(Image: Ishoni Yakiniku)

It appears some of the holes in Capitol Hill food and drink created by a small wave of 2019 closures won’t be empty long. On north Broadway, Japanese yakiniku will replace Tex Mex barbecue as a six-year-old Eastside restaurant set to be displaced by redevelopment is making plans to take over the old Rooster’s location.

Construction is beginning on Ishoni Yakiniku’s new Capitol Hill home in the onetime Galerias restaurant space in the 600 block of Broadway E.

(Image: Ishoni Yakiniku)

(Image: Ishoni Yakiniku)

(Image: Ishoni Yakiniku)

(Image: Ishoni Yakiniku)

(Image: Ishoni Yakiniku)

Plans show an array of tables equipped with personal grills joining the long Rooster’s bar which rill remain in place.

CHS reported here on the August exit of Rooster’s and its colorful owner Stan Moshier who kissed Broadway goodbye with a note to customers invoking Ayn Rand.

Ishoni owner Steven Su’s acquisition of the space comes as his original restaurant space in Bellevue is being displaced by a planned 26-story office building.

Moshier created the Tex-Mex themed Rooster’s from the literal ashes of the space left behind after a never-solved arson destroyed the Galerias Mexican restaurant in 2011. Ishoni will benefit from the rehabilitation of the old building that has been part of Broadway since before the street was shifted — city permit documents show the front facade of the building once stood about a dozen feet east of where it does today.

Ishoni’s “Japanese barbecue” offerings will center around high quality steaks — think Kobe and wagyu, meats, and seafood grilled to order over red hot coals at your table and paired with Japanese beers and sakes. It will join incoming Meet Korean in the Capitol Hill tabletop grill game. Meanwhile, another showcase of Japanese flavors with noodles, bowls, and tonkatsu, Rondo, from the Suika family of Capitol Hill bars and restaurants, is now open on central Broadway.

With permits issued for a light round of construction and electrical work for the grills, plus an overhaul of the space’s look underway, you can expect an opening this spring.

Ishoni Yakiniku will open later this year at 611 Broadway E. You can learn more at facebook.com/ishoniyakiniku.

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