Hungry for news? Welcome to our Friday Feed, where we run through all the local food and restaurant news this week—and maybe help you figure out where to eat this weekend.
We’re Back—Just Like the Pancake Chef and Bush Garden
The Friday Feed took a little holiday break, but it’s back today with all the café openings, bar closings, and restaurant news that you might have missed while ringing in the new year. That includes the return of SeaTac staple the Pancake Chef, which closed last year when the longtime owner retired, but has reopened under new ownership. Also on its way back is Bush Garden, the long-running Japanese restaurant and karaoke bar in the Chinatown–International District. It closed during the pandemic but is scheduled to return this spring inside a new affordable housing development.
Mio Oh Mio, the third of Renee Erickson's new Pioneer Square restaurants, is now open.
Now Open
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Pork chop, black cod, and quintessential Renee vibes at Mio Oh Mio.
Triple play: The third of Renee Erickson’s Sea Creatures restaurants at RailSpur unboxed itself on Boxing Day. Mio Oh Mio is the most classic Erickson spot of the three, serving PNW ingredients, European sensibilities, and ambitiously curated aesthetics. The group’s steakhouse, Bateau, has not reopened after its fall temporary closure, which left many of its recently unionized employees laid off. The union, United Creatures of the Sea, accuses the restaurant group of shutting union workers out from the new restaurants, and worries the delayed reopening of Bateau is designed to delegitimize the union.
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Better than Mardi Gras: Long-time food truck and festival stand Po’Boy and Tings put down roots this week inside Ballard’s Great Notion Brewing. Diners now get the eponymous sandwiches on the requisite Leidenheimer bread daily, plus the menu has expanded to include burgers, wings, hot links, and more.
Riccio's Sausage Company fills the meat void left by Uli's at Pike Place Market.
- Linked in: The cavalcade of Italian sandwiches marches on, with Riccio’s Sausage Company as the latest entry. Taking over the Uli’s space in Pike Place Market, Riccio’s sells its Calabrian and Italian sausages to take home or prepared as sandwiches. Other hot sandwiches include porchetta and meatball, and the cold sandwiches (mortadella, prosciutto, salami), per the current trend, are served on focaccia.
Opening Soon
- In the oven: Whimsical cake maker and creative pastry producer Maddy’s Bakeshop got itself a brick-and-mortar location on Lower Queen Anne and will open with regular weekend hours starting on Valentine’s Day.
- Unraveling: Ballard thrift shop Thread Hunter has converted a storage room into a small beer and cider speakeasy, with a planned opening on February 1.
- Practicing for Carnival: Chef Emme Ribeiro Collins grew up in her parents’ U-District restaurant, Tempero do Brasil (RIP), opened and closed her own restaurant, competed on MasterChef, won Chopped, and has a cookbook coming up. Her latest venture was a pop-up called Baiana, named for the demonym of Bahia, where her family is from in Brazil. Now Baiana’s getting a permanent spot, taking over the former Pike’s Pit space in Pike Place Market. Collins aims to start selling Brazilian (and Bahian) specialties like acarajé, coxinha, and moqueca starting in late February or early March.
Opening Someday
- Noodling on a date: Cafe Lolo has been milling grain, making pasta, and serving it with seasonal vegetables at farmers markets, but now they’re taking over the storied location in the bottom of the Loveless building on Capitol Hill from recently departed Cook Weaver. Per an Instagram post, the new restaurant and larder will start serving local grains and produce “very soon.”
- Cool collab: It’s been two days since I wished for more collaboration, and it’s already come true! Okay, ice cream shop Sweet Alchemy actually posted before my piece went live, but in their announcement about new dessert spot and bar, Elixir, they noted that during the day, the space will be a matcha café run by local pop-up Grean. No word on an opening date yet for the former Oasis Tea Zone on the Ave.
