In the last few months, a number of new Seattle restaurants and shops have opened their doors — we can’t think of a better way to start 2022 than by celebrating and welcoming them to the community.
To make it easier for you to #SpendLikeItMatters and find new small businesses to explore, we’ve made a list of some of the businesses new to your neighborhood, plus some businesses slated to open this year that you won’t want to miss.
New to Your Neighborhood Businesses
Seattle
Ballard
CrackleMi
At CrackleMi, Vinh and Paul Nguyen are serving delicious Vietnamese food with an easy to use self-order system. The menu gives you a variety of toppings for bánh mì, rice and salad bowls, and vermicelli; you can choose from grilled spicy lemongrass tofu, pork chop, smoky chicken and more.
Belltown
Art on the Table
Ryo Tsuda’s shop proudly displays a large collection of ceramics from artists across Japan. You can find everything from your everyday necessities — plates and utensils — to incredible, functional pieces of art to spruce up your kitchen and home.
Maíz
The owners of Sazon — Aldo Góngora, Angelica Góngora, and Roxana Martin — bring you their new restaurant, Maíz, where they embrace classic recipes of sopes, gorditas, tamales, and tacos using their house-made nixtamalized masa. Stop by to snack on delicious Mexican dishes or sip on warm drinks like horchata lattes or Mexican chocolate mochas.
Capitol Hill
Dough Joy
After a successful kickstarter, Dough Joy owners and vegan experts Christopher Ballard and Sean Willis are sharing their 100% plant-based doughnuts at their new brick-and-mortar shop in Capitol Hill. The shop will also feature a coffee bar using Fulcrum Coffee!
Downtown Core
Phocific Standard Time
The Pham family opened up a cozy cocktail bar above their Pho Bac Downtown location. Phocific Standard Time (Or PST for short) showcases creative drinks using Vietnamese flavors and ingredients alongside natural wines and beer options.
Seattle Dumpling Co.
Xi Lin & Jiegang Zhou have taken over Country Dough’s former space with Seattle Dumpling Co. The pair are serving dumplings filled with beef and onion, pork and fennel, carrot and Napa cabbage, chive and shrimp, and more. If you’re looking for more than dumplings to fill you up, you can also grab noodles or soup.
Señor Carbón Peruvian Cuisine
Joe Tuesta and Imelda Diez-Tipa began Señor Carbón Peruvian Cuisine after hosting sold-out pop-ups. Their restaurant specializes in Nikkei cuisine, a unique fusion of Peruvian and Japanese flavors, with dishes like salmon in ponzu sauce with roasted sesame, pork adobo, chupe de langostino, and colorful sushi platters.
Fremont
Lazy Cow Bakery
In December 2021, Lara de la Rosa opened Lazy Cow Bakery to bring joy through her vegan pastries and cakes while emphasizing worker’s rights — in fact, workers have partial ownership of the bakery and make decisions about their wages and work hours. Plus, Lazy Cow Bakery’s profits are funneled back into the community through their mutual-aid organization, Casa Del Xolo!
Greenwood
The Chicken Supply
Owners Paolo Campbell and Donnie Adams want their restaurant to be an extension of their house, your neighbors backyard party, and a rendezvous with your best friend: a place where the food facilitates the experience. Paolo and Donnie’s crispy fried chicken is rooted in the taste and culture of Filipino dining, where everyone comes together to share a meal, drink, and a laugh.
Lower Queen Anne
SZN Seattle
Asian and Mexican fusion restaurant SZN infuses authentic Asian cuisine with American-style Mexican cuisine to offer their unique take on fusion food. Be sure to check out their craft cocktail menu to try their twists on classic drinks.
Phinney Ridge
Chez Phinney Wine Bar
Wife and husband Julie and Andrew Goldstein bring the casual and fun experience of a wine tasting bar to their neighborhood after years of travel around Europe. Chez Phinney Wine Bar is a self-serve establishment that gives guests the choice of 24 different wines to sample by the ounce.
