Nosh Pit

A Chef for Lucky 8

Plus: a peek at the progress of the forthcoming Chinese restaurant on Capitol Hill.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Oct 27, 2011 at 12:08PM 2 Comments

What’s to become the bar.

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What’s to become the bar.

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Communal table. The restaurant will seat around 25 patrons, with additional spots at the bar. Also expect a takeout and delivery operation.

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Reclaimed wood festoons the walls.

Bracey Rogers tells Nosh he’s tapped Justin Strand to chef Lucky 8, the joint he’s opening next to Oola Distillery with his wife, Marcy Akiyam.

Strand, a 22-year restaurant vet and “natural in the kitchen,” is currently cooking at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar in downtown Seattle. Other local stints include La Spiga and Palace Kitchen. Before that Strand was in Aspen and Chicago, where among other things he served as personal chef to the Wrigley family.

“Strand has been diligently studying Chinese cuisine,” notes Rogers.

He expects the restaurant to open in six weeks or so. Rogers sent over a few pics of the buildout of the 1,400-square-foot space. Curious? Click through the slideshow.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Capitol Hill, Chinese Food

Lucky 8: Chinese Delivery Coming to South Capitol Hill

Owner Bracey Rogers reveals plans for his dine-in and to-go operation, set to open at 14th and Union this Fall.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 14, 2011 at 09:26AM 4 Comments

General Tso’s and Kung Pao chicken: coming to Capitol Hill doorsteps this fall.

Photo: ctltampa.com

When Bracey Rogers and his wife Marcy Akiyama started asking friends what sort of restaurant they’d like to see on Capitol Hill, they heard the same answer over and over: Chinese delivery. It made sense to them.

“I’m too lazy sometimes to get over to the great restaurants in the ID,” said Rogers. “There’s not much of this type of food on the Hill.”

And so, they are bringing it. Between now and October—the target opening month—they’ll be converting the 1,400 square-foot space next to Oola Distillery (across the street from Skillet Diner at 14th and Union) into a 25-seat restaurant with a five-person bar and a to-go operation that includes both takeout and delivery. Rogers said Lucky 8’s delivery operation will “start pretty small,” possibly expanding to serve a wider area as the restaurant matures. He plans to do bicycle deliveries, and would like to buy some used parking attendant vehicles and paint them bright colors. The logistics of the latter have not been fully explored.

The to-go menu will focus on what Rogers called “Americanized Chinese food”: General Tso’s, Kung Pao Chicken. But dine-in guests will have access to a second menu featuring more “authentic” Chinese dishes, according to Rogers. A local chef has signed on, but is not ready to have his name attached to the project because he is currently employed elsewhere. (I’m pretty curious, you?)

Lucky 8 will serve dinner seven nights a week and lunch on weekdays. Happy hour? “I’m sure we will have one,” said Rogers. And while he and his wife would love to collaborate on a cocktail menu with Oola owner Kirby Kallas-Lewis, who is leasing the space to the couple, they’ve yet to discuss the details. Kallas-Lewis seems game. In an email to me last week he wrote: “I hope to work closely with them in the cocktail portion of things—specialty drinks, etc.”

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Capitol Hill, Chinese Food

Six Restaurants Seattle Could Use

Looking to open a food spot in Seatown? Here are some ideas.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 14, 2010 at 09:59AM 38 Comments

Classic

We talk a lot, on this blog, about what good food Seattle has. Allow me to break habit for a moment and discuss what good food Seattle could use. Yes, a lot of these involve the nostalgic whinges of a whiny East Coaster. But I guarantee that everyone would enjoy these restaurants if they were here.

1. A New York–style bagel shop I’m elated that Capitol Hill is getting a Montreal-style bagel bakery. Good stuff. However, we still need a good New York–style bagel shop. Roxy’s knows how to dress a bagel, if someone could supply it with really good bagels, we’d have something. But what I’m thinking of is more like the Bagel Deli or Bagel Oasis only, well, better. And with better coffee for sure.

