"We want to remain cute Eastlake and fun Eastlake. So come to your sports bar. Go have your tacos. We all need people to come visit us." Lisa Wojnar, co-owner of Otter Bar, said that to KIRO 7 in September. She and Jim Hagander have run the bar on Eastlake Avenue East for seven years. In the same report, she said sales were down "40 percent, if not more" from the year before.
RapidRide J Line service is planned for 2027. City officials told KIRO 7 they expect the finished project to bring more people into the neighborhood. The businesses on the avenue have to get through the winter before then. So Eastlake has filled its fall with events that start, end or pay out at those businesses. A neighbor who follows the community council's calendar this season ends up walking past the cones to spend money at specific addresses.
The Street This Week, Block by Block
Most of the disruptive work is done. SDOT's September milestone report said the project had passed the halfway mark, and the water main and most of the underground work were finished. What's left is surface work: sidewalks, curb ramps, driveway aprons and the two new stations. Crews are building the northbound station at E Hamlin Street and the southbound station near E Lynn Street.
The project page SDOT updated on October 23 lays out the next two weeks:
| When | Where | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| As early as Monday, Oct. 26 | Southeast corner of Eastlake Ave E and E Louisa St | Sidewalk excavation toward E Franklin St; the alley entrance on Louisa closes, so use the E Lynn St entrance |
| Ongoing, weekdays and weekends | East side of Eastlake Ave E, E Louisa St to E Lynn St | Driveway apron paving, with driveway and sidewalk closures and temporary walkways |
| Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, weather permitting | Northbound I-5 | Possible full closure while WSDOT removes the Revive I-5 work zone |
| As early as Monday, Nov. 2 | Southwest corner of E Lynn St and Eastlake Ave E | New sidewalk construction |
| Thursday, Nov. 5, 2 to 3 p.m. | Online via Microsoft Teams | SDOT's monthly J Line open house |
At the south end, the third and final roadway phase at Eastlake, Fairview and E Galer is almost finished. Traffic there runs one lane each way, shifted to the west side, and right turns from Fairview onto southbound Eastlake are still restricted. Between E Allison Street and Harvard Avenue East, a new retaining wall is nearly done. It will separate the parking lot under I-5 from a wider sidewalk.
The I-5 weekend matters even if you never drive the freeway. On WSDOT's Revive I-5 page, the two right northbound lanes on the Ship Canal Bridge stay closed through the end of 2026. The full closure to remove the work zone could happen as early as Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, but rain can push it to a later weekend. A full freeway closure typically pushes more traffic onto local streets, and here that means the avenue already down to one lane at Galer.
The Worry Is the Rain
The city's position is that businesses stayed reachable the whole time. "It's been difficult and a challenge, but we've maintained access to all businesses at all times," Darrell Bulmer, SDOT's outreach lead for the project, told KIRO 7. He said the city set up loading zones ahead of time so businesses could keep getting deliveries.
Otter Bar's owners told the same reporter that the real issue is how hard it is to get there. "We're just seeing less people come to the neighborhood just because it's so difficult to get here, find a parking space," Hagander said. He was already looking past the dry months. "But once winter comes, and it's raining cats and dogs for six months, what do you do then?"
So the hard months come after the heavy digging is over. Crews are finishing the street surface, and the paving, sidewalks and stations will keep fencing off corners into the rainy season. The bus that is supposed to bring customers back won't run until 2027. Through this coming winter, the people most likely to fill the bars and restaurants are the ones who already live within walking distance.
A Calendar That Pays Out on the Avenue
The Eastlake Community Council seems to have planned with that in mind. Its spring 2026 newsletter urged residents to shop at neighborhood businesses and announced a free online business directory run by volunteers, which is now live on the ECC site. Since late summer, nearly every event on the calendar has ended at a business.
- August 22, the Thrive gathering at Pocock Rowing Center. The Seattle Office of Economic Development organized it as part of the RapidRide J project. Patrick's Fly Shop gave fly-fishing demonstrations on the lake, The Collective styled hair, The Paddle showed its rental stand-up paddleboards, and Pelvic Health Clinic handed out swag, according to the ECC's Fall 2026 newsletter.