South Lake Union
Ba Bar Green
Vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians rejoice — thanks to owners Eric Banh, Teresa Nguyen, and Chef Chris Michel, Ba Bar Green has joined the Ba Bar family serving plant-based, vegan dishes through the lens of East Asian cuisine. Grab a soyrizo bánh mì, miso eggplant, or kabocha and sweet potato laksa at their walk-up window located next to Ba Bar in South Lake Union.
University District
Ladd & Lass Brewing
Unapologetically geeky about fermentation, wife and husband team Jessie Quan and Nick Ladd’s independent craft brewery and taproom celebrates the full spectrum of beer styles from lagers to hoppy libations and everything in between.
Uptown
Bake Shop
Bake Shop is Krista Nelson’s all-day cafe where you’ll find a menu full of house-made pastries and savory treats like sandwiches and salads. Not looking for coffee or tea? Bake shop also serves beer and wine! Plus, Krista aims to keep her shop low-waste through sourcing in bulk, working with local farms, and not using single-use plastic in her kitchen.
White Center
TOMO
Self-taught chef Brady Ishiwata Williams named his restaurant Tomo after his grandmother, whose cooking is his greatest source of inspiration. Tomo offers a vegetable-focused five-course set dinner menu with subtle meat and seafood inclusions and a la carte lunch on Saturdays. The restaurant focuses on comfort rather than formality, and creative dishes make it a unique gem in the heart of White Center.
Federal Way
MyungIn Dumplings
Founder Yu Jin was born in Northern China to Korean parents. He opened MyungIn Dumplings’ first location in LA, serving mandu, or Korean dumplings, that combine Korean and Chinese flavors. Jin’s new restaurant is bringing those beloved dumplings to Federal Way. Customers rave about MyungIn’s steamed pork and shrimp dumplings, crispy fried chicken, and spicy beef soup.
Kenmore
Buddha Bruddah
In 2021, Andrea and Mark Mizer opened Buddha Bruddah’s second location in Kenmore. The couple continue to serve hefty portions of delicious Hawaiian favorites like Kalua Pork and Huli Huli Chicken alongside Thai classics including Red Chicken Curry and Phad Thai Noodles.
Renton
Momoya Sushi & Bento
Cuong Chan and Edmund Wong relocated their family-owned sushi and sake house to Renton after 15 years in Kirkland. The rolls are fresh and delicious, the shrimp tempura comes out hot and crispy, and the service is always friendly.
Gyro Saj
If you’re looking to add some Greek cuisine to your restaurant rotation, Gyro Saj has come to the rescue. Lena Alzeir created Gyro Saj in 2021, serving delicious dolmas, hummus, saj wraps, falafel, gyros, shawarma, salads, baklava, and “choclava” (chocolate baklava).
Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You
Arleana’s
Theo and Gaelyn Martin of Island Soul Rum Bar & Soul Shack will bring their Caribbean cuisine to the East side — Arleana’s in Kirkland will open this year and serve Caribbean dishes and cocktails with an emphasis on seafood.
Cafe Avole
Keep an eye out for Seattle’s own Cafe Avole to reopen in Central District’s Liberty Bank Building. Owner Solomon Dubie originally opened Cafe Avole in 2016 to share the complex, strong Ethiopian coffee culture with the people of Seattle.
Frelard Tamales
Osbaldo Hernandez and Dennis Ramey are opening Frelard Tamale’s second location in Bellingham this spring or summer. Their new location will have the same family recipes, the same hand-crafted tamales, and the same high-quality ingredients.
OHSUN Banchan & Deli Cafe
Food blogger and cookbook author Sara Upshaw will open a banchan-focused Korean restaurant in Seattle later this year, building on the success of her pop-up, Jinjja.
Paparepas Venezuelan Food
Paparepas Venezuelan Food and the Carrasco and Carrero family will bring their arepas, empanadas, tostones, and more to Capitol Hill. They’re slated to open in February, but in the meantime you can check out their food truck and Kent-based restaurant for your Venezuelan food fix.
Are we missing one of your new favorite local businesses? Let us know in the comments below, and we’ll get it added!