Momo

(Images: TNT Espresso)

TNT Espresso, the only drive-up coffee shack on Broadway and a shorter-line, somehow even funkier alternative to the popular Vivace walk-up across the street, will close at the end of the month.

Monica Anaya posted her TNT goodbye message Thursday morning on Facebook citing the relentless crawl of development, motherhood, and the desire for a change of pace outside of the 80 square-foot coffee stand.

Take it away, Momo:

To all my friends and loyal customers,

I write this to you all with a heavy heart. I have decided to close TNT Espresso Co for good. October 31st will be our last day of business. I’d like to start by saying thank you to Tina and Terry for giving me the opportunity to buy TNT 5 years ago. I have truly enjoyed myself while doing what I love! There are several reasons why I feel that it is time to say good bye to the place that has helped me grow in life, foster amazing relationships and connections, and has taught me how to own and operate a small business. First and foremost, I want to leave on my terms and not get pushed out by the gentrification which is happening in my favorite neighborhood in Seattle. I’ve operated without a lease for the last 5 years and I feel that my time is running out. I couldn’t bear to have someone come in and kick me out so they can build a high rise apartment building where I’ve stood for the last 15 years of my life. Secondly, I’m ready to embark on a new journey. My creative mind has been stifled by the high demand and stress of owning a small business. I want to do something else. Finally and most importantly, I want to take some time with my little boy. I want to be with him during his babyhood because I love him so much! You all have been so kind to me, so thoughtful, so generous and I will remember each and every one of you! Thank you for 15 years of laughs, love, marriage proposals, baby announcements, graduations, birthdays, political chats and everything in between. You have all, in one way or another changed me for the better.

Love, Momo

“I had a good time while I was there,” Anaya told CHS during a brief telephone chat about the closure. “I don’t hang my head low. I walk away with pride. I got to get out before somebody kicked me out.”

We don’t have specifics on how long the coffee stand has been in the parking lot at the corner of Broadway and Harrison but we do know Anaya took over TNT in 2010. At that point, TNT Espresso had been “serving the people of Capitol Hill for over ten years” in the parking lot of the onetime gas station turned Baskin Robbins turned Ron and Jerry’s turned teriyaki restaurant.

Anaya said the stand was started by “a guy named David” who eventually sold the business to “Tina and Terry” around 1996 or 1997 — that’s where the TNT came from. Anaya said she started working there a few years later.

Her hours doing pours in the tiny shop shifted in recent months but you could still find her there Thursday through Saturday. She says she’ll be adding more hours to her schedule this month to be around to say goodbye.

Anaya said she doesn’t have a lease for the space to sell but that somebody could possibly be interested in TNT’s goodwill-soaked brand — and the grandfathered rights to the drive-thru business, a feature that will disappear once the current business shutters.

The planned closure will add to the sense of foreboding doom for those worried about the block home to Julia’s and the Lifelong Thrift Store finally giving up the ghost and bringing in the construction cranes. The Broadway Grill’s old space has remained shuttered since spring of 2013 amid reports of an insanely high lease ask. If Teriyaki & Wok puts up goodbye signs, grab your hardhats — in the meantime, enjoy its reasonably priced lunch options.

One barrier to any giant development of the block could be the split ownership. Prolific Capitol Hill (and beyond) real estate investor Ron Amundson owns the land where the teriyaki restaurant and TNT stand while two other sets of real estate investors own the buildings home to Lifelong Thrift and Julia’s.

Anaya has some advice for the real estate folks.

“Keep Capitol Hill kinda crazy,” she said. “Quit trying to change it into something else.”

Via Seattle Coffee Scene