From Nancy Leson at the Seattle Times (RVP news partner):
Thoa Nguyen has a Vietnamese-accented downtown restaurant that bears her name (Thoa’s) and a Queen Anne sushi bar and pan-Asian cafe that’s long been her neighborhood stalwart (Chinoise). This week marks the debut of her latest venture, Wabi-Sabi, an 80-seat sushi bar and restaurant expected to open Wednesday in the heart of Columbia City.
Thoa (pronounced “Twah”) called Columbia City home for more than a decade, and as she prepares for Wabi-Sabi’s opening day, she’s excited to be back in the neighborhood — especially now that the neighborhood’s become a hot-spot for eating and drinking. “This has been in the works for six months,” she said of the restaurant built in the husk of a former daycare center “right next door to Roy’s BBQ and across the street from Tutta Bella and the Columbia Ale House.”
The name Wabi-Sabi, cutsie though it may sound, references a Japanese aesthetic — one said to find beauty in nature, simplicity and even imperfection. Exposed brick walls, cement floors painted to resemble sea colors, and benches and booths designed by Seattle artist Michael Fujii were built to look “very natural, very soothing, very Zen,” Thoa says. Read more.
Wabi-Sabi is located at 4909 Rainier Avenue South in Columbia City. Photo/do communications, inc.
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Whoo Hoo!!!
Oh Yea! Can’t wait. I hope they do Tako poki (sp)
Spider rolls tomorrow, SWEET!
Sushi in CC?!? *Shedding tears of joy.
“she said of the restaurant built in the husk of a former daycare center “right next door to Roy’s BBQ and across the street from Tutta Bella and the Columbia Ale House.”
What no mention of Angie’s?
Nice! Whoever came up with this idea — please congratulate yourself for being so damn smart.
Mark –
I was thinking the same thing!
Now if we could only get an Indian restaurant and a Trader Joes I would never have to leave the neighborhood.
Mmmmmmm, Indian food.
That would be great, wouldn’t have to go to West Seattle or the North end.
You know I finally had a drink at Angie’s recently, and despite my sticky table top, I found all of the patrons pleasingly pleasant. Without it, we’d just be living in not-as-good Wallingford Jr.
And some real crab dip!!!
Why no Thai in Columbia City?
In the words of Homer Simpson, Fugu Me!
Oh please have hamachi kama…and SAKE!
I was thinking about fugu never tried it, to dangerous.
Great Thai in Madrona – Naam Thai. Folks also like Thai Recipe by the Shucks on McClellan. Agree that more Thai or Vietnamese in Columbia City would be a welcome addition. Rumor has it that the space next to Wabi Sabi might become an Asian restaurant. Lets hope.
Jae Ahrens does some wonderful things with Chinoise on Madison but I’m super excited for sushi closer to home, can’t wait for the opening!
With all this talk of dining, I still need a place to get my hair highlighted and cut in Columbia City!!
“I still need a place to get my hair highlighted and cut in Columbia City!!”
Why, Salon Vibe (RVP advertiser), of course!
http://www.salonvibe.com/index.htm
tasha-
You’re so funny with your crab dip! Not that I blame you. I love it too.
So I wonder how their first delivery will fare on opening night, hope they have some scallop. And fatty tuna. And eel. And, and, and…OH and Sapparo…
Columbia City takes another step closer to being the Brooklyn of Seattle. (That’s a good thing.)
Anon–run, do not walk to Pure Alchemy Salon on Ferdinand. Danyale Cook is incredibly talented, not to mention just a wonderful friendly person to hang out with while she makes you look great!
A Thai place is on it’s way. It will be located next door to Wabi-Sabi.
Thai food on it’s way: SPICE ROOM
Liquor license action details
Location 4909 Rainier Ave. S.
Application date June 22, 2009
Applicant PURI INCORPORATED; PURI, SARVESHWAR; PURI, RISHI; PURI, MANISH
License number 405097
Event type New application
License types Restaurant — spirits, beer and wine (restaurant service bar only)
Action type New liquor license application
Went to the pre-opening party last night and have only one word to say: Fabulous! I would have cried about the fact that I was eating such fresh sushi in the Valley, if I hadn’t so busy eating it! My advice- go there.
I second the vote for Trader Joe’s
John Dee,
Just saw the sign for the Thai Place this morning. I believe it is called Thai Spice. Excellent!
On another note – what do folks thing about having Elliott Bay books move into the old plastic factory across from Tutta Bella – seems like it might be a good fit.
Thanks
Tom T
Would love to see Elliott Bay Books relocate to the corner of Rainier & Hudson. Does anyone know EBay Books to contact them about this space?
The Thai place joint is the same owner as Jai Thai in Fremont! Expect great things….
Yes!! There will be hamachi and sake -unfiltered and premium. Check out the web site:
wabisabicolumbiacity.com
Simply fabulous!
“Westerners tend to associate wabi sabi with physical characteristics – imperfection, crudeness, an aged and weathered look, etc. ”
Oh, great. They even named it after me.
