Reopening Marjorie: A Local Culinary Legacy Finds New Life Through Innovative Ownership Model

In the heart of Seattle’s Central District, at the cross streets of 23rd and Union, a beloved community restaurant is reopening its doors, continuing a legacy of family, food, and connection. Marjorie Restaurant, originally founded in 2003 by local entrepreneur and community builder Donna Moodie, is being reborn with a fresh concept but the same spirit that made it a local favorite for jerk chicken, plantain chips, and craft cocktails for decades. 

After closing its doors last year in Capitol Hill because of rising rent costs and the strain of the pandemic, Marjorie is returning thanks to the support of the Business Community Ownership (BCO) Fund, a small business investment model that addresses the high cost of commercial rent. The new location sits on the bottom floor of the Midtown Square apartment complex, which houses the gallery ARTE NOIR as well as several other retail shops and restaurants.

For Moodie, this reopening is about more than restarting the business — it’s about honoring the spirit of community that her mother, the restaurant’s namesake, instilled in her, and making sure that legacy continues by bringing people of different backgrounds together over locally sourced food that sparks conversation.

“When I started in the restaurant industry, I realized I wasn’t just embracing the food, but I was embracing that sense of hospitality, that idea of connecting people, the joy of so many things that comes when we gather around food, I think we break down barriers,” said Moodie.

From Family Table to Neighborhood Favorite: How Marjorie Became a Local Staple

As a young girl, Moodie’s family moved from her homeland of Jamaica to Chicago. Though firmly rooted in a new culture, Moodie would return every summer to Jamaica throughout her childhood. For her, it meant having one foot in each culture, constantly stepping through the door to “home.” 

“I think People of Color that live in America have that habit, we just have open doors,” said Moodie when describing the sense of home she felt in each place. “We always had people in our house. When you have guests, you don’t care about the extra bedroom, where the air mattress is, or all of that stuff. You just figure it out, like when you’re cooking. You always cook for more people to come by and join you when you make food.”

Moodie’s mother Marjorie kept that mentality after she moved, inviting anyone and everyone to her home. She loved quality ingredients, baking from scratch, and entertaining, Moodie says, explaining how often a dinner party for 10 would somehow magically transform into a full-house Jamaican party. 

In 2003, Moodie brought that dinner-party-turned-house-party feel to life in a new city, opening a restaurant named after her mother in Belltown. The endeavor was so successful that Marjorie became a local staple for food as well as vibe.

Turning Closure Into Comeback: How the BCO Fund Helped Marjorie Reclaim Its Place in the Community

After 20 years and a move from Belltown to Capitol Hill, in 2023, Marjorie held a farewell party, saying goodbye to the institution that had served an everyone-is-family atmosphere alongside plantain chips and jerk chicken. Numerous factors went into the restaurant’s closure: rising rent costs, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the difficulties of being a Black small-business owner. But even with closure at hand, Moodie was imagining a comeback. 

“When I closed, I knew we would be reopening, but I didn’t think it would take this long,” Moodie said, sitting outside the new location of Marjorie, which is set to open later this month. 

Part of the delay was the time it took to create a new location with all-new equipment, furnishings, contractors, and city permits. But the other part was finding the necessary funding. Thanks to a partnership between the Seattle Office of Economic Development, Grow America, and JPMorgan Chase, Moodie was able to access a first-of-its-kind fund — the BCO Fund, which prioritizes the unequal effects of rising commercial rents on small-business owners, particularly People of Color, immigrants, women, and LGBTQIA+ people, and helps small businesses gain property ownership. The first local business to benefit from the fund was La Union Studio, which opened earlier this year in Mount Baker.

Daniel Marsh, the president and CEO of Grow America, which is partnering with the city on the BCO Fund, was on-site at the new location, as were Mayor Bruce Harrell and Vicki Foege, vice president and northwest program officer for global philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase. 

“We believe in inclusion, we believe in providing opportunity, and we believe in rebuilding communities with the participation of the residents that are there,” said Marsh when talking about how Grow America works to invest in assisting small businesses, like Marjorie and La Union, by providing economic opportunity for all. 

The need for economic opportunity for all has been an essential part of several local initiatives aimed at preserving family-owned legacy businesses locally. After being priced out, Beacon Hill restaurants Baja Bistro and Kusina Filipina returned with the support of the Beacon Business Alliance (BBA).

Moodie, who has worked in community development and is now the chief impact officer of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, encourages those who are small-business minded to reach out to others who are navigating the same challenges. 

“We all are members of a community that wants to see other people succeed. I can’t tell you how much time I spend mentoring people, talking to people, and I’m happy to continue doing that. And also, I’m not the only person in my community that does that,” Moodie said about the many local organizations and small-business owners with a passion for entrepreneurship.

New Concept, Same Heart

The new location of Marjorie carries with it the same heart of community-focused food that was instilled in Moodie by her mother. While the new space brings in fresh elements, such as decor and a reimagined menu, the essence remains the same. Customers visiting the Midtown Square location can expect a renewed focus on local, seasonal ingredients paired with an almost living-room-like atmosphere.

The family-style dinner-party-turned-house-party is something the chefs of Marjorie have incorporated in their own way by adding new twists as well as old favorites. By combining their unique cultural legacies around the dinner table, the new vision includes the desire to facilitate a space that allows people to open up and relax. 

“Maybe talk to someone that’s a little different, and try to open your mind to what they might think. Because together, maybe you both like that butterscotch pudding, or the jerk chicken,” Moodie said when describing how she feels food can nourish us in more ways than one. “I think when you do things like that, you just bring people together. And it’s a small step towards fixing things, but it’s at least a step in the right direction.”