13 Fall Restaurant Openings in Seattle to Get Excited About

It takes guts to open a restaurant a year and a half into a pandemic when finding staff is nearly impossible, but Seattle has always been a city of brave folks with cool ideas, and it shows in the variety of exciting new spots opening all over the city. This fall, drinkers and diners can look forward to eating lots of Tex-Mex, a few drives to White Center, downing cocktails at a Vietnamese-Northwest speakeasy, and watching live professional wrestling with a beer in hand. To get stoked about lobster rolls, fish-shaped pastries, and purple lattes, check out this list of the season’s most anticipated openings.

Tomo
Address: 9811 16th Avenue SW, White Center
Opening date: September 9
Chef Brady Williams arrived in Seattle six years ago to take over as chef at Canlis, but unlike his predecessor, he’s sticking around the city—and opening his own place this fall. Tomo bills itself as “micro-seasonal Pacific Northwest cuisine with heritage references,” alluding to the incorporation of Williams’s own Japanese culture, but also looking to that of others in the kitchen. The five-course set dinner menus ($68) and a la carte weekend lunches focus on vegetables but use meat and seafood, with a priority on sourcing—including from a proprietary farm in the North Cascades.
 

BeanFish
Address: 600 5th Avenue S, International District
Opening date: Mid-October
After eight years of selling taiyaki on the move from a food truck, BeanFish will have a fixed location for their made-to-order fish-shaped waffles. Cooked old-school-style on a cast iron pan, BeanFish branches out with its sweet and savory fillings. In addition to the classic red bean and vanilla custard, they offer options like the Elvis (peanut butter and banana), Harajuku chic (fruity pebbles and marshmallow), and Kinoko Magic, with sauteed garlicky mushrooms, wasabi peas, and Swiss cheese.

The Chicken Supply
Address: 7410 Greenwood Avenue N., Greenwood
Opening date: Early October
While it hurts to say goodbye to the quietly brilliant Opus Co., Chicken Supply replaces it with a concept far better suited to the tiny space, and offers some continuity: the Filipino fried chicken restaurant comes from one of Opus’s chefs, Paolo Campbell. A few late summer pop-ups offered a preview of what to expect: gluten-free fried chicken and sides like coconut collard greens, cold pancit, and, of course, rice.

Phocific Standard Time
Address: 1923 7th Ave, Downtown
Opening date: End of September
When the Phở Bắc family welcomed its latest arrival—a Downtown spot with the addition of bánh mì to the noodle soup offerings—it also announced a little something extra in the pipeline: a speakeasy-style bar squirreled away in the upstairs. The plan is for Vietnamese-influenced drinks and a fun, whimsical approach—unsurprising from the folks who brought the city whiskey shots with phở broth backs at their Sup Shop location.

The Market Downtown
Address: 1300 1st Avenue, Downtown
Opening date: By early September
The region’s most coveted lobster rolls come to the center of town with the opening of this Edmonds favorite inside the Seattle Art Museum. The seafood-centric menu will be similar to the original location, giving tourist-friendly options with local-level quality, but Feed Me Hospitality and Schubert Ho promise a few special additions just for this location—plus a full bar and coffee counter.

Jackalope Tex-Mex
Address: 4868 Rainier Avenue S., Columbia City
Opening date: November
When taking over this Columbia City space from El Sombrero, Jack Timmons departed from the typical Texas-style barbecue set-up he runs at his four Puget Sound locations of Jack’s BBQ (with a fifth coming in December in Bellingham). Though no details about the menu have been released yet, they’ve hinted at smoked brisket enchiladas, Jack’s BBQ sometimes runs specials like prime rib tacos with guajillo salsa on special and they already serve some of the breakfast tacos in town.

Station 18 Drinks and Eats
Address: 5425 Russell Avenue NW, Ballard
Opening date: Labor Day Weekend
One of Ballard’s most remarkable buildings gets a new tenant this fall when Kate Barrett of Wallingford’s Kate’s Pub and local business owner Erik Nilsen team up to open in the firehouse—previously home to the Hi-Life, and, briefly, Valentinetti’s. The pair plan for a pub-style spot with casual dining, open to kids until 9 pm and to dogs on the patio, and plenty of televisions.

Coffeeholic House
Address: 8525 Greenwood Avenue N., Greenwood
Opening date: September
After numerous delays, the fall opening of this Vietnamese coffee house’s second location is finally getting close, giving the northwest corner of the city the chance to finally get their fix of cheese foam topped Vietnamese style coffees and all the ube lattes they can dream of as this Columbia City charmer makes its way north. With ambiance and décor almost the opposite of the building’s previous inhabitants, the Green Bean Coffeehouse, the Coffeeholic crew has been busy transforming it into the same sort of charmingly modern and utterly Instagrammable type of place as the original.

Maiz
Address: 1914 Pike Place, Downtown
Opening date: October
Less than a year after Seattle got its first tortilleria nixtamalizing and grinding its own corn (Milpa Masa, in West Seattle), it gets a second, this one in the heart of the Pike Place Market. Maiz nixtamalizes and grinds heirloom varieties of Mexican corn in the former location of The Mexican Grocery—now redone with colorful tilework depicting corn—and will sell masa as well as tortillas and antojitos (snacks) made from the masa: tamales, tlacoyos, and chilaquiles. They will also have drinks (atoles, champurrado), and tacos de guisado—stewed fillings for their tortillas.

Rochambeau
Address: 235 Roy Street, Queen Anne
Opening date: Early fall
Former Damn the Weather sous chef Connor Bartels joins with David Bush to open this Uptown cocktail bar, bringing Bush’s former co-workers from Belltown’s dearly departed Pintxo, chef Emelio Sansone and bar manager Taylor Nepon on board. Preview events announced on Instagram show what to expect: smoked carrot salad with fried grains, giant Bolognese arancini, and steak frites with red wine mushroom sauce.

Lariat Bar
Address: 1929 16th Avenue SW, White Center
Opening date: September
White Center’s pro wrestling themed bar has suffered significant delays because of the pandemic, but should open in early fall, bringing live wrestling (and karaoke) to the neighborhood, along with classic concession-stand snack foods and wrestling-themed drinks. There’s no kitchen at the venue, so more substantial meals will come from a rotating series of food trucks, letting the bar itself focus on “bodacious beverages” and the much-anticipated line up of who will be stepping into the ring.

Oaky’s Tex-Mex
Address: 2524 S. Jackson, Central District
Opening date: Early fall
After operating a pop-up that turned into a temporary restaurant in Interbay in 2019, Oaky’s Tex-Mex menu finds a new permanent location closer to the home of its sibling spot, Wood Shop BBQ. Summer previews at Wood Shop showed off what to expect: tacos, burritos, and quesadillas filled with brisket barbacoa, smokey carnitas, and portobello machaka, as well as frito pie, chili con carne, and queso on the side.

Bale Breaker X Yonder Cider Taproom
Address: 826 NW 49th St., Ballard
Opening date: Fall
The former Populuxe space in Ballard has been transformed into a unique combination bar from Yakima brewer Bale Breaker and Seattle cider company Yonder. The two businesses teamed up to take over the 6,200-square-foot beer garden and attached space to serve their drinks, and the space will be used to do R&D on spirits made from their products, since wineries (including cideries) aren’t allowed to share space with breweries—but both are allowed to share with a distillery. There will be two bars, outdoor firepits, and rotating firepits.