All right here we go.
I will save the actual critique for next week as this was their first night.
Food was very nice, not sure if it was as nice as it was slow, meaning it was slow, I mean Sloooooooooooow. Why should food that you do not have to cook take 3 times longer than food that you have to cook?
We were there for 2 hours or so and since with this food you are hungry a half hour later and it takes an hour for your food each time I think I was hungrier when I left than when I got there.
The wasabi they gave us on the side had no heat as opposed to the stuff they put in the spicy rolls, (you would think they would have given us some of that after mentioning a couple of times)
Our server (I think her name was Carla?) was very nice, I felt kind of sorry for her since she was not the cook and could not make it happen like that, but did her part fine.
Ended up at the Flying Squirell after the two hundred some odd bill and got filled up quick.
I’ll wait a week or so and go back.
P.S.
The spicy scallop roll is F’ing tasty!
Agreed. They did have Kirin on draft, which was cool. The fish was very fresh. Too bad they had to grow it and catch it before they could serve it to us. Slow is an understatement. We gave up on part of our order. But I’m def going back. I don’t care how long they take it is still quicker than jetting to Mashiko’s or Toyoda’s. And I’m sure they’ll get it worked out.
Yo! Be patient! This place will rock once it gets rolling. They were not prepared for the pent-up demand for sushi in Columbia City and imagined they’d have a “quiet opening.” They will be staffing up, like, now. It’s understandable to want to visit a long-awaited restaurant the first day it opens, but seriously, it’s the FIRST DAY. They are working out the kinks. Wabi-Sabi is already a fantastic addition to CC. It’s a REAL restaurant serving high-quality sushi, Japanese comfort food, with Japanese beers, sake, full bar, and awesome specialty cocktails. Chillax.
BTW, you must try their mouth-watering pan-fried gyoza; the homey, comforting beef bowl; the refreshingly healthy crab, avocado, grapefruit salad with red leaf lettuce; the tempura. And for specialty sushi rolls, don’t miss the volcano roll with scallop and lemon zest; the Saigon tuna roll wrapped in rice paper; the gorgeous Columbia City riceless roll–cucumber wrapped around tuna–it looks like a slice of watermelon; the Rainier Roll, spicy tuna atop a crunchy vegetable roll with tempura scallion; or the CEVICHE ROLL–lime-marinated surf clam and scallop, avocado, and charred lime peel. YUM.
Did I mention: Be patient? Think back (if you were here) to when Tutta Bella opened and you had to go down the line to order food–there was no table service. Wabi-Sabi will get up to speed sooner than you think! Thoa will make it happen. This woman is a veteran restaurateur.
peace out.
DS-
You are right, of course. “Pent-up demand” is what got unleashed, fo sho. People were willing to wait for a table, a veeeery long time. Impressive. I’ll try to zen-out next time. Like I said, I’m going back. No doubt. What we tried was excellent. I just have to add a sitter to my dining $$ experience, I’d rather slit my wrists with a chopstick than take my kids in there (although my particular party was so giddy that we could have been taken for a bit less than “mature”, ourselves…Jackass I’m talking to YOU)
But just so I’m clear: It was absolutely clear from the execution of the interior ambiance and the food that these are people that know what they’re doing. I have no doubt that the aforementioned glacial pace will improve.
I will definitely go back in a week or so, maybe I was just anxious since I have a birthday coming up next year. J/K
Update from Thoa at Wabi-Sabi Sushi Bar & Restaurant:
More sushi chefs and servers on hand for tonight, through the weekend, and for foreseeable future! Kinks are being worked out quickly. It’s still only Day 2, but staffing will be in place to better handle the enthusiastic welcome Wabi-Sabi received from the Rainier Valley community last night.
Cool, I was just wondering if my sashimi was done yet.
LOL. I catch your drift, MarkB.
It doesn’t seem intuitive that raw fish should take so long to get out to the table. But sashimi is an art. And there were too few artists behind the sushi bar last night. Tonight and from now on, there will be more on hand to help satisfy and satiate the appetite of CC sushi lovers.
Good to hear, I’m not used to pizza for desert.
I just chiseled some sashimi from a chunk of granite in less than an hour, how’s that for art? J/K
I want to give a HUGE shout out to the staff at WabiSabi today around 12:30pm. I had to run out of there like a bat out of hayall. I was waiting for my order and got a call that my son had been injured and needed to go to the ER. I RAN to the bar to say I had to leave, and started trying to throw cash at the staff. They politely yet firmly refused my $ and urged me to go.
Thank you WabiSabi folks! I promise to come back soon and more than make up for the loss on my order today.
Please support neighborhood joints like this- where they know how to treat you like a neighbor.
Sorry to the dude on the sidewalk that I just about ran over. Actually it was his little dog that almost got ran over. Hope I didn’t bust your retractable leash.
Hope your son’s OK.
I’ll support this neighborhood joint, just for that.
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