2. A sub shop. My family hails from Philadelphia. Cheesesteaks were a big part of my childhood. I’m not about to start expecting that Seattle will ever have a cheesesteak shop that will live up to my impossible expectations. What would be nice is a very good sub shop. Salumi is wonderful, but I’m talking about something a little less involved. I’m talking about good meats, fresh veggies, bread that has a soft enough crumb to absorb condiments but with a crunchy crust. Oil and vinegar, provolone…the right stuff. The kind of place Subway was modeled after.

3. A good Chinese restaurant that delivers Hello?

4. An ice cream parlor This is not a comment on the quality of our ice cream. We are rich in butterfat-laden frozen delicacies. The emphasis here is on parlor, the sort of old-fashioned wonderland I remember as a kid, with round tables and hot fudge sundaes in tall glass cups that taper at the bottom and have a petaled rim at the top. Strawberry milkshakes, banana splits, round white bistro tables and curlicue chairs. Know what I mean?

5. Twenty-four hour diners Okay, 24-hour everything. But before I moved to Seattle, I imagined a city overrun with fluorescent-lit, booth-lined diners where you could get Salisbury steak and hash browns at three in the morning that came to you by way of a hard-living server named Rose. Where are they?

6. An upscale Indian eatery Dear Vikram Vij, we await you.

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Tags: Chinese Food, Feelings about Food, Bagels

Cheap Date: Chungee’s Drink and Eat

General Tso’s and chow mein: Cheap, tasty Chinese comes to Capitol Hill.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 19, 2010 at 02:37PM 2 Comments

Chungee pancake with curry dipping sauce

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Chungee pancake with curry dipping sauce

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General Tso’s chicken from Chungee’s

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Chungee’s wonton soup

Nearly ever Thursday evening of my childhood my family ate takeout from Peking Palace, a strip-mall Chinese restaurant down the street from our house.

Bug-eyed, swishy-tailed fish in a tank kept a watch over the cash register at Peking, and a golden Great Wall of China rose out in three-dimensional majesty from an ornately framed painting near the back. The restaurant was owned and operated by the lithe Judy, who knew all her customers by name.

Wonton soup with thick-skinned dumplings and pinkish-gray strings of pork, tinfoil-wrapped Mu Shu crepes and purple plum sauce as sweet as jam, bright-red spare ribs, watery chicken curry with water chestnuts and skinny strands of bell pepper: when people I know in Seattle talk about this food today, they call it “Americanized Chinese” food. But it was the only Chinese food served at restaurants in my hometown, and it was as steady a part of my diet as Wheat Thins and cheddar after school and roast chicken and green beans at Sunday supper.

I’ve never really experienced such food in Seattle until recently, when I went to Chungee’s Drink and Eat, the new restaurant at the corner of 12th Avenue East and Denny Way. Chungee’s is the newest venture to fill the shoebox-shaped corner space, in the past few years it has housed a burrito and pizza joint serving unconscionably bad food, and a short-lived Mediterranean restaurant called Esmarelda.

Chungee’s has red walls, chopsticks wrapped in paper, and place mats depicting the Chinese zodiac—the very same placemats on top of which diners ate chow mein and egg rolls at Peking Palace. A long skinny bar lines one side (Chungee’s has a promising-looking happy hour) and a few tables are wedged into the tiny dining room. The food is straight-forward “Americanized Chinese,” but it isn’t junk food. The meat and veggies are fresh and well-seasoned; it’s satisfying workday fare served promptly and politely. Plan to wait 15 minutes for a takeout order if the restaurant isn’t busy, and don’t overorder: Wonton soup ($6.95), one General Tso’s chicken ($9.95) and a Chungee pancake ($4.95)—which tastes mostly of scallion—will feed two people with leftovers more than likely.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Cheap Date, Chinese Food