Capital Club 16 Bar and Restaurant to Replace Champa Thai

You may have noticed that Champa Thai Cafe started having odd hours last Spring and then opened back up with cash deals and finally seemed to have closed for good. Very few restaurants in downtown Raleigh have been able to stay afloat by only being open at lunch lately and while Champa always stated that they would eventually be open for dinner, this never materialized. Just recently, the windows of the prime corner spot on Martin Street were papered up and now we have an answer as to why.

According to Triangle Biz, a new bar and restaurant called Capital Club 16 (the building is the Capital Club and the address is 16 West Martin Street) will open by April 2010. The restaurant will be owned by a former North Carolinian Jake Wolf and his wife, Shannon who are relocating to the area from NYC. Jake has cooked in “in kitchens from Atlanta, to Munich, Germany, and most recently was head chef at Zum Schneider in New York City’s East Village.”

The restaurant will focus on American foods with a mix of his German specialties, French classics and other European food influences.

He estimates that the average dinner ticket for food and drink per person will be $20 to $25. The restaurant will be open for lunch. In addition to several German beers on tap, the bar will offer North Carolina microbrew and craft beers, other American beers and English ales.

The restaurant will be able to seat 45 people inside and 20 people outside, plus there will be a private event room for about 30 people.

Finally, what seems like a stable business in the ground floor of the Capital Club. Both the Chinese Restaurant and Champa Thai had only lunch hours, but Capital Club 16 looks to be a lunch and dinner spot. Slowly but surely the Fayetteville Street district will connect to the Warehouse District with more places open both day and night and this looks to be a great catalyst.

First order of business for the Wolf team? Get rid of those tacky yellow trellises inside.