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.

It’s been almost a month since the last edition of this weekly restaurant news column, primarily because we spent the last few weeks of 2024 reviewing the big restaurant news from the entire year and the best things we ate last year.

Which means a whole heck of a lot has happened: beloved multigeneration restaurants closing, classic bars evolving, and the announcement of some exciting new spots coming in the next few months.

The Good News: These Restaurants Are Now Open

• Puff Place: After a brief trial period over the holidays, much-anticipated wholesale bakery Pufftown Bakehouse opened in Pike Place Market this week, with winter specials like spiced hot cocoa croissants.
• Canadian Invasion: Certain politicians have it backward, as Canadian cuisine continues to invade Bellevue, with Richmond restaurant Shanghai Dumpling King opening in Bridle Trails.

  

• Hey Ya: Speaking of hotly anticipated baked goods that made their name selling out of Cortina Cafe, Rubinstein’s Bagels’ departed founder Andrew Rubinstein declared Hey Bagel officially open in University Village this week.
• New Thai: Ballard’s got (another) new Thai restaurant, Nua Thai that opened in late December. The space, formerly Cycle Dogs and No Bones Beach Club, has gone through a number of tenants, and it faces stiff competition in a neighborhood flush with Thai restaurants, but, damn if we don’t love the optimism that shows.
• 👀🍦: If you’ve always thought your ice cream would be better with googly eyes, Manny Bennies, the new window at Seattle Bouldering Project in Fremont, has your back. Towering cones and colorful cups feature sweet cream or vegan vanilla (coconut) base with the choice of fresh fruit mixed in, plus optional toppings such as graham crackers and hot honey.
• Lunch Lines: As we mentioned a few weeks ago, acclaimed dinner spot Paju will now host Paju Noodle Bar during lunch hours in its new, larger South Lake Union location.
• Artful Opening: Kaiseki is the Japanese multicourse, seasonal, gourmet meal designed as an expression of art, and the centerpiece of Migaku Sushi. The restaurant, which opened in the original Watson’s Counter location in Ballard last month, is from the owners of Belltown’s Karaage Setsuna, and features tasting menus from $130 to $300.

More Good News: Future Openings

• A Win for Phinneywood: I’m absolutely biased, but Phinney Ridge/Greenwood is the best bakery neighborhood in the city, and it’s about to get better. Joining Ben’s Bread, Petite Pierre, and Coyle’s Bakeshop is a storefront for Sweet! Bakery, opening Wednesday. Alina Muratova started Sweet as a wholesale and popup shop in 2020 (previously Sweet Nothings and More), with her impressive pastries catching attention. Now with a cold case, she plans to shift the focus to her desserts, including cheesecakes and tarts.
• Back Again, Bacetto’s Back: Mike Easton’s tumultuous ride through restauranting continues as the Il Corvo chef and founder re-opens his short-lived, much-loved Waitsburg pasta spot, Bar Bacetto on February 5. I have no inside info on what’s going on with Easton’s roller coaster of restaurant openings and closings, but I can say my meal at the original incarnation was among the best I’ve had in years.

  

• Crazy for Crustaceans: Xi’an Noodles founder Lily Wu opened the first location of seafood spot Happy Crab in Auburn late last year. This week, she announced that she will open a second location this summer, in the former Anthony’s Homeport on Shilshole.  
• Sweet Summer: Also planning for a summer opening is another location of Salt & Straw. The former Homegrown on upper Queen Anne will be the Portland-grown chain's third Seattle location.

Hopefully Good News? Temporary Closures and Transitions

• Made it This Far: Merchant’s Cafe and Saloon claims to be the city’s oldest restaurant, and you don’t make it more than a century around here without fighting back. So, despite rumors of its end, Merchant’s Cafe is closing only temporarily, reported the Seattle Times. It will reopen in March, rising from its death like the ghosts that supposedly haunt the place.

  

• Not Toast: Cafe Suliman, home to one of the city’s most magnificent slices of toast, announced that it’s taking the month of January off for some renovations, turning the wine bar space into a more functional restaurant.
• Musical Dumplings: In the fall of 2023, Lin Handmade Dumpling, sibling to Greenwood’s Little Tings, opened on the Northeast side of Green Lake. By the summer, it was the Seattle outpost of Bel-Red Sichuan restaurant Dan Gui. Then, in the last month or so, it morphed into a location of Mount & Bao, which also has outposts in Lake City and Lynnwood. There is a trail of connected ownership between all the restaurants, which all serve excellent food, and I’m starting to wonder if they are simply using the space over the storefront as sign storage for the various concepts.
• Musical Concepts: Ginger & Scallion, the Phinney Ridge chicken rice restaurant from the team behind Secret Congee quietly morphed into Khao Soi Bar last week. As the name implies, it specializes in the curry-based noodle soups of Northern Thailand, including a spicy lamb leg version and one with fried lobster.

Now for the Bad News: Closings

• Crushed: I can’t even make a joke. The news that Jackson’s Catfish Corner is closing devastated me, and not just because it fried a mean fish. Opened in 2021 by the grandson of the founders of the original Catfish Corner, it represented a little bit of the old Central District and a resurgence of Black restaurant ownership on the often-turbulent corner of 23^rd and Jackson.
• Jilted: Capitol Hill bar the Jilted Siren said goodbye to its current location, but, per Capitol Hill Seattle, left the door open for a potential reopening elsewhere in the future.
• Ditto: The same outlet reported a similar message from self-serve wine bar Rapport, which left a note on its door saying it was closed indefinitely.
• Not in Question: Unlike the above three places, Plum Bistro owner Makini Howell left no doubt that her decision was final in closing the renowned vegan restaurant (and sibling Plum Chopped). She will turn her attention to launching her tofu company, Makini’s.
• Not Around Here: Ballard got a little less sweet last month, with the closure of D'Ambrosio Gelato’s last Seattle location. The original owners, who opened it in 2010, sold the shop in 2016. A venture capital firm got involved in 2020, and now D’Ambrosio Gelato shops (“since 1957”) exist all over Asia. But no longer in Seattle.
• Not Quite Yet: You have five more days to get a final drink at Ballard’s Stepping Stone, reports My Ballard. The bar, which has been there for 17 years, got "notice to vacate" suddenly over the holidays, and hasn’t made plans for next steps yet.

Oh, BTW, here’s what you missed last week month year.