Ramen and malls, now a Seattle area thing.
Ramen and malls, now a Seattle area thing. Hokkaido Ramen

Tonkatsu and Tiffany's: Hokkaido Ramen Comes to U Village

Japanese ramen chain Hokkaido Ramen Santouka opened its first free-standing US restaurant in Bellevue three years back. This summer marks the debut of their second Washington location, which will be located in the U-District, luring U-Dub students to University Village shopping center with their signature tonkotsu broth ramen. (The menu description says it's so good "you can slurp until the last drop" and "the red pickled plum on top hints at the woman with red lipstick on, adding feminine touch to the ramen." Sounds way sexier than it should.) This will be the 15th Santouka location overall. —Leilani Polk

Similar News, Different Mall

This time, it's Southcenter. Kizuki Ramen and Izakaya, another international ramen chain, just opened its fifth Seattle-area outpost, reports Eater. Southcenter also boasts 85°C Bakery Café and will soon have a Din Tai Fung, so you can take care of all your trendy food needs in one convenient, sprawling, seemingly neverending location. Also, indoor skydiving.

More Cats on Cap Hill

Neko Cat Cafe, one of the city's seemingly innumerable planned cat cafes, finally has a timeline for opening, reports Eater. Owner Caitlin Unsell anticipates that her new cafe (on Belmont and Pine) will begin offering cat hangouts this summer. What makes a cat cafe different than, say, my living room, where I am currently drinking fancy coffee and being harassed by an obnoxiously affectionate cat?

"Unsell will serve local beer, wine, champagne, and espresso, along with Japanese-inspired bites," Seattle Eater reports. "As with other cat cafes, visitors can spend time in the cat lounge with what Unsell anticipates will be 8 to 10 adoptable cats from a local shelter. You’ll also be able to sit in the main cafe space, where you can watch the cats from behind a glass wall."

So, better food, and more booze and cats, basically. And instead of wishing the cats would just leave you alone and stop ramming their head into your laptop screen, you're there for the cats.

...And More Kebabs

Olive Tree, a popular Mediterranean joint in Kent, officially opened its Capitol Hill branch last week, reports CHS Blog. It's in the former Sur 16 space, it's owned by brothers-in-law Zana Abdulaziz and Ranj Rebwar, and will feature kebab, gyro, falafel, and all the usual Mediterranean delights. One thing I didn't note when originally covering this project is that they also told CHS they're dropping the full bar in favor of wine cocktails, saying, "It tastes exactly like vodka, it tastes exactly like whiskey, but it’s made from grapes." Intriguing!

...And, Unsurprisingly, More Juice

PRESSED Juicery, the LA-based juice chain that's made rapid inroads to the area, will soon open its fourth Seattle location, on Pine right across from Mezcaleria Oaxaca. The only thing that is surprising about it is that it took them this long to get to Capitol Hill, which seems like the most obvious place for an ultra-healthy juice business. Things didn't work out perfectly for Healeo, of course, but PRESSED's formula of "cheap" ($6.50) juice seems to be taking the region by storm.

Jack of All Service Segments

Jack's BBQ, the popular Airport Way barbecue roadhouse, will soon add weekend brunch, reports Seattle Met. Their breakfast tacos are superlative, according to the Met's Allecia Vermillion: "Simple arrangements of griddled flour tortillas filled with scrambled egg, hefty cubes of seasoned breakfast potatoes, cheddar, and either brisket or the memorably magnificent house sausage." However, breakfast is only offered from 7 to 9am, and is thus difficult to get to if you are not someone who works in the area or drives to work on Airport Way. Thus, the introduction of brunch. It kicks off April 22.

Musashi's Moves Into the ID

The popular Wallingford Japanese joint, beloved for its chirashi bowls, will grab the former Fu Lin space in the International District, reports the Seattle Met. Chirashi bowls are a popular lunchtime choice—it's a bowl of rice topped with sashimi—and Musashi's plans to use their larger kitchen to get on the lunch delivery game. Apparently they're quite popular with Amazon employees, and the owner hopes to offer delivery directly to their South Lake Union offices. To that end, he's developing an app, because apparently the trend of every business having their own branded app is not over.

West Seattle is a Generous Place

A couple weeks back, we reported on the sad situation facing Shi Qui Chen, the newly widowed owner of West Seattle's New Leaf Bistro. While that situation is still sad, it's now a lot less financially dire, thanks to the generosity of New Leaf's friends and neighbors.

At a recent fundraiser, local restauranteurs raised over $2,700 to help Chen with funeral and other expenses, reports West Seattle Blog. A GoFundMe for Chen separately brought in around $20,000. With the funds from the restauranteurs, that brings relief efforts a lot closer to their $30,000 goal. That said, the GoFundMe is still very much live, and there's still a gap to close...