The patio of The Patio (Image: CHS)
Seattle foodies are pretty darned hyped up about changes coming to 15th Ave. The Wandering Goose and Rione XIII should be exciting additions. But not all of the businesses and merchants in this part of Capitol Hill get as much of the limelight as some of the more media savvy players. CHS doesn’t need a press release to come knocking. Here are details on two closures and two openings that have also brought change to Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave food and drink landscape.
Teapot Vegetarian House closed its doors to focus on its Redmond location, which was doing considerably more business than the Seattle location, CHS was told. Moving into the vacated space is Bamboo, the new restaurant from Thanh Le, who brought Pho 900 to Capitol Hill before it closed its doors to make way for the 230 Broadway development last year.
According to Le, the menu at Bamboo will be very similar to Pho 900.
“We will specialize in vegetarian Pho, veggie pho, just a lot more vegetarian dishes,” he said. “The people of Capitol Hill have shown over the years how much they love vegetables, and really fresh ingredients, so we will be focusing more on that.”
Thanh Le of Pho 900 fame is currently renovating the space for his future venture, Bamboo. (Image: CHS)
Le said that one of his goals is to make Bamboo overall a better dining experience than Pho 900.
“After 2 years at Pho 900, we learned a lot more stuff. We learned how to make better food, we learned how to make more food, and we are going to show that at Bamboo,” he said. “People can expect to see more dishes offered here than at Pho 900.”
Le is currently renovating the former Teapot Vegetarian House space — exposed drywall and upturned floor tiles currently dot the area. Le expects Bamboo to open sometime in the middle of July.
Samui Thai also closed its doors earlier this month. In its place, Ian Visedsuk opened newcomer The Patio, also a Thai restaurant. Visedsuk owns Sea Thai in Wallingford and saw the space opening up on Capitol Hill as a chance to expand.
According to Visedsuk, the owners of Samui Thai had told him that working hours upon hours, seven days a week in the kitchen had driven them to close their doors out of exhaustion. “They really wanted to just take a break, take a vacation,” Visedsuk said, “it just got too hard to keep things going. So I decided to open The Patio in the space.”
The Patio specializes in noodle dishes, specifically their take on Phad Kee Mao, made with chili, bell peppers, onion, tomato, Chinese broccoli, and sweet basil.
According to Visedsuk, regulars from Samui Thai have come to The Patio and had positive reactions thus far. “We hope things spread by word of mouth,” Visedsuk said, “next month we will be expanding our menu and we hope people will come in for that.”
The Patio’s expanded menu will include more specialty dishes, a variety of new duck dishes, seafood curry, and a unique thai take on “New York Beef,” that Visedsuk is currently working on.
I’ve been a regular at Samui for years, and while the service was fine at The Patio–I will miss Samui’s recipes and willingness to actually give me spicy food when I ask for it rather than assuming I don’t mean it when I ask for spice.
I appreciate big investments but little places like these are probably more important on a day to day basis. Thanks for the information on the new faces.
Dear Thanh Le – all of my friends and I are so very excited that you’ll be back. We miss your veggie pho and wonderful service. We are anxious to support your new business – yay yay yay!!!! This made my week. Welcome back!
Opposite experience here, was disappointed the couple times we tried Samui Thai and ended up always going to Jamjuree across the street instead, which seemed generally better on most dishes.
Look forward to trying The Patio, hope it’s competitive with Jamjuree (or, if not competitive on the same dishes, at least offering some tasty options that Jamjuree doesn’t).
Oh my gawd!!! I am so excited, too!!! I cried when Pho 900 closed. Best pho on the hill with the best service and friendliest staff. AND the only pho place that didn’t use MSG.
Didn’t Pho 900 get sold once before it went out of business? For some reason I remember it being awesome at first…and MSG free. And then there was this big change and it went downhill and there seemed to be MSG in the Pho. I thought I had asked the waiter and had found out that it had been sold/bought from the original owner. I can’t remember honestly. anyone know?
I had the same experience as Greg…tried Samui Thai a couple of times, but just didn’t find the food to be very good. I’m interested in checking out The Patio.
I was heartbroken when Pho 900 closed — it had the best veggie pho in Seattle, hands down. This new place on 15th can count on me for some steady income for sure! Hope they can keep it pretty cheap, though, even with the planned “upgrades.”
This may be small, but I am so. Damn. Stoked. to be able to eat Pho 900 spring rolls again. Seriously, my favorites ever. I also cried when they closed, and I was in *Rhode Island.* Yay! I have many many excited friends to hear about Thanh reopening, I hope that means they do crazy business!
Aww, I kind of loved the Teapot, but it is true that every time I went there the joint was abandoned. I was a huge fan of Pho 900, so this news is bittersweet.
More new options!
I’ve definitely had some great food at Jamjuree, though it’s often inconsistent—especially the noodle dishes.
Last time I visited, they did not, which is kind of a deal breaker.
Word! So stoked on this! It was such a heartbreak when they had to close; they had THE BEST pho in town, and the nicest staff, too! I hope the location works out well for Le & co. Bamboo and Remedy Tea will make a dream team.
I believe that an unlicensed establishment cannot sell to you but I don’t think anything in State liquor licensing precludes a patron from BYOB. And likely you aren’t going to find a corkage fee — it is probably just up to the business owner to grant you permission and QFC is right there with beer, wine and now booze.