Hungry for news? Welcome to our Friday Feed, where we run through all the local food and restaurant news this month—and maybe help you figure out where to eat this weekend.
Bagel Bonanza
All that excited whispering you heard from West Seattle wasn’t that the orcas swam by again (we get, it’s really cool, please stop rubbing it in), it was that the mega-popular University Village shop Hey Bagel announced plans to open there. Owner Andrew Rubinstein says he’s looking at a May opening, which means he will likely follow the estimated “fall” opening of the neighborhood’s other upcoming new bagel shop, Royal Bagel.
Little Boat Bagels is in the works for Magnolia, from the Backyard Bagel team.
Further north along the coast, Backyard Bagel’s Aaron Emas just announced their team will open a slightly different concept, called Little Boat Bagels, hopefully by November, in the former Slicebox location in Magnolia. They’re developing a new sourdough bagel for the shop, says Emas. “We’re not trying to be the bagel of your NYC childhood or compete with someone’s nostalgia.”
Aurora isn’t Playing Grocery Games
A sliver of North Seattle seems to being making a play for Seattle’s grocery dollars: Japanese grocer Hashi Market will take over the former Amazon Fresh building on Aurora in North Seattle, per Puget Sound Business Journal, though with no word on opening date. Intriguingly, it shares the parking lot with Japanese variety store Daiso, directly across the street from Asian Family Market and Sprouts, and the US Foods Chef’Store directly behind them. Meanwhile, Winco is still working through legal challenges to open in the neighboring former Sam’s Club—the same block as European Foods and Addis Market. Is destination grocery shopping a thing?
PCC opens its 17th location this week in Madison Valley.
In other grocery news, PCC announced that its newest store—the chain’s 17th—will open in Madison Valley on October 14.
And in other Amazon Fresh space news, California fried chicken chain Starbird opened its first Seattle-area store recently in West Seattle, and then announced its second one, coming to the grocer’s former Capitol Hill location.
The Latest Restaurant Openings
Despite the name, the debut of GoodMart is not grocery news—it’s the sophomore venture from Local Tide founder Victor Steinbrueck. The seafood spot is currently in soft opening mode, doing lunch Thursday to Sunday.
Chef Han Lee, who previously worked at Kisaku, Sushi by Scratch, and Sugo Hand Roll, opened his own nine-seat omakase bar in Green Lake, called Sushi Han. Though the official opening is October 14, it’s been serving in soft opening mode.
The Chinatown–International District gets a little more international every day, with Shah’s Kitchen, an Afghan restaurant, with tandoor oven and all, which opened this week on Jackson.
Nearby, an AYCE KBBQ and hotpot spot called Waca Bros. opened in the former Howpot location.
Portland-based chain Bamboo Sushi opened its Kirkland location, its second in the area after University Village.
Kirkland also gained Kankana, a Bengali restaurant—the third to open in the region in a year.
Switching Indian coasts, Belltown restaurant Konkan Bistro opened, serving Malvani cuisine from Maharashtra.
The trend of Asian chains opening their first U.S. location in Bellevue continues strong with the recent opening of Goban, a Korean BBQ restaurant straight from Seoul.
And continuing the trend of restaurant pairs with very similar names, Beacon Hill’s Gohan has started its soft opening phase—this is the Japanese-with-Italian-influence spot from the owner of Humble Pie.
Brass Steak & Seafood’s Christopher Saenz and executive chef Kyle Quinn.
What’s Coming Next
Things have been busy in Woodinville’s Harvest development, and next up on the opening slate is Brass Steak & Seafood, opening October 24, from the same team that brought Seattle 2120.
Ballard will soon be home to about half of the city’s Egyptian restaurants, after last week’s opening of Cairo and the announcement that Seattle Koshari will return to the neighborhood it has been popping up in for years. No opening date yet, but they are taking over the former Kahlo & Loyal space.
Oakland Korean restaurant Tin & Pig will open in the former Baegopa location in the Chinatown–International District.
The U-District will soon gain a Yemeni coffee shop with chain Moka & Co. opening soon on Brooklyn.
Capitol Hill’s Levantine coffee shop Mintish announced it will expand, with a second location getting ready to open at 1st and Lenora downtown.
Get ready for the grand opening of the Seattle tasting room and social house from Woodinville’s Black- and Punjabi-owned Saanj Winery. The ticketed launch is October 17.
What’s Closing
Beloved Madison Park shop The Independent Pizzeria announced this week that it will sling its final pies on October 16. The restaurant’s popularity and limited production combined to make them always hard to get, and they will likely be nearly impossible to nab in the final days. But dang, were they good when you could get them.
After a few stuttering attempts to stay open, Stumbletown has closed for good. The most recent effort was a steak frites pop-up called Steak Easy. The pop-up, from the folks behind Secret Congee, will look for a new home and continue popping up for now inside the group’s Northlake restaurant, Okonomiyaki Jiban-Ya.
It’s not the first time Pam’s Kitchen has said it is closing, and hopefully this will again be a stumbling block, not a wall, but the Wallingford Caribbean restaurant has announced it will be closing on November 29. Maybe? Because, shortly after, Pam’s son posted that it “isn’t going anywhere,” and now there’s a GoFundMe aiming to prevent the closing.
Brazilian steakhouse (and all-timer in the punny name rankings) The Grill from Ipanema will serve its final cuts in Belltown on Sunday. It isn’t fully closing, though, just moving, and plans to be open across the water in Kingston by mid-November.
Wallingford dim sum spot Bamboo Village has closed, with new owners taking over—permits have been filed for a restaurant called Charlan.
Long-running local pizza chain Tutta Bella announced the original Columbia City location and the downtown one are now closed. The Wallingford, Bellevue, and Issaquah locations soldier on.
Even longer-running Edmonds restaurant Arnies, which has been open for 45 years, shuttered abruptly in September.
Kirkland staple French bistro Le Grand Bistro Americain raised its final glass last week.
A trio of restaurants—Bar Vacilando, Rione XIII, and Rubinstein Bagels—on Capitol Hill had to close in September, reportedly due to a crumbling brick façade. But Capitol Hill Seattle reports that, when inspected, the building was deemed safe. The restaurants remain closed.
Indian cafe Lassi & Spice, which opened first in Fremont and later in South Lake Union, closed for good this week with a “Chai goodbye.”
Central District Thai bakery and cafe Kanom Sai called its closure temporary, but also bade goodbye to 23rd Ave.
Further afield, the Wine Shop Vashon closed its doors.
Oh, BTW, here’s what you missed last time.
Dining and Cooking