The Forgotten Black History of Seattle’s Mrs. Pizza

Last year, South Lake Union’s Pizza by Ruffin and Métier Brewing Company teamed up for a “First of the First” dinner, featuring—per Pizza by Ruffin’s Instagram—the first Black-owned brewery and the first Black-owned pizzeria in the state.

Only they weren’t.

The pizzeria from Isaiah Ruffin and Colleen Constant has been making the pioneering claim since it opened in October 2024. As I updated our list of Black-owned restaurants earlier this year, two things stood out to me. The first, a quote from Rodney Hines, the owner of Métier Brewing Company, in which he says he isn’t entirely comfortable describing his business as Washington’s first Black-owned brewery: “We have a horrible history of not telling everyone’s story, right?” The second was the entry for Goldie’s and the Roost, the Whidbey Island pizzeria co-owned by former Delancey chef Sedrick Livingston, which opened in June 2024…

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