The Moses Lake location in pre-mask days (Image: Sumo)
A legacy of Capitol Hill sushi will continue in the Broadway Alley building as a new location for a Japanese restaurant concept with roots in the middle of the state prepares to open this week.
Sumo Japanese Steak House and Sushi is planning to debut its first Seattle location this week, owner Jackie Chi tells CHS. The food and drink entrepreneur said his menu of traditional sushi and hibachi will be a good fit for the neighborhood and, he hopes, will bring new options to Broadway.
With plans for performing chefs working to serve diners as soon as restrictions allow, the restaurants born in Wenatchee and Moses Lake will echo with old school Benihana energy. The Seattle location of that fabled chain, by the way, shuttered in the summer of 2019.
In August, CHS reported on the permanent closure of longtime Capitol Hill favorite Ha Na as the ongoing COVID-19 crisis brought the restaurant’s at least 31 years of business on Broadway to a close. For many, Ha Na was the first sushi they had ever tried in the city.
With Sumo ready to put the restaurant space back into motion, the Broadway Alley’s other COVID-caused vacancy was filled as Americana returned from a “permanent” COVID closure under new ownership.
Sumo will join a Capitol Hill where sushi joints have managed to hang in there even as tastes have changed toward the simpler, faster approach of poke joints. In addition to bucking the trend of COVID-19 closures, Sumo also joins a trend of new Asian-flavored restaurants on the Hill taking on an increasingly Japanese focus. Across the street, Rondo continues to do business after its sibling Suika lost its lease on E Pine. Broadway also has another Japanese restaurant project waiting in the wings as Ishoni Yakiniku “Japanese barbecue” is built out and in hover mode during the pandemic as it readies to replace a former Tex Mex joint on the north end of the street. E Madison is also slated for a meaty Japanese offering with Aki Kushiyaki lined up to join new construction.
Sumo Japanese Steak House and Sushi is slated to open soon at 219 Broadway E.
PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
pretty sure it was just “hana” – no space
It was just Hana with no space. Hana is Japanese for flower. Unfortunately when the name was painted on the awing over the window that looks out on Broadway it was painted Ha Na. When that awing was painted it caused many of us old timers who had been going there since it opened in 1982 to make the same comment. “I always thought it was just one word”.