- Fry-yay! Get in line now, even if we don’t yet know the timeline for the Seattle location of Singapore-based Japanese food chain Tendon Kohaku, coming to the former Momosan space in the Chinatown–International District. It famously drew multihour lines for its tempura-focused menu when the chain opened its first US location in Bellevue back in 2024.
- Gone fishing: The former Fish Ladder Lounge/Shelter spot in Ballard is set to become Kochendorfer’s, registered to John Kochendorfer, whose name beer folks might know from his time as lead brewer at Elysian and Ferndale’s District Brewing.
Beyond the City
- Grocery gains: Tacoma’s former Hobby Lobby space will get a serious upgrade per word that local Japanese supermarket Uwajimaya will move in next year. It represents something of a homecoming for the family-owned grocer that Fujimatsu Moriguchi started by selling fishcakes from the back of a truck in Tacoma in 1928.
- Eastward and up: Downtown’s Sugo Hand Roll Bar has big plans this year—unsurprising given it’s part of the ambitiously expanding Conscious Hospitality Group (Mt. Joy, Matcha Magic, Just Poke). Per Puget Sound Business Journal, the Lynnwood location is set to open in June, part of a split space with Supreme Dumplings, followed by a Woodinville location this fall.
- Third time’s the charm: Von’s 1000 Spirits, long a touristy favorite downtown (and a local happy hour favorite, back in its Pine Street days), found success with its 2022 expansion to Woodinville. Now, the company will try to repeat the magic in Kirkland, taking over the former Feast space and aiming for an April opening, reports Puget Sound Business Journal.
Café Talk
- Aesthetic opening: The adorable Blue Ridge Coffee House opened its doors this week in a former real estate office, serving True North Coffee and lots of pastries.
- Tea time: This week on First Hill, the “Health-first, culture-forward, earth-conscious” Chai Sutra began serving its masala chai, matcha, and fresh juices, along with a mix of Indian and American café–style foods: poha, vada pav, and avocado toast.
- Thai time: The former Mighty-O space on Capitol Hill lured Thai coffee shop Nudibranch from its planned Ballard location. Founder Emily Sirisup has been importing and selling Thai coffee beans, and now plans to infuse Thai coffee culture into the shop, hoping to open next month.
- Chain link: The Instagram page for fast-growing Yemeni coffee chain Haraz boasts 212 locations in the works, and one of those is on Capitol Hill. The five-year-old Michigan brand has spread rapidly, offering alcohol-free late-night third spaces and TikTok-beloved pistachio lattes and colorful matcha drinks.
Greenwood American Bistro, we hardly knew you.
And Now for the Bad News
- Short run: About a year after its splashy opening, Greenwood American Bistro closed in December. Within that year, owner Model Restaurant Group also opened and closed a second spot, Robin’s Restaurant and Market.
- Sunsetting: Baker’s, the gem of a bar with surprisingly good food on Sunset Hill, announced it will close at the end of the month, after a seven-year run.
- Quick pint: Just six months after Schooner Street opened in Ballard, an eviction notice on the door announced its closure. Schooner Street came from the owners of the Stepping Stone, after that bar lost its lease, and took over the former Pour Decisions space.
- Cluck no more: U-District Korean fried chicken and beer restaurant Chimac ended its run in Seattle in December.
- Crack no more: Wallingford staple Blue Star Cafe and Pub announced this week it will end a 50-year run of eggy brunches and meaty mains when it closes on February 1.
- Blame game: Green Lake’s Wooden City Tavern closed just before Christmas and left a note on its website that made no bones about who it blames: “We’ve seen how other cities are helping small businesses thrive and we love Seattle so we are looking forward to the day it gets back to supporting restaurants in a real and meaningful way.” It continues to operate its locations in Tacoma, Spokane, Chattanooga, and Birmingham.
- Singing off: The Waterwheel Lounge, a classic Ballard dive bar, ended its half-century run with a night of New Year’s Eve karaoke and shirts that read “I closed the Waterwheel.”
Oh, BTW, here’s what you missed last time.