Cornichon doesn't get out much. Sure, restaurant reviews for Pacific Publishing and SeattleDining.com, but basically between downtown and Northgate. So earlier this week a couple of unaccustomed forays into the suburban wilderness.
Chinoise made a name for itself with vermicelli bowls and unfussy sushi rolls in Madison Park and Queen Anne, restaurants that don't exist anymore. So what's the deal with the latest Sushi Chinoise at Beardslee Crossing?
"I know this area is ready for sushi." The way Thoa Nguyen describes her decision to open a sushi parlor in what one might charitably describe as the wasteland of Bothell is simple: the population has grown to include Asian--and non-Asian--guests who want options nearby without having to travel to Seattle. Or even to Bellevue.
And did I really mean to write "the wasteland of Bothell"? Hold on, tomodachi. Wasteland no more. Population pushing 50,000. A real downtown, complete with stop lights. Sure, a lot of fast-food and chain restaurants, but serious places, too. Russell's, Preservation Kitchen, Purple, Amaro Bistro, the remodeled Anderson School, the new John Howie place overlooking a greenbelt. Five thousand students at the UW satellite campus, shared with Cascadia Community College. And now Sushi Chinoise.
Nguyen is no innocent-eyed newcomer. She has launched six previous restaurants in the Seattle area over the past two decades, each with its own character. "This space spoke to me when I first saw it," she says of the new location, adjacent to the newly opened Beardslee Public House. "It's perched on a hill, not too big, it has natural light from floor to ceiling windows on three of its four sides"
So, yes, there's a "Beardslee Sushi Roll" on the menu (salmon, shrimp, snow crab), alongside the much-loved vermicelli bowls with their distinctive rice noodles and lemongrass sauce. Thoa Nguyen's market is not the sushi purist's bulls-eye but the broader target of folks who appreciate "Asian fusion" cuisine, where you can mix and match gyoza and Vietnamese egg rolls, honey-walnut prawns and Shanghai noodles. There's a Volcano Roll, a Sunset Roll, and a Rainbow Roll. But other locations--in the Issaquah Highlands, and in Columbia City--serve delicacies like seaweed salad and grilled salmon collars. Nguyen and her husband, Barry, live midway between the two spots, on Mercer Island. Bothell is going to be a bit more of a commute.
Moving on to Redmond Town Center, we have a couple of restaurant newbies, Tony and Carolyn Scott, who have taken the plunge after 15-plus years of marriage and two kids, Will and Kate. ("Say goodbye to your parents," Redmond's mayor, John Marchione, told them at the ribbon-cutting, "they're going into the restaurant business.") The restaurant biz is where Tony and Carolyn met, actually, at the Painted Table two decades ago. In the intervening years, Tony went into real estate development, and Carolyn founded Aquarobics, a water-fitness company.
Redmond today is a far different world from their early days in the restaurant biz.. Their place is called Woodblock; it's in a new building called the Old Town Lofts, overlooking the park, and is decorated with, you guessed it, woodblock prints. Chef Rodel Borromeo, described as self-taught, has cooked at Ray's, Cafe Juanita, and Matador (where he was corporate exec chef). There's plenty of "Let's put on a show!" enthusiasm on display, as befits the Seattle's New Frontier.
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