When it comes to building community, Marcus Lalario has been a key connector and pioneer in developing new shops, spaces, and restaurant concepts in Seattle. The lineup includes Lil Woody‘s, Ciudad, Mezzanotte, Fat’s Chicken & Waffles, Darkalino’s, and Hometeam. He has collaboration at the forefront of his planning, always putting people first and allowing ideas to manifest naturally. Lil Woody's is a great example of that. Located just around the corner from Glasswing, they maintain a focus on community through ongoing events like their “Burger of the Week” program, offering the opportunity to highlight local chefs, restaurants and small businesses. One of his newest projects is Hometeam, part sneaker shop, café, Italian restaurant, and community hub all rolled up into one well-designed space in Pioneer Square. We recently caught up with Marcus about his plans for this multi-concept space and what it's been like multi-tasking as a new father.
View styles featured on Marcus, Aiyana, and Kiyoshi here.
We've always been impressed with your ability to work on such a wide range of projects from food to music to retail. What are you currently excited about and what projects do you have on the horizon?
“Hometeam has been a huge project and now that we have all the sneakers, the goal is to become the go-to sneaker shop in the city and continue to build our in-house brand. We want everyone to feel welcome in our space. It’s meant to be a place to hang out, eat, work, or take a meeting - a community center. We don’t want people to feel like they have to buy anything. We encourage loitering.”
There’s a full calendar of summer events at Hometeam focused on bringing people together around music. They started a free, family-friendly dance party for kids that happens every Saturday this month with a larger outdoor concert series in the works that will be hosted in Occidental Mall, right in front of their store.
“I used to be so heavily involved in music that I really wanted a way to get back into it. Also, with my love for pioneer square and the park right in front of us, it really got my brain spinning on the possibilities.”
How has your life changed since becoming a father? For anyone else setting out on that path, do you have any words of wisdom or recent musings to share?
"Your whole point of view changes. There is this rush of love that hits you so hard and then a new sense of purpose. It really shows you what and who is most important in your life, where to spend time and how to spend that time."
We noticed that you have some great collaborations coming up. Can you tell us about a few of them so that we can share what people should be looking out for at Darkalino's and Hometeam?