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.
Grocery Games
- Go fresh or go home: Hometown grocery (and other things, too) store Amazon laid off some 16,000 workers this week, a move that came in tandem with an announcement that it would shutter all physical locations of its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores as of February 1. The company plans to shift its grocery focus entirely to Whole Foods. The stores include eight Amazon Go markets in Seattle and surrounds, plus three of the larger Amazon Fresh markets.
- Go bulk: Just across Aurora from one of those Amazon Fresh locations sits a former Sam’s Club, empty since 2018. Employee-owned Boise-based WinCo Foods, beloved for its bulk food selection and reasonable prices, has been working on getting permits for the space for almost two years. Though they currently have no stores in the city, they asked on Facebook last week if people would like that. In the meantime, they announced a Renton space in progress. And perhaps they’ll be interested in some of that newly freed-up Amazon space.
- Go south: Keeping our grocery news at least somewhat related to a single block of Aurora this week, Asian Family Market, which has a location next to the empty Sam’s Club, announced a new spot coming to Tukwila this week. Known for its wide selection and for curating a nice slate of attached shops and restaurants, the company currently has Seattle and Bellevue locations, plus one in Beaverton, Oregon. The Tukwila store, in the former JoAnn Fabrics, is scheduled to open in March.
Merry-Go-Redmond
Supreme Dumplings will open an outpost in Redmond Town Center this spring, sharing a space (and operations) with the second local location of ComeBuyTea. The company’s ramen brand, Kizuki, is already in the shopping center. Also moving into the shopping center later this year, reports Puget Sound Business Journal, is a Te-Hand Roll Bar. Scheduled for August or September, the restaurant comes from the owners of Bellevue’s Kuro Sushi.
More from the Eastside
- Hush hush: Originally hidden inside a Tacoma hotel, Secret Burger Kitchen opened its first Seattle location last May, and is now headed to Kirkland. The smashburger specialist will open in Juanita Village in March.
- Ni hao, bon appetit: BA Bakehouse, the first US branch of a bakery chain from Yunnan, China, has opened in downtown Bellevue. The name stands for the French phrase bon appétit, and signifies the French roots of its baking.
Something to Cluck About
- North star: California-based fried chicken chain Starbird plans to open in the former MOD Pizza space in West Seattle by the end of the year. It will have competition in the form of Dave’s Hot Chicken, which is bringing a location to the former Haymaker spot nearby by midyear.
- Bok back: Meanwhile, Capitol Hill Seattle brings news that the neighborhood’s Bok a Bok is planning a spring return. It’s been closed since October due to floor damage, and is the chain’s last remaining location after closing in the U-District and White Center.
Pizza Pizza
- Opening soon: Roma Roma, the Capitol Hill pizza al taglio restaurant from chef Forrest Brunton and fam, has an official opening date: February 5.
- Opening someday: That Urban Family Brewing is opening a huge new space on the downtown waterfront this spring is old news. What’s not: It will have creative pizzas from Chris and Sandra Curtiss, the couple behind erstwhile food truck Nacho Mama’s.
Korean Flavors
- In style: Gangnam Burger began serving its spicy chicken, ssam, and bulgogi burgers near the Seattle Costco earlier this month.
- Quirky style: Not a lot of info is available on the newly opened Paran in Fremont, but the “new-generation” Korean spot has a small, enticing, and slightly quirky menu.
Oh, BTW, here’s what you missed last time.