- October 20, an ECC dine-in fundraiser at Mioposto. Part of the night's proceeds went to the council's free events.
- October 24, the Eastlake Fun Run 5K and Pub & Grub Crawl. The free run started and finished at FRAM on Fairview Avenue East and followed the Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop to a turnaround at E Boston Street. The first 125 finishers got a $40 pack of gift cards good at Otter Bar, Zoo Tavern, Pecado Bueno, FRAM and Little Water Cantina.
- Friday, October 30, Eastlake Trick or Treat, 2 to 5 p.m. Kids trick-or-treat at participating businesses, and a prize wheel outside Mioposto Pizzeria gives out local gift cards and Eastlake swag. The council picked the 2 p.m. start so kids can come straight from school and families still have Halloween evening free.
The design is the point. The 5K gift cards could only be spent at five local businesses, and the trick-or-treat route runs door to door through the business district. Each event puts neighbors on the avenue in the same months the owners told KIRO 7 they were worried about. The ECC's trick-or-treat page says a map of participating businesses is coming.
Where the Gift Cards Pointed, and the Rest of the Avenue
Plotted on a map, the crawl lineup sits right in the middle of the construction. Zoo Tavern at 2301, Pecado Bueno at 2356 and Otter Bar and Burger at 2379 are all in the same few blocks of Eastlake Avenue East. Little Water Cantina is farther north at 2865, and FRAM is down on Fairview by the water.
The ECC directory lists more names along the same stretch. The directory isn't updated in real time, so check hours before you head out.
- Siam Eastlake, 1629 Eastlake Ave E
- Kitchen & Market, 1616 Eastlake Ave E
- Moriyama Sushi, 1823 Eastlake Ave E, and Sushi Nori, 2366 Eastlake Ave E
- Son of a Butcher, 2236 Eastlake Ave E
- Eastlake Coffee + Cafe, 2245 Eastlake Ave E, which pours Lighthouse Roasters
- Mioposto, 2501 Eastlake Ave E, which opened in fall 2025
Mioposto is the trick-or-treat hub, and it's also one of the newest restaurants on the avenue. It opened while the corridor was already torn up. Cicchetti Kitchen & Bar, just off the avenue at 121 E Boston Street, reopened on September 23, 2025 after being closed since 2020, Seattle magazine reported. Both restaurants chose to open in the middle of the construction.
What Arrives Before the Bus Does
A new retailer is coming too. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported on October 6 that city paperwork shows Bellevue Rare Coins planning a change of use in the former Starbucks space on the 2300 block of Eastlake Avenue East. Corporations tied to the company bought the parcel for $2 million in August. CHS pointed to the surface parking lot and the short trip to I-5 as the draw. No opening date has been announced. The company also has stores in Bellevue, Issaquah, Lynnwood and Tacoma.
On the north end, King County Metro is replacing the trolley poles on the University Bridge from this fall through spring 2027. The J Line will run on those new poles. One traffic lane stays open each way, and the drawbridge keeps operating. Metro says to expect regular lane closures, some pedestrian detours and traffic delays. Details are on Metro's project page.
The finished corridor will have protected bike lanes along Eastlake, weather-protected stations with real-time arrival screens, new sidewalks and bus priority signals. That's 3.7 lane-miles of protected bike facilities across the full J Line route. None of it is open yet. The next event on the council's calendar is quieter than the 5K. The Fall 2026 newsletter lists a neighborhood bird walk at Terry Pettus Park on November 14. Before that, the alley at Louisa reopens on SDOT's schedule, the I-5 weekend happens whenever the weather allows, and on Friday afternoon kids in costume will be trick-or-treating along the construction fencing to Mioposto's prize wheel.
When the J Line opens in 2027, how close a block sits to the Hamlin and Lynn stations will be one of the bigger changes for Eastlake streets. If you'd like to talk through what that means for your block, Henry Shim Group follows this corridor closely and can give you a straight answer. Book a Free Consultation.
