Tom Douglas' famed Seattle restaurant Dahlia Lounge permanently closes after 32 years

After more than three decades of being one of the most quintessential fine-dining restaurants in downtown Seattle, Tom Douglas' Dahlia Lounge has permanently closed.

The restaurant space, which had been closed since March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be taken over by Douglas' Serious Pie, according to The Seattle Times.

Serving up locally-sourced Pacific Northwest fare, the flagship restaurant was popular for celebrations and even appeared in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle," although Tom Hanks (Sam) and Barbara Garrick (Victoria) ate at its former location down Fourth Avenue.

The long-standing restaurant served Douglas' famed coconut cream pie from the adjacent bakery which became one of the city's most beloved desserts. When former President Barack Obama hosted fundraisers in the Seattle area, he asked for it by name.

The pie even found its own place featured as an ice cream flavor from Portland's cult-favorite Salt and Straw.

"At the time, pie was on every casual diner menu, it was a very popular American dessert," Douglas said. "People had this notion about what pie was, and no fine dining restaurant had pie on the menu. Pie was not cool enough for fine dining, and that’s where I feel like we helped change the conversation."

Prior to restaurant closures in wake of the novel coronavirus, approximately 125 triple coconut cream pies were sold by the day across the Emerald City, according to Douglas.

Luckily for pie lovers, Dahlia Bakery isn't going anywhere: the bakeshop will be expanding into the former lounge space along with Serious Pie.

Despite newly released guidelines from Gov. Jay Inslee that will allow indoor dining to resume at 50% capacity, Seattle's food scene is still struggling amid the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. Over 90 bars and restaurants in the city have closed since last March.

Last July, Douglas closed two South Lake Union restaurants — Brave Horse Tavern and Trattoria Cuoco — which were popular after-work happy hour spots. Both restaurants took big hits to business with many tech workers who usually flooded the neighborhood telecommuting.

Facebook is the only tech company that has announced a return for workers at their Seattle offices, and even then they will only be filled to 10% capacity.

While the future of Douglas' other Emerald City eateries like Palace Kitchen, Lola and The Carlile Room remain in limbo, some of his restaurants have since reopened for guests including Pike Place's Seatown Market and Fish Fry, downtown's Serious Pie and Ballard's Serious Takeout.