Kidd Valley closes location on Aurora
Sunday, November 9, 2025
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| Sign on the door of Kidd Valley |
Story and photos by David Carlos
The Kidd Valley restaurant at 14303 Aurora Ave N, just south of the Shoreline city line in Seattle, is now permanently closed.
A sign on their door states: "This location is now permanently closed. We appreciate your many years of patronage and hope that you will visit one of the remaining Kidd Valley locations."
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| Most of the lights are out. The store is empty and the parking lot littered and deserted. |
In 2022, the original Kidd Valley closed at the University District 5502 25th Ave NE, Seattle. It first opened in 1976.
Reasons for the U-District's store closure included the high cost of remodeling and maintaining compliance with codes and regulations, and other business challenges.
Reasons were not given for the Seattle site's closure.
The remaining open locations are at: Kenmore, Green Lake, and Renton. There are also Kidd Valley sites within T-Mobile Park, CenturyLink Field, Husky Stadium, and Cheney Stadium.
The Kenmore location is 6434 NE Bothell Way, Kenmore, WA 98028
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26 comments:
This Kidd Valley was surrounded by questionable characters and these people would approach cars and demand money. They were very aggressive. There appeared to be an open drug market and drug use at the south side of the building. Not to mention piles of bikes and other used goods. It's my understanding that this location was not safe for staff members. Thanks Seattle City Council.
Opened up and still looked the same YEARS later which in this case wasn't a good thing.
Too much drug activity in their parking lot!
I used to eat at the capital hill location that closed years ago. The garlic fries and deep fried mushrooms were so good.
If you have ever been to that Kid Valley location you would know why it closed. It became too dangerous.
Any word on WHY?
Skid row North
Went to a Kidd Valley once . . . once.
We know exactly why they closed. The crime on that block is out of control much of it happening in their parking lot. Someone was stabbed in their parking lot. I used to live on that block at the crime ridden VIV/tressa apts. I moved my family away from there 3 months ago because the area is extremely dangerous. The block was on SWAT and SPD lockdown several times. Gunshots, Unalivings, prostitution.its a horrible neighborhood. I used to go to Kidd Valley all the time. Sad to see them go, but I'm surprised it took them this long.
They. have the best blackberry milkshakes!
Once the new apartment buildings became occupied, the neighborhood where KV was, began to to fall on hard times...trash and human caused garbage everywhere, drug deals in cars along with sex traffic forcing KV to hire security, people "hanging out" in derelict vehicles all day with nothing to do but harass and blocking moving vehicles on side streets, and it quickly became a very undesirable location. They changed their dining room hrs to only broad daylight, nothing helped. installed security windows at the drive-up, had to repaint out the graffiti. Our last trip there, we had our windows up, door locked, and were still feeling not safe from pan-handling and saw drug deals being made and some "professional ladies" looking for work. We decided that was our last trip for really good hamburgers, milk shakes and garlic fries, and a week later we drove by on our way back from UW Hospital to sadly see KValley no more...
These are all a franchise owned by Ivar’s. I’m sure they are consolidating and downsizing because of the economy. I know that the original location did not have the wherewithal to do the extensive remodeling necessary to put in required ADA bathrooms. The shoreline location on Aurora did a booming business and there were always lines of cars waiting to use the drive-through. Don’t know why they closed.
It's too bad that politicians don't care about keeping businesses safe. The surrounding is scetch.
Very disappointed to read this location is now closed. Always good food and a pleasant greeting at the window. In the past couple months, this area has become increasingly dicey.
You used to be able to run a business in that area not so much these days clean it up already!…
A block south of the closed Kidd Valley on Aurora is a former Holiday Inn Express that was bought by King County and converted into a homeless/addict shelter a few years back. Surely that has nothing to do with Kidd Valley closing this location after decades in business. Seattle is thriving!
Anon 5:39 - please note that Kidd Valley was in Seattle, not Shoreline.
Open air drug market on this block. Stoped going because I no longer felt safe. I would not want my employees or anyone having to work around those conditions. The closure is a sad consequences of the city’s inability to act on illegal activities based on past and current lawmakers. Essentially sacrificing some businesses.
I'll miss their breakfast sandwiches and milkshakes.
Yeah idk🥴
I was a fan of their burgers. I would get the child-sized version of a cheeseburger. I loved the combo of tomato, lettuce, pickles, and mayo. Also the buns were good too. But... in my occasional visits to this location in the past couple of years, that area is so sketchy. One day I was inside while a group of unstable, disheveled people came in to fill their water bottles with water. The atmosphere was very tense and I was worried something might happen, as they were being verbally aggressive with the staff. I can completely understand why no one would want to work at this location so I am happy for the workers who no longer have to work there.
With preparations and clean up for FIFA 2026 World Cup it seems homeless, drugs, and prostitution are moving more north everyday and spilling over into Shoreline. We're only a 12th the size of Seattle so an inter-local agreement between Shoreline & Seattle could help with allocating costs and responsibilities.
My buddy, his nephew and I were hanging out about a block from that KV. When we seen this lady and a guy, the guy was sitting on top of the concrete block and the lady was pacing back & forth yelling at the guy. After about a minute she started taking all her clothes off right thur as she paced back & forth yell8ng at this guy the whole time. Pretty soon she was completely buck naked still paing and yelling at the guy. Man seattle is awesome.
The changes and challenges in the areas are difficult to keep businesses doors open. Previously, when I lived in the North City area, I’d go to Aurora Avenue location. Of, course there was a few undesirable/sketchy activities that were actually going on.
I worked at Group Health (Kaiser Health) and they closed down the location.
I would frequent Lower Queen Anne Mercer St location until they closed down because a condo building was taking its place.
I miss the old days of made to order fresh food at Kidd Valley Burgers 🍔 Milkshake 🥤and 🍟.
Is there any chance or possibility that locations in south King County?( Federal Way or Kent Station).
OR
Perhaps Pierce County in the Puyallup downtown area or South Hill area.
Let's put the blame for this closure squarely where it belongs: on Seattle and Shoreline voters. With all our attention focused upon national politics, we have given a single party the power over our city, county, and state. There has been no accountability at all for the policies that drove Kidd Valley away from this location.
We declared a homeless emergency a decade ago and have poured billions of dollars into NGOs, which all feed at the trough. It's in their interest to keep as many "clients" within their doors as they can. These clients are a mix of hard drug abusers, schizophrenics, petty criminals, and people who are just down on their luck. Every client is a different mix, and very few of them are solely hard luck cases without other antisocial tendencies. Instead of imposing real consequences when people violate our laws, our region calls that approach mean, and our judges release them back to the streets dozens of times to keep inflicting their disorder upon society.
So enjoy it, North Seattleites and Shoreliners. This is the city you have voted for. I'm sure Commissar Wilson will make it all better by taxing all the big employers until they finally exit their downtown leases and flee across Lake Washington -- or to Idaho.
It's too bad. Enjoy their food. That is a bad neighborhood and the blame falls on the city or Seattle and the people who voted for the city and state officials allowing this crap to go.
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