Three months after rolling out a food truck to launch his sustainable, fast-casual, chicken sandwich joint Mt. Joy, entrepreneur Robbie Cape has officially opened the first Seattle brick-and-mortar location.
Just blocks away from the truck in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Mt. Joy is up and running at 1530 11th Ave., serving a menu of fried chicken sandwiches and tenders, french fries, milk shakes and more.
Cape, the tech leader who previously headed up telehealth company 98point6, has partnered with an array of food and farming professionals, including Seattle restaurateur Ethan Stowell, who is a co-founder.
And he’s raised $1.5 million to get the whole operation going from investors that include David Cape of Canadian cosmetics company Marcelle; Ellensburg, Wash.-based Mark Anderson at Anderson Hay; former Concur co-founder Mike Hilton; former Voyager Capital co-founder Tony Audino; Just Poké co-founder Norman Wu; and others.
Cape, who left 98point6 in 2021 in a surprising departure, was also previously co-founder and CEO at Cozi, a family organizing app founded in 2005 and acquired in 2022.
Asked how he likes running a restaurant startup after years in tech, Cape told GeekWire that he’s loving it.
“To be able to engage with a guest when they are entering your go through and while they’re having your go through in a very natural way is incredibly empowering,” Cape told GeekWire.
Mt. Joy’s focus is on sustainable farming practices and locally sourced ingredients to disrupt the agriculture and food industries from start to finish. Regenerative agriculture is part of the mantra because of its potential to combat climate change by improving the organic makeup of soil and removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Cape said the food truck, at 1600 E. Olive Way in a former Starbucks parking lot, has been doing great and he’s learning plenty about what customers want and how they engage with some of Mt. Joy’s tech. For instance, most customers prefer to place their order on an iPad located at the truck window rather than use their own phones.
“That’s a little surprising,” Cape said. “We would have expected that it would have been the other way around. I’m really glad that we had both options.”
Cape also said they’re currently determining what the future of the truck will be now that the restaurant is open nearby. It could advance to another part of Seattle to spread the Mt. Joy love around.
