By Matt Dowell

The demand for turnkey food and drink spaces in Seattle’s Capitol Hill and Central District cores remains high as 8 at Ping Yang, a “Thai charcoal grill concept,” is slated to open in late April on E Union in the former home of OOLA.

“We’re not doing traditional Thai, per se,” said Ben Evans, the new and first-time owner. “We’re trying to come up with newer fusion flavors.“

Check the menu posted on the front door for examples: Dungeness crab cake with Phuket curry sauce, khao-soi and ribeye, Thai green curry pasta, Thai tea crème brûlée.

8 at Ping Yang will share some flavors with its Ti22 Belltown cousin (Image: Ti22)

Evans is partnered with Suttabusya “Ice” Thiraphan, a seasoned Seattle restaurateur and head chef. Ice runs Ti22 in Belltown, which serves “authentic Thai food made from Ice’s grandmother’s recipes”. He’s also listed as head chef at Basilic Essentially Thai in Queen Anne, and was owner of the now-closed Fish Cake Factory in Belltown.

“This is my first time on the operational and owner side of the business versus just being an employee,” said Evans. “So this is a whole new world for me.”

“I brought Ice on board to be a mentor and someone I can learn from.”

The two have experience in fine dining, but they’ll keep it light at the new spot.

“It’s gonna be more of a casual environment that we’re going for. [Fine dining] adds a bunch of pressure that we don’t want to put on ourselves. But we want to bring the quality and the presentation of fine dining establishments.”

“We want to keep people pleasantly surprised at what we’re doing.”

They’ll join a part of the neighborhood that’s no stranger to Thai food. Within four blocks are Manao Thai Street Eats, Bai Tong Thai Street Cafe, Fern Thai Eatery & Bar, and Panwa Thai Seattle.

1412 E Union, meanwhile, has been part of a food and drink musical chairs over the last two years. Last month, OOLA Distillery ended its return to Capitol Hill after a year and a half, focusing on their Georgetown production facility. They’d replaced Donna Moodie’s Marjorie, which has moved to 23rd and Union.

The latest exit opened a financial opportunity that brought Evans and his partners to the neighborhood. “Some of our mutual friends knew the owner of this spot, and said, ’Hey, I think this place is for sale’”.

“We were just in the area looking, it was at a reasonable price point. They were very eager to sell, so it was kind of a best of both worlds scenario.”

They don’t plan extensive changes to the restaurant’s interior. After permits go through and inventory is purchased, they’ll be ready to go.

Until then, Evans says his new neighbors are “welcome to come down to Belltown to try us out and get to know us before we move into the new space”.

8 at Ping Yang will open soon at 1412 E Union. Follow @8_pingyang for updates.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