Charlie's Queer Books is expanding beyond its packed Fremont shelves with a second, much bigger home in Capitol Hill, the neighborhood long known as the heart of Seattle's gay-friendly blocks. The new two-story shop will include a coffee shop, a wine bar, and an event loft that owner Charlie Hunts says can hold more people than his entire original store.
The expansion lands at 1122 E Pike Street, a space roughly double the size of the Fremont flagship, according to CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News. The outlet reports the new location will be fully ADA accessible and include a 50-seat event loft in addition to its cafe and wine bar. As KIRO 7 News reports, Hunts said the Fremont store has simply outgrown its available wall space for additional bookcases.
Hunts told KIRO 7 that the Fremont store, housed in a decades-old building, can fit around 50 people at events only when merchandise shelves and rolling bookcases are pushed aside. The Capitol Hill building, by contrast, was formerly part of the city's old row of car dealerships and will include a staircase with a children's reading nook tucked underneath and an event loft above it — a loft Hunts says can hold more people than the whole current store.
A Fire-Damaged Storefront Gets New Life
The E Pike address has its own history. The storefront previously housed Post Options, a family-run mailbox and business center that operated there for 13 years before closing for good after a destructive accidental electrical fire in July 2025, per the same Capitol Hill outlet's earlier reporting. Landlord group 12th & Pike St. Associates offered manageable lease terms that helped bring the bookstore into the corridor, the site notes.
Hunts launched Charlie's Queer Books in summer 2023 as a mobile pop-up cart decorated with disco tiles at Seattle Pride events before opening the brick-and-mortar Fremont store that November — meaning the shop is now expanding into its second physical home just three years after it opened, according to KIRO 7. Hunts, a trans man who turned to literature and bookselling after a 2012 injury forced a career change, co-owns the business with his wife, Madeline Burchard, as The Stranger has reported.
Filling a Gap Left by Bailey/Coy Books
When Charlie's Queer Books opened in late 2023, it became Seattle's first dedicated LGBTQ+ bookstore in nearly two decades, filling a void left after historic neighborhood anchor Bailey/Coy Books closed in 2009, according to Seattle City of Literature. As of 2024, it remained one of fewer than a dozen exclusively LGBTQ+ bookstores in the entire country, The Stranger reported.
Hunts told Seattle City of Literature that Seattle ranks first among major U.S. cities in the proportion of households headed by same-sex couples and is on par with San Francisco in overall LGBTQ+ resident identification — a demographic backdrop that helps explain the demand for a bigger queer literary hub.
Hunts told KIRO 7 he feels honored that Seattle and the queer community embraced and grew the bookstore. He described bookstores more broadly as community centers that provide social services and connect visitors with resources and information, saying people seek them out to find themselves in others' stories and imagine other ways of being.
Banned Books and a Third Space Beyond Nightlife
Hunts said most of the books on his shelves have been banned from libraries, schools, or other institutions, and that distributing those stories to a new generation or wider audience matters to him, per KIRO 7's reporting. The American Library Association has reported that 39% of books banned or challenged have LGBTQ+-related authors or subject matter, according to that same KIRO 7 account. Hunts added that rules barring books with sexual content could end up being applied to queer people or LGBTQ identities even when sex isn't involved.
Bringing a cafe and wine bar into the new location also fits a broader national pattern of independent bookstores adding food and drink to diversify revenue and draw daily foot traffic, according to Wisevoter. Wisevoter also describes the planned 50-seat event space and its community programming.
Hunts told KIRO 7 he hopes the new location will give queer people gathering options beyond nightlife, and that he hopes tourists will find their way to the new Capitol Hill spot as well. He said the bookstore welcomes everyone and isn't meant only for the LGBT community. The cafe on the lower level is expected to open later than the rest of the space, with the overall Capitol Hill location targeted to open in time for the holidays.
