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The Closure Record cross-references King County health department filings, Google Places data, and local press to produce a verified, continuously updated dataset of restaurant and food establishment closures across Seattle and King County. Coverage follows the county: Seattle itself, plus the other King County places the county’s closure feed reports on — incorporated cities like Kent and Renton and unincorporated areas like White Center alike. City of Seattle business license records are a fourth input, but they stop at the city line and never publish a closure on their own (see §03). Every record includes a source trail. Use the charts, download the data, or cite us directly.
Data is licensed under CC BY 4.0. You may use, share, and adapt the data with attribution to The Closure Record.
Each source still contributes to a stored confidence score (shown on individual records, banded at 0.2 and 0.5). Since 2026-07-28 that score no longer decides what appears here — publication is decided solely by whether a source can be linked. The weights are published for transparency, not because they gate the record.
Closure notices and per-city closure listings are the strongest citation we publish. County INFERENCES — an inspection record with no matching active licence — are never published: they assert no closure and carry no linkable proof.
Active licence status from data.seattle.gov. A still-active licence counts against a closure. A MISSING licence is NOT a closure signal and is never published on its own — two agencies name businesses differently, so an absence is a lead, not evidence. This layer stops at the city line: a business in Kent or Renton has no licence signal either way.
business_status field. Permanent/temporary closures add weight; a live OPERATIONAL status counts against a closure. Verification layer, not primary source.
Seattle Times, Eater Seattle, community reports. Manually verified before incorporation.
One rule: a closure is published only if you can click through to a source that says so.One source is enough. If we can’t show you where a claim came from, we don’t make it — so the record contains a single status, closed, rather than a ladder of confidence scores.
An official King County closure record (GovDelivery bulletin, per-city closure page, or an inspection flagged as a closure); a Google Places CLOSED_PERMANENTLY listing; or a local-press report naming the business.
A business missing from the city licence file. That is an inference, not a record — two agencies name businesses differently, so a name mismatch is a lead, never a closure.
A link to a routine health inspection. It resolves, but it does not assert a closure — a working link to the wrong document is worse than no link at all.
A Google CLOSED_TEMPORARILY listing. Publishing a temporary closure as closed would over-claim.
For data corrections, bulk access, or press inquiries:
nl.nicklasky@gmail.com| Month | Confirmed | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Aug '24 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep '24 | 7 | 7 |
| Oct '24 | 8 | 8 |
| Nov '24 | 4 | 4 |
| Dec '24 | 9 | 9 |
| Jan '25 | 7 | 7 |
| Feb '25 | 7 | 7 |
| Mar '25 | 4 | 4 |
| Apr '25 | 10 | 10 |
| May '25 | 5 | 5 |
| Jun '25 | 6 | 6 |
| Jul '25 | 9 | 9 |
| Aug '25 | 26 | 28 |
| Sep '25 | 19 | 20 |
| Oct '25 | 33 | 33 |
| Nov '25 | 17 | 19 |
| Dec '25 | 14 | 14 |
| Jan '26 | 7 | 7 |
| Feb '26 | 6 | 6 |
| Mar '26 | 16 | 16 |
| Apr '26 | 21 | 21 |
| May '26 | 23 | 34 |
| Jun '26 | 24 | 24 |
| Jul '26 | 18 | 18 |
| Aug '26 | 12 | 19 |
| Sep '26 | 1 | 1 |
| Week starting | Closures in prior 30 days |
|---|---|
| 2025-08-25 | 23 |
| 2025-09-01 | 30 |
| 2025-09-08 | 30 |
| 2025-09-15 | 25 |
| 2025-09-22 | 22 |
| 2025-09-29 | 26 |
| 2025-10-06 | 19 |
| 2025-10-13 | 18 |
| 2025-10-20 | 26 |
| 2025-10-27 | 27 |
| 2025-11-03 | 34 |
| 2025-11-10 | 30 |
| 2025-11-17 | 33 |
| 2025-11-24 | 24 |
| 2025-12-01 | 23 |
| 2025-12-08 | 19 |
| 2025-12-15 | 16 |
| 2025-12-22 | 13 |
| 2025-12-29 | 15 |
| 2026-01-05 | 11 |
| 2026-01-12 | 11 |
| 2026-01-19 | 11 |
| 2026-01-26 | 8 |
| 2026-02-02 | 6 |
| 2026-02-09 | 7 |
| 2026-02-16 | 6 |
| 2026-02-23 | 7 |
| 2026-03-02 | 9 |
| 2026-03-09 | 7 |
| 2026-03-16 | 8 |
| 2026-03-23 | 10 |
| 2026-03-30 | 15 |
| 2026-04-06 | 16 |
| 2026-04-13 | 21 |
| 2026-04-20 | 24 |
| 2026-04-27 | 21 |
| 2026-05-04 | 18 |
| 2026-05-11 | 17 |
| 2026-05-18 | 17 |
| 2026-05-25 | 31 |
| 2026-06-01 | 35 |
| 2026-06-08 | 30 |
| 2026-06-15 | 34 |
| 2026-06-22 | 22 |
| 2026-06-29 | 26 |
| 2026-07-06 | 28 |
| 2026-07-13 | 26 |
| 2026-07-20 | 22 |
| 2026-07-27 | 17 |
| 2026-08-03 | 14 |
| 2026-08-10 | 12 |
| 2026-08-17 | 21 |
| 2026-08-24 | 21 |
| Neighborhood | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Kent | 26 | 6 |
| SoDo | 16 | 7 |
| International District | 13 | 10 |
| Downtown | 12 | 5 |
| Central District | 8 | 8 |
| Beacon Hill | 7 | 7 |
| Auburn | 6 | 7 |
| Highland Park | 5 | 0 |
| Queen Anne | 5 | 4 |
| Federal Way | 4 | 4 |
| White Center | 4 | 1 |
| Columbia City | 4 | 10 |
| Category | Closures | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | 716 | 71.8% |
| Full-Service Restaurants | 104 | 10.4% |
| Limited-Service Restaurants | 75 | 7.5% |
| Bar | 28 | 2.8% |
| Catering | 12 | 1.2% |
| Snack And Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars | 10 | 1% |
| American Restaurant | 6 | 0.6% |
| Bakery | 6 | 0.6% |
| Other | 40 | 4% |
| Source | Records |
|---|---|
| News | 1129 |
| King County | 270 |
| Google Places | 60 |
| Manual | 1 |