For Sale: Seattle's Cafe Racer, A Haunt For Artists, Musicians

SEATTLE, WA - The legendary local coffee shop and bar Cafe Racer is up for sale, which signals an uncertain future for another Seattle institution.

Owner Kurt Geissel announced the sale Tuesday night in a Facebook post.

"It is with a heavy and conflicted heart that I announce I am putting my beloved Café Racer up for sale," he wrote. "Increasing concerns with family, responsibilities in my full-time 'second' job and the desire to do other things contributed to this decision. I love this amazing and iconic place and want to see it keep living and thriving but I can no longer devote the time and attention the café requires."

Known as a hangout for artists and musicians, Cafe Racer was also the site of a mass shooting in June 2012: four people were killed inside the cafe, and the shooter and another person died in an incident shortly after. But the cafe, which first opened in 2004 as Lucky Dog, was able to reopen after the shooting, and continued to host artists and musicians from around the region.

"The Café has also been a meeting place for so many others; writers, visual artists, motorcycle and scooter clubs, drawers and gamers," he wrote on Facebook. "So many groups have met here including the Vespa Club of Seattle; Friends of the Nib; Dune, a monthly group of cartoonists; Two Hour Transport, a Science Fiction writers group; The Euchre Club; many visual artists and of course it’s the home of The OBAMA Room, The Official Bad Art Museum of Art. I even heard someone wrote a novel in the place."

Geissel launched a GoFundMe fundraiser last year and raised more than $33,000 to keep the bar open, although he had a goal of raising $50,000. Aside from the shooting, the bar has endured recent street closures along Roosevelt Avenue, and costly upgrades to make the space ADA compliant.

Geissel is selling Cafe Racer for a modest $135,000. The property is advertised as "turnkey ready," and says that menu could be completely changed. The building itself is not for sale.

Image via Google Maps