Only a single row of high windows at the roofline on the shiny façade of the hulking black box that is China Harbor faces the street. This gives the iconic Westlake Avenue building mysterious vibes. But inside, two sprawling floors of dining and banquet space overlook Lake Union.

After 30 years and thousands of parties, China Harbor will serve its final feasts on September 29. “We just wanted to focus on other future projects for now,” says chef Danna Hwang, who joined the restaurant three years ago. She was brought on by Thomson Zhao, who purchased the classic spot in 2019. Chief among those future projects is the second location of the pair’s much-lauded Mercer Island restaurant, Vivienne’s Bistro, which is scheduled to open next month inside downtown’s Sheraton Grand Seattle, taking over the space previously home to Loulay.

“These five years have flown by, leaving a profound and colorful mark on our lives,” says a public letter, posted by China Harbor. It went on to thank customers for their support through the restaurant’s tough times: Zhao took over China Harbor, for which large-scale banquets and parties of up to 500 people were a big part of the business, just before the pandemic shut down events. Slowly but surely, he and Hwang turned the restaurant into a destination for food, not just a place to go for weddings. Then, in December 2021, the building suffered structural damage, and the restaurant was forced to close during the lucrative holiday party period.

The imposing midcentury modern building on the waterfront began life as home to the Seattle Elks club, opening in 1961. In 1976, the Elks club retreated to the basement and the main spaces became a series of restaurants: West Veranda, tiki bar Don the Beachcomber, Greenjeans, Greenstreets, Ostería Mitchelli, then Hunan Harbor. In 1994, China Harbor took over, making a name for itself by hosting dances, political rallies, karaoke, and speed dating nights, along with many other gatherings. Other parts of the building held other businesses, including the basement swimming pool.

The mysteriousness of the building’s outside combined with the late-night hours and slightly abnormal nature of the business brought about both rumored and actual trouble. A parking lot robbery that led to police making a racist comment on video brought China Harbor into the news in 2010. More often, those unaware of its massive event business offered musings on how a place with such a large footprint and mediocre food made its money. (Jokes they surely would have made even if it weren’t a Chinese restaurant, right?)

When Zhao and Hwang took over, they accepted the challenge of changing the restaurant’s long-standing reputation with the public. “They’re scared to walk in because the old management was dirty,” Hwang said in an interview with the Seattle PI at the time. Detritus from the previous nights’ parties no longer littered the building’s main staircase each morning, and the food improved enough to create a solid takeout business even before diners and events returned in big numbers following pandemic limitations.

Zhao had originally hired Hwang to open Vivienne’s Bistro, but when construction and supply issues delayed that opening, she took on the China Harbor revamp. When the 180-seat Mercer Island restaurant eventually opened in early 2022, the success there led Zhao to start looking for a second location. Hwang says they expect to open the Vivienne’s Bistro location downtown in mid-October.

There’s no word yet on what’s next for the iconic building left empty by China Harbor’s departure, but it is a prime slice of waterfront dining room real estate, so hopefully it gets snapped up soon by someone willing to continue the good fight against bad food.