Bloom Restaurant Opens in 5…4…3…2…1…

Bloom Restaurant, the brick-and-mortar progeny of the popup Bloom Bento, officially opens today in Ballard. The photo above is of one of the beautiful bento boxes chef-owner Jason Harris originally sold out of Kylie’s pizza restaurant during lunch hours in Fremont. And you can still get these as takeaway at Bloom Restaurant. It’s located at 5410 17th Avenue NW, an address that was briefly the home of French restaurant Le Marche.

However Bloom’s focus is a sit-down menu of Japanese plates made with produce from MaltbyProduce Market and whatever looks appealing that week over at the Ballard Farmers Market. Offerings are split between small plates like chawan mushi, butabara (that would be pork belly), miso soup with manila clams, and kale goma-ae, and larger ones—three kinds of ramen, or salt-grilled wild King salmon. Favorites from his bento boxes, like roasted koji chicken or fluffy-yet-crunchy Japanese potato salad, will be on the menu, too. Before launching Bloom, Harris was the chef at Fremont izakaya Showa and worked at Chiso and Sushi Kappo Tamura.

The August issue of Seattle Met includes this breakdown of all the technique that goes into one of those bento boxes, and Harris’s food in general. Bloom will be open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, but Harris says brunch and lunch are also on the agenda in the future. Keep tabs on such developments over at Facebook.