Now Open
The Carlile Room, the 19th restaurant in the Tom Douglas empire, is now open, right across the street from the Paramount Theatre. With theater-goers in mind, the restaurant offers three-course menus designed to get diners in and out before shows start. There are also à la carte veggie dishes, meat plates meant to be shared family-style, and plenty of cheeses, appetizers, and desserts (for pre- and post-show snacking, no doubt). Douglas has said that, of all his newer restaurants, the Carlile Room will be most like his longstanding Palace Kitchen. (And if you ask me, that’s a very good thing.)
Little Uncle to Add Big Uncle
Back in February, Little Uncle owners Poncharee Kounpungchart (aka PK) and Wiley Frank closed down the Pioneer Square location of their wonderful Thai street-food business in order to look for a smaller space that better suited their needs. Good news: They’ve found one and it’s not far from the original Little Uncle, a tiny walk-up window at 15th and Madison on Capitol Hill, which has been going strong since 2011.
The new spot, which will be called Big Uncle, will be less than a block away from Little Uncle, in a still-under-construction microhousing development called Mad Flats. PK and Frank hope to open the restaurant for lunch and dinner by December. While Big Uncle will in fact be bigger than its sibling, they are keeping things relatively small and manageable: Big Uncle will have seating for 24, but will have enough kitchen, storage, and prep space to supply food for Little Uncle, maintain their catering business, grow their Peeks Pantry line of curry pastes and other condiments, and maybe even host some special events.
At Big Uncle, PK and Frank will focus “on our growing repertoire of noodle dishes that we are extremely proud of, all in one place and at the same time—a feat we have not been able to provide in the past.” That includes their khao soi, dom yum wun sen (roasted pork cellophane noodles), and phad thai, as well as new dishes, such as kanom jin (fermented rice noodles) that will be offered with a number of curries being developed for Little Uncle (Little Uncle will shift its menu focus to rice-based dishes). I’m so excited to see what Big—and Little—Uncle do next.
Kedai Makan Moving Into Former La Bête Space
Speaking of little walk-up windows, Capitol Hill’s Kedai Makan, which serves Malaysian street food, has announced that it’s moving into the former La Bête/Spaghetti Western space just around the corner from its current location. Owners Kevin Burzell and Alysson Wilson hope to open the new Kedai Makan in September.
Along with more seating and a full kitchen to develop new dishes, Burzell and Wilson will also be adding a full bar program. For that, they’re turning away from Malaysia and taking their inspiration from Thailand, building cocktails around ya dong, a Thai spirit they’ll infuse in-house with medicinal herbs and roots. (I’m intrigued, mostly because they’ll be serving ya dong with a chaser of green mango dipped in chili salt.)
It’s worth noting that both Little Uncle and Kedai Makan first started out as stalls at farmers’ markets around town—and that Little Uncle, before it was even Little Uncle, began as a pop-up called Shophouse that served dinners at the dearly departed Licorous (RIP) and, funnily enough, La Bête. While it’s taken years of hard work to build a loyal customer base and enough capital to find brick-and-mortar spaces with full kitchens, that time gave owners more confidence and assurance that there will be business to support such expansions. These are the kinds of Seattle restaurant developments and openings I can really get behind.
High 5 Pie Is Leaving, Mighty-O Donuts Is Moving In
Also on Capitol Hill, High 5 Pie recently announced that they have outgrown their corner space on 12th and Madison and need a bigger production space to keep up with their business (High 5 Pie supplies pies to three Fuel Coffee locations and two Cone & Steiner markets also owned by High 5’s proprietor Dani Cone). High 5 will serve their last pies at their present location on July 19, but for those looking for sweets, don’t worry: Mighty-O Donuts will be moving into the space with their certified organic, vegan doughnuts sometime in September.
