Chick-fil-A Returns to Washington; Seattle's $15 Minimum Wage Law

BELLEVUE — The first in Washington since a Bellingham branch at Western Washington University shut in mid-2011, Chick-fil-A returns April 9, in Bellevue. The company has been keeping a low profile since Chick-fil-A's president Dan Cathy admitted he was "guilty-as-charged" when approached about the company's anti-gay marriage stance, thereby propelling a media shitstorm. In the new Bellevue location, Chick-fil-A says it will give the first 100 adults in line on grand opening morning free Chick-fil-A for a year. It plans to open in Tacoma on April 16 and in Lynnwood in early May. Still no word if there will be one in the Emerald City proper.

LABOR PAINS — Seattle will raise its minimum wage to $11 on April 1, a higher legally-mandated base wage than the one that exists in New York, the District of Columbia, and Chicago. Translation: Seattle waiters, already the country's second-highest paid, are about to get a raise. The increase is Seattle's first major step on its path toward raising the minimum to $15, a baseline that San Francisco will also reach by the end of the decade. Eater breaks down the development and discusses its ramifications.

CAPITOL HILL — In a one-star Yelp review, Californian Daniel Lui reported that he was visiting Starbucks's new Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill on March 11 when an employee accused him and a friend of trying to steal company secrets to pass to China. Apparently Starbucks has agreed to make it up to Lui by giving him a few Starbucks Gold points, though he says he'd like to see something more substantial.