Carmelita publishing cocktail book to support employees when restaurant closes this month

Carmelita vegetarian restaurant has spent the summer celebrating its nearly 17-year run on Phinney Ridge and saying goodbye to customers before it closes for good on Sept. 29.
The restaurant has been collecting its cocktail recipes and will soon publish a full-color book that will be available in the restaurant and on Amazon. One of the cocktail recipes is called the Golden Parachute, in honor of the restaurant’s employees. All profits from that cocktail and the book will go to the Employee Severance Fund.
The space at 7314 Greenwood Ave. N. will be taken over by local restaurateurs Chris Navarra (Prost!, The Ridge Pizza), Chris Gerke, and Shannon and Laura Wilkinson, who plan to open a Mexican restaurant named Vecino, which is Spanish for “neighbor.”