Umi Sake House

A new sushi and sake house is slated to open in Belltown late May/early June, but it won't be quite like anything you've seen before. Owner Steven Han has created a very fun interior, has hired chef Billy Beach to oversee the food and put together a sake list of 40-50 bottles, along with a full bar.

Umi ("ocean" in Japanese) take the place of Steven's previous restaurant Bada ("ocean" in Korean) which closed mid-February 2006 after a four-and-a-half year run. Steven isn't exactly your standard restaurateur—he graduated from the University of Washington in industrial design and worked at Microsoft on user interfaces. "One six-month project was enough for me," laughs Steven. "I really wanted to be in the product division." His parents had restaurants when he was young, so he knew what owning one was like.

His brother, James Han, started Sushi Zen in Mill Creek. Steven did the interior design and ran the front of the house. "I'm very hands on," explains Steven, "and I want to make something for someone to enjoy. I love food of all types and love to travel. The best part of travel is eating." After a year, he left Sushi Zen and opened a café in Mountlake Terrace called Zen 244. He ran that for a year and a half, then turned it over to his parents. During this time, James opened Wasabi Bistro. He sold it in 2003 and has since moved to LA to start his own restaurant chain named Fat Fish.

An architect friend wanted to open a cool, small bar. Steven agreed, but then they saw the "For Lease" sign on the Chef Wang spot in Belltown. Okay, 6000 square feet isn't exactly small, but they decided it had to be done. In 2001, there were no hip/cool bars in Seattle like the ones they'd seen in their travels. They designed Bada, a sleek, all white spot with clean lines; a place you might see in New York or Miami. They hired great chefs, Seis Kamimura and Kelly Gaddis, because they wanted to create a dinner and lounge spot. "The food was phenomenal," recalls Steven. "It had an Asian/French theme."

"We took the lease in August of 2001 and then September 11 happened. We opened at the end of November and the first three-to-four months were really busy. In the spring, the economy went flat. People moved out of the many Belltown apartments and the condos stopped selling. The neighborhood was really dead. Our consistent customers were young kids—nothing stops them from drinking and picking up women! But they weren't diners. We had this great menu and great chefs and everyone wanted pommes frites, pizza and edamame. We operated for about two years as a sexy lounge, but eventually we couldn't keep chefs the caliber of Seis and Kelly. They left and we kept a sous chef to create a fun menu and cheap happy hour."

At this point, a number of other bars were opening that were drawing the young, cool kids. Business slowed and Bada fell into the niche of being an Asian bar and club. "Unfortunately, there are some bad segments of that group and we had some gang bang groups frequenting Bada. After about a year, I said ‘that's it,' and we closed," says Steven. "When I looked at what was going on, there was no other option. Some kid came in with a gun and shot himself in the leg. There was a fight involving 20 people one time. I had to hire security guards and have a metal detector. It was no fun to own anymore, my employees didn't feel safe and we lost our good customers. It was still busy and profitable but I didn't want something really bad to happen."

Meanwhile, Steven had been planning a sake house and was looking at other locations. When he decided Bada had to close, he didn't have to look for that second location and Umi was born. "It was hard to close Bada, but I saw my baby being abused," says Steven. "I thought ‘we just have to kill this thing and make something gorgeous for people to love again'. I want peoples' mouths to drop when they walk in—it will be very cool with great food and service."

His design background has come to the fore again. He has designed a house. The actual storefront is small, so he's added windows that open onto First Avenue and people can see into a front porch with a bamboo trellis. A hallway leads toward the main dining areas. Restrooms are along this hall and have neon floor lighting that spills out into the hall. There's an open kitchen, a tatami room, a semi-private dining room, sushi bar and back yard patio. Diners at the sushi bar look through a window into the "back yard" and see trees. Skylights let in natural light. Diners on the patio will look at trees and a shingled wall—the "outside" of the house. There will be more surprises, but Steven's not giving everything away at once.

"I want to make a product that's worth the visit. No one should have to feel like they have to spend a lot of money if they want to come here," Steven says. "The product isn't shallow; there are lots of options. Our menu caters to Belltown and that means both very sophisticated and middle-of-the-road tastes. We have traditional Japanese dishes, sushi, lots of appetizers and snacks and fun rolls."

Steven also wants Umi to be a place where people can learn about Japanese food and sake. "We're hiring people who truly enjoy this type of food so they can explain it and get people excited about it. We want people to understand the different types of sakes—what makes one premier and what it means to be drier or sweeter and how it goes so well with food."

Like before, Steven is attempting to bring a bigger-city idea to Seattle. "Umi should be a place where people eat, drink and mingle like the hip places in LA and New York," says Steven.

"People should come in and stay for four hours; that's the concept. We're creating our own niche here and have to build from a local fan base. The area is growing and we want to provide a service for those already here and those coming. Umi should be a place they enjoy and make part of their lives."

Clearly, Steven enjoys the creation of a new restaurant and also the day-in/day-out operation. "You get to talk to people every day and when they come back again and again, you become friends. It's very fun." Belltown is about to become even more fun.

Connie Adams/May 2006