Honor Coffee, a Seattle-area chain that got its early start on a hoped path to market in China with a 2015 opening on Capitol Hill, has quietly closed one of its two cafes in the neighborhood.

The Honor cafe at 15th and Pine is dark and empty this week. CHS was told by a person familiar with the situation that Honor decided not to renew its lease for the space. We have not heard back from Honor Cafe’s Hana Hu about the closure.

In 2015, Hu told CHS of her role as CEO of the venture and the chain’s hopes for cracking the China cafe market. “At the end of this year, we hope to have four stores open,” Hu said. “We’re building out spaces, signing leases. Next year, 10 to 20. We want to perfect the model here. If we do it here, we can do it anywhere.”

Honor Coffee currently operates four locations according to its website — including the shop opened up last year across from Capitol Hill Station on Broadway. According to state corporation records, Honor Coffee shops are owned by a holding company owned by Lihe Houe, Limeng Hou, and James Gilbert.

The closure brings Capitol Hill’s cafe count to 8,617 at latest estimates including Realfine Coffee which made a Pride weekend debut in the old Stumptown E Pine location, and the on-the-move Kaladi Brothers on E Pike. It does not — yet! — include Positivitea, the coffee shop project from a neighborhood duo including a vegan activist and a sex performer currently searching for a Capitol Hill location.

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