City employees and visitors at Seattle Municipal Tower (SMT) have a new place to grab coffee, lunch and even something for their sweet tooth with the opening of the Central Café and Juice Bar in SMT in late November.

With the café’s opening, the City will be returning life and vibrancy to a flagship space in the Fourth Floor lobby of SMT that was left vacant during the pandemic when Starbucks closed.

The new Central Café and Juice Bar is a local, woman and BIPOC-owned small business that specializes in espresso and coffee drinks, fresh-squeezed juices, grab-and-go food options, and more.

Owner Bridgette Johnson is excited to open and started with a soft opening on Monday, Nov. 20, followed by a full and official opening on Monday, Nov. 27.

“We are thrilled and honored to be selected by the City of Seattle to open our second location at the Seattle Municipal Tower. This is a dream come true for us as a small BIPOC and woman-owned business,” Johnson said. “We are passionate about serving our community with high-quality coffee, fresh juices, and delicious pastries. We can’t wait to welcome our new customers and share our love for coffee and our city.”

This will mark Johnson’s second Central Café location. She opened the original near Garfield High School in the Central District, off E. Cherry St & 25^th Ave, in January 2020—just before the pandemic fully made its presence known in Seattle.

Shortly after, the City would come to a near halt as residents, businesses and others responded to the COVID emergency.

Around that same time, the City’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS), which manages Citywide facilities and real estate, was working to fill the SMT space that became empty when Starbucks chose not to renew its lease and vacated in 2021.

Knowing that residents and employees would emerge from the pandemic, FAS teams approached the work differently than past projects and sought to be intentional with the next tenant that might come in. They engaged a broker, and sought an opportunity for a successful, but smaller scale vendor who may not have had access to a high-rise retail space like the SMT 4 lobby.

After meeting Johnson and learning about her business, the City knew it had a great match. Opening Central Café in SMT involved many stakeholders. Primarily Johnson, who shared her design vision of the new SMT location by independently engaging an interior designer. Leasing for Central Café was led by FAS Real Estate Services, and the construction in SMT has been managed by FAS Capital Development.

The café will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Please stop by once it’s open to welcome Johnson and her team!

You can learn more about Central Café & Juice Bar at: www.centralcafeseattle.com