months. Seemed busy enough last time I went though.
We went there shortly after they opened and the food was ok, but had small portions and too expensive. With so many other great alternatives in Ballard, we never felt the need to go back.
I hope someone is able to make this space work as it is such a great location. Lots of potential customer to be had as the weather gets better. Still hoping Tom Douglas opens up something in Ballard someday.
Should have been called the 5 Month Bar & Kitchen Market. Maybe it was their strategy all along – pop-up restaurants are all the rage.
I liked the bar, but never ate there due to excessive prices.
They were way too expensive- even during happy hour. Take that hipsters!
I’m hardly a militant vegetarian. I’m not even a full-time vegetarian.
But rarely have I seen a menu so enthusiastically flip off potential non-meat-eating patrons as 5 Corner’s did. Even the pesce-inclined would have had trouble finding something not strewn with pork fat. They’d be better off at a steakhouse.
Wearing your meat on your sleeve the way 5 Corner did is even off-putting to meat-eaters who might occasionally desire lighter fare and won’t think of your restaurant as offering that sort of flexibility. So while you might attract curiosity-seekers on a carnivorous splurge, you’re less likely to develop a regular clientele.
Well that sucks. Liked the place and JUST gave someone a $50 gift certificate to the place two weeks ago! I called the number and a recording (when it finally answered) said that they were closed for business … and then the line was disconnected and went to a circuit busy.
That’s too bad. We liked the place and hate to see any of these local businesses go under … especially in such a short period of time.
Agreed. They should have called it Meaty McMeat Meat. They’ve got a right to serve whatever they want, but even as someone who only shuns beef, there wasn’t much on the menu for me.
I’m skeptical that it was just a bad business plan that did ’em in. This is really sudden, without any obvious attempt to sell the business or at least go out in a planned way. I wonder if something really acute happened — I’m thinking about Tiger Tail and Pies & Pints.
I heard that they felt that they were limited to how many people could fill up the restaurant (which is a pretty big space), and a lack of parking in the area. Parking is becoming a very serious issue for retail businesses in Ballard and for them to thrive more parking needs to come online, or this will become more of an issue.
Tiger Tail had a tax issue, right? But what happened to Pies & Pints? Did they close? That one’s news to me.
Heard today from a very reputable source that they are indeed “Calling it quits” after only 4 months.
No! No, sorry, didn’t mean to start any rumors. Pies & Pints’ owner, Vincent Gallapaga, died suddenly in ’07. If I recall correctly, they shut down for a few weeks, and when they reopened they had a little sign up in memorial on the counter, but otherwise very little has changed.
Kudoes to the manager who managed that.
You’re a head-scratcher as usual, Guest.
What about all of those empty lots adjacent to the library. The ones that are about $2 after 6:00. And 200 feet from the business in question.
But yeah, nobody should have to pay $2 to park on the way to eat a $14 burger.
Ah, okay. I never knew about that.
Yes, good on them for maintaining his legacy so unassumingly! (Double good on them for the curry pot pie!)
I’m with you, parking is a real pain in Ballard.
Well, we need more people living in Ballard to fill up these places. With all of those apartments coming it will be great for business!
But did your source say why? It’s such a fabulous location!
Yep, I can park right in front of the store I want to go to at the mall. I just have to walk the equivalent of three city blocks to the entrance, then another three blocks to the actual store. In Ballard I have to park a whole TWO blocks away on a really bad day!
…and bowling!
Oops. wrong thread.
Parking is a real pain in Ballard if you insist on it being absolutely free. But free parking isn’t actually free; it’s a giveaway of taxpayer-subsidized street right-of-way on a massive scale. Even right-wing obsessive free-market ideologues have lately begun to question the wisdom of America’s inculcated disposition towards “free” parking!
Parking in Ballard, one block north of Market, costs $1 per hour or less. After 6:00, it’s $2 for the entire night. Just how lazy/cheap/stuck in the ’50s are you?
Now I really regret not going there. Mmmmmm….meat.
I think Ballard shows the limits of the “new urbanism”. Ballard is just not affluent enough to support a lot of local restaurants and other businesses. Restaurants need a lot of people who eat out a lot, and stores need people with a lot of money who are willing to pay premium prices for premium products. And Ballard is not Capitol Hill, Wallingford, Magnolia or Queen Anne; it has a few yuppies and hipsters but most of the population is people of modest means on a budget. Landlords are going to have to be realistic about what kind of businesses the neighborhood can support, and what kind of rents they can charge. It seems idiotic to me the place where the used bookstore was has been empty for two years. Wouldn’t they be better off with whatever that business could pay than nothing? And who is going to use the space where the Subway was?
