David Meinert — Seattle entrepreneur and owner at The 5 Point Café in Belltown
About David Meinert
David (Dave) Meinert is a Pacific Northwest entrepreneur, music manager, festival producer, restaurateur, and civic advocate whose work for more than three decades has helped shape the region’s cultural and community life. Known for bridging creative expression with small‑business leadership and neighborhood revitalization, his influence spans music, restaurants, arts, and civic engagement.
Music, Festivals & Artist Management
Beginning in Seattle’s underground scene, Meinert worked at several venues in the early 1990’s including The Weathered Wall, The Oddfellows Hall on Capitol Hill where he booked bands and raves, the Emerald Diner Star Bar, and the Sit N Spin where he booked legendary shows and bands including the first three White Stripes shows in Seattle.
As a manager and promoter through the 1990s and beyond Meinert started out managing bands by working with the anarchist environmental activist industrial punk group ¡TchKung!. During the mid 1990’s Meinert helped start Repellent Records with Eddie Vedder and Beth Leibling to release Beth’s band Hovercraft who he also managed. At the same time Meinert worked for Curtis Entertainment, owned by Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis, and managed The Posies and Mary Lou Lord. He went on to form Fuzed Music which managed The Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar, and The Catheters, Mtn Con, The Presidents of the United States of America, Maktub, Reggie Watts, Blue Scholars and Common Market. He then helped form MassLine Records to release Blue Scholars, Common Market and Gabriel Teodros. In 2009 he founded Onto Entertainment, managing and developing artists including The Lumineers (financing their debut album), Hey Marseilles, and Fences.
During the years Meinert worked with Repellent and Curtis Entertainment, he was brought on by Eddie Vedder to help put together a mobile pirate radio station that toured with Pearl Jam during their alternative venue tour while they were battling Ticketmaster. The equipment from that station later turned into the underground Seattle station FUCC 89.1 FM. The project was mostly run by Meinert’s close friend James, who usually hates to have his actual name out there, who then ran and DJ’d at FUCC.
During the early 2000’s Meinert worked for Screenplay Inc as the Vice President of Business Development & Industry Relations helping with music and video licensing.
Around 2001 Meinert took over and co-produced the Capitol Hill Block Party with Marcus Charles, helping expand it into one of the Northwest’s most recognized urban music festivals. David and Marcus would later take over Marymoor Park in King County and collaborate with AEG Presents. He contributed as a programming consultant for the Seattle music and arts festival Bumbershoot during its peak years.
Arts, Poetry & Cultural Organizing
In the early 1990s, Meinert created the Surrealist Magic Theatre at the Weathered Wall, along with his good friend DJ EEG aka Monte Donaldson (RIP) which coined art shows with performance art, spoken word, and music, hosting avant‑garde figures such as Exene Cervenka and Lydia Lunch. Around the mid 1990’s Meinert and Paul Grajnert started and produced the Seattle Poetry Slam which they later moved to the OK Hotel, and start the very popular poetry slam scene in Seattle.
In the 1990’s Meinert spent several years working in music activism alongside local musicians like Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic and groups the Washington Music Industry Coalition (WMIC) fighting censorship laws, and the Joint Artists and Music Promotions Action Committee (JAMPAC) which fought for and against local laws in Seattle like the Teen Dance Ordinance. During this time Meinert served on the Mayor’s Music and Youth Task Force and helped draft the All Ages Dance ordinance which allowed all ages dances and shows. Following that success he served as a founding board member of the youth music venue The Vera Project and later worked with the Seattle Music Commission, helping form the Mayor’s Office of Film & Music.
Restaurants, Hospitality & Community Programs
The 5 Point Café (Belltown, Seattle): Owner since 2009 of one of Seattle’s oldest continuously operating bars and diners, located by historic Tilikum Place Park.
Mecca Café (Queen Anne, Seattle): Owner since 2019 of the 1930‑founded diner and bar, maintaining its classic character while modernizing operations.
Huckleberry Square (Burien, WA): Meinert owns Huckleberry Square, a long‑loved Burien restaurant known for its pies and community focus. He launched the Giving Wall, enabling guests to pre‑pay meals for neighbors in need, and supports The More We Love Burien initiative alongside partnerships with local nonprofits.
Additional Ventures
Early collaborator and investor in Queer/Bar (Capitol Hill), and former partner in Lost Lake Café & Lounge, Big Mario’s Pizza, The Comet Tavern, and The Mirabeau Room.
Civic Leadership & Neighborhood Work
Meinert has served with Belltown United and the Belltown Business Association, and helped lead revitalization at Tilikum Place Park as the head of Friends of Tilikum Place, coordinating with community groups and the city. He has served as President of The Recording Academy’s Pacific Northwest Chapter and as a National Trustee of the Recording Academy, representing regional creators in national conversations. He was involved in creating Seattle’s newest minimum wage law via the Mayor’s Income Inequality Task Force, helping create Seattle’s Safe and Sick Time law, and has lead independent restaurants by providing health care and retirement benefits for his workers. During the Covid-19 epidemic, Meinert was one of the first restaurants in the US to install air cleaning technology including HEPA filters in HVAC systems and Upper Room Germicidal UVC Lights.
Family & Personal
David is a devoted father of two daughters. He divides his time between Seattle and Burien, balancing his time between his family, restaurant operations, and continuing involvement in local politics in Burien and Seattle.
Media & Recognition
Meinert’s work has been profiled over time in local publications such as the Seattle Times, The Stranger, Seattle Met, Capitol Hill Blog, Chase Jarvis’s Seattle 100; national and international outlet like LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and various television and radio interviews and profiles as well as through his own writing and blog. He has been featured in Seattle Magazine’s Seattle’s 25 most influential people; and has been called the Tom Douglass of deep fried food. Ha!