A new weekday deli and coffee bar is set to open in October at 1301 Second Ave. in downtown Seattle, bringing Onyx Coffee Lab drinks and a four-cheese grilled cheese to the ground floor of the tower now known as the JPMorganChase Center. Called Duet, the concept comes from hospitality operator Porter and will serve breakfast starting at 7 a.m. and lunch starting at 11 a.m., Monday through Friday.
Kathleen Selke, founder and vice president of sales at Porter, confirmed the October opening timeline to WhatNow. Porter designs and operates hospitality and amenity spaces within commercial and residential buildings, and the company already runs an exclusive, building-only amenity called The Lounge by Porter on the 17th floor of the same tower, serving meals, drinks, catering, and corporate gifts to tower tenants Monday through Friday, according to Porter. Duet will occupy a street-level space in the tower.
A Menu Built on Pacific Northwest Names
Duet's food program leans heavily on regional ingredients. The morning menu includes coffee from Onyx Coffee Lab, pastries, and breakfast sandwiches, while the lunch menu shifts to hot and cold sandwiches, soups, salads, and sides. Signature items include a smoked salmon bagel, a California breakfast burrito, a teriyaki chicken sandwich, a black pepper pastrami Reuben, and a mushroom and fontina melt, per the seed report.
The standout is a four-cheese grilled cheese combining Beecher's cheddar, gruyère, mozzarella, and parmesan on sourdough from Grand Central Bakery. Beecher's Handmade Cheese was founded in Seattle's Pike Place Market in 2003 and its Flagship Reserve was named best artisan cheese at the 2024 American Cheese Society Awards, according to Beecher's Handmade Cheese. The grilled cheese is served on sourdough from Grand Central Bakery.
The coffee comes from Onyx Coffee Lab. Beyond food and drink, Duet will also offer candles, cards, and small gifts in a retail area, along with drop-off and in-suite catering for meetings, client lunches, and events, the same report notes.
Porter's Bigger Seattle Footprint
Duet isn't Porter's only public-facing project downtown. The company's flagship concept, The Shop by Porter, opened at 1201 Second Ave. as a hybrid café, bar, coworking space, and commercial design showroom designed by Graham Baba Architects, according to ARQA. That space includes an all-day café, shared workspaces, meeting rooms, a retail shop, and public and private event areas, positioning Porter as a hospitality brand with a growing presence across downtown Seattle's core blocks.
A Tower in Growth Mode
A Tower in Growth Mode Duet's arrival tracks closely with a wave of corporate expansion inside its host building. The 42-story tower at 1301 Second Ave. was officially rebranded from the Russell Investments Center to the JPMorganChase Center in January 2026, after JPMorgan Chase added 40,000 square feet to occupy 128,000 square feet total, according to GeekWire. The tower also houses major tenants including Zillow Group and Perkins Coie.
JPMorgan Chase employs roughly 400 workers at its Seattle technology center and approximately 2,000 employees statewide, with executives announcing plans in July to expand local AI and cybersecurity teams further, per MyNorthwest. The bank holds the second-highest banking market share in Washington state at 14.5%, the outlet reports.
Tech company DocuSign added to the tower's momentum in June 2026, signing a 115,000-square-foot lease to relocate its Seattle workforce to 1301 Second Ave., anchoring a substantial portion of the building. DocuSign's move down the street from its former namesake tower at 999 Third Ave. is scheduled for summer 2027.
Betting on a Slow Office Recovery
Duet's weekday-only model puts it squarely in the path of downtown Seattle's uneven post-pandemic recovery. Downtown Seattle had more than 90,000 workers per weekday in July, or 62% of July 2019 levels, according to the Downtown Seattle Association. The association also noted that about one in three downtown businesses now offer incentives to encourage in-office attendance.
General foot traffic tells a different story. Downtown Seattle saw more than 2.4 million people going downtown in April. That foot traffic leaves a deli like Duet drawing on both a corporate lunch crowd inside its own building and people passing through downtown's central business district.
