The Plenty of Clouds Owners Will Open Noodle/Bar
Six to eight daily noodle bowls will benefit from a ramen laminating machine.
Image: Seattle Met Composite and Courtesy Noodle/Bar
Plenty of Clouds, a quietly fantastic bastion of Sichuan- and Yunnan-inspired plates on Capitol Hill, will soon have a sibling establishment dedicated to noodles.
Noodle/Bar will be located at 422 Yale Ave N, the former Feierabend space two blocks north of REI in the pocket of South Lake Union you can still get away with calling Cascade. And while the restaurant’s name is fairly straightforward, co-owner Travis Post has some wide-ranging plans that involve Chinese-inspired noodles, all made in house with Washington wheat.
Small-batch flour from local growers will power a noodle lineup that focuses on styles from central China. Post promises “a lot of Sichuan, but we’ll branch out a bit from there—north, south, and west.”
Image: Courtesy Noodle/Bar
He's brought in a special machine used to laminate ramen. ("All the real noodle nerds know that ramen noodles originated in China," says Post.) Roughly half the menu will consist of alkaline noodles—skeins that feel slightly springy to the chew, a la ramen or most common Sichuan-style noodles. Post's plans also include the occasional hand-torn or extruded buckwheat offerings.
Roughly six or eight daily noodle dishes will be split between house standards and rotating creative riffs. A few small plates and a rice bowl (aka a gluten-free offering) will round out the menu.
“We just want to broaden the selection of what’s out there,” says Post. He and his wife, Lisa Zak, opened Plenty of Clouds in 2018, brightening a corner just off Pike/Pine with noodles (cold and hot), ma po tofu, dry-fried chicken, and some really excellent dumplings.
Noodle/Bar will likely debut around April 1. Post has been busy getting to know his new laminating machine, and testing recipes with various local flours. A website is in the works, but you can track progress on the Noodle/Bar Instagram.
Image: Courtesy Noodle/Bar
Before Plenty of Clouds, Post was the chef at Ethan Stowell’s beer-focused Bramling Cross. Connections made with local brewers will inform the eight-tap draft list, and he promises the same caliber of cocktail program you find at Plenty of Clouds.
It sounds like a very cool project, alighting in a pocket of the city that’s somehow densely populated and unexpectedly low-key. It’s underserved when it comes to local restaurants, says Post, “which gives us a better chance to connect with neighborhood regulars.”