I did try them out and it was okay but nothing really to keep us coming back. A little too pricey (not enough bang for my buck anyway)
I don’t mind trendy food but it has to be GOOD trendy food – and I wasn’t too impressed for the $.
“Most of the population is people of modest means on a budget.” I would love to see the actual statistics to back this sweeping generalization up. This restaurant didn’t fail because Ballard residents don’t have the financial ability to support higher-priced establishments. It failed because it did not have a compelling menu, there are scores of better options up and down Market Street and Ballard Ave, and the owners failed to have a business plan that enabled them to surivive the brutal first six months of life for a restaurant. If you think Ballard can’t support higher-end restaurants, try to get into the Walrus and the Carpenter, Staple and Fancy, or Volterra on a Saturday night.
I totally agree. I’m not a vegetarian by any stretch, but sometimes I just cannot eat a whole pile of meat. I had lunch there right before Christmas with coworkers, and we all had really delicious meals. But they weren’t doing lunch anymore – not sure when that happened.
Two months later I went there for dinner, and was so disappointed by the menu because so many of the items boiled down to Big Hunk O’ Meat. I didn’t go back.
Don’t know about that modest means stuff. I’m looking out my window at an Audi, a Porsche and a Navigator on my block.
Tom Douglas needs to come here!
I’ve been a Ballard resident for 12 years. I’ve seen the neighborhood change a ton in that time span and, though I’m not a fan of the condos, I will happily admit that I love our new cuisine options. I am a huge fan of Bastille, the new sushi places (never did care for Sam’s), Walrus & Carpenter, etc. I even enjoyed my visits to the 5 Corner though I only felt comfortable ordering the steak or the burger because the rest of the menu was too out there.
At this point, what Ballard needs more than anything at this point is a Jak’s Grill (or a copycat of Jak’s). A place that is not too trendy and serves good meat and seafoods, good salads, etc. I’m willing to pay for it, too, if the portions are good and the taste is there (as they are at Jak’s).
It’s funny that this is a formula that is totally forgotten about by most Ballard restaurants. Everyone is trying to get a James Beard award or get lauds from some foodie blog. What about just honest, good steak and seafood in a setting that you can take your coworkers, family or a date out to?
We have a combination tap house / hiking book gallery. We’ve had a gastropub. An oyster bar. Multiple tea shops. Four sushi places. A gelato joint. But where’s the restaurant that exists somewhere between, say, Bad Alberts and Bastille on the hip scale?
I doubt anyone would argue that Matador is higher on the culinary ladder than Oaxaca or Senor Moose, but it’s packed because it’s good Mexican food that you can get your head around, consistently served. Can we get the “American” cuisine equivalent of that?
Rude and unwelcoming! I’m not surprised they shut down. I went there last Friday with three friends, and when we moved from the main bar to the side bar, two female wait staff bickered in front of us as to whom would serve us.
We had planned to stay and eat, but instead, just finished our round of drinks and left. The hostess (owner?) also walked away from the front desk when we first walked in and left us to stand there.
Too expensive, too trendy, too fomphty. Good riddance.
After 4 months? Sounds like a tax dodge to me. A parent set up a
“failed” business to get writepffs on the parent business? You don’t set up and closes in 4 months w/o something fishy.
I’ve eaten here 4 times and had great food each time, I really hope they don’t stay closed.
I’m the omnivorous half of a mixed marriage and I’ve noticed that lot’s of the new places are meat infused and way too precious (like the Bastille menus I perused).
The worst oysters I’ve ever ordered. One deepfried mess. Love the location. Hated the food. Never disliked a dish that much before. And the cocktail was overpriced. Give me a French 75 and mussels and frites anytime at the back bar of Bastille. Wanna’ meet there? :)
This made me laugh out loud. Kudos!
I adore the Bastille back bar. I like it much better than the restaurant with the snobby hostesses. The back bar is fabulous.
The prices were fine, compare them to Voltera, Staple and Fancy or Le Gourmond these places, all in Ballard, have some of the highest prices in Seattle.
I feel really horrible for them. The owners are super sweet people and this is a very sad situation for them. Opening a business like this one takes HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars. It’s very easy to find yourself without enough operating capitol if you don’t have adequate reserves and it’s almost impossible to determine what “adequate” means when you are trying something new.
Be kind to them, it’s painful when a dream dies. I really hope they can open again and give it more time. I’m also hopeful that people will support them if they do.
what does that even mean?
one busy day a week doesn’t support a restaurant, the food was moderately priced for the quality. Everyone wants their cake and to eat it too… organic, grass fed, house dry aged, locally sourced, people want to hear these buzz words. However, people think they should pay dollar menu prices!
Its looking like the old Subway space is going to be a Thai restaurant.
Short of the owners, I don’t think anyone can say exactly what was responsible for the closure.