Saturday, January 24, 2009

Moshi Moshi Maybe Maybe Opens Opens Monday Monday

Ballard Gossip Girl Exclusive!

The hard working crew at Moshi Moshi is getting ready to open to the public on February 2nd once their finishing touches are complete. They let us in to preview the space and to dish about the exciting new restaurant and bar. It sounds like it will be traditional, A-List and is poised to set the new standard in excellence in food, service and drinks.

Sakura!
First things first. As you can see in the picture at left, the decorating highlight of the space is an enormous steel LED Sakura. It's the only one in the U.S. that owner Kevin Erickson knows about and it's here in Ballard. Covered with 8,000 LED lights, these cherry trees are popular outside of restaurants in Japan. Definitely the focal point of the joint, it's going to be awesome when it's lit up. We eat with our eyes and without tasting one piece of fish, we're sold.

Sushi!
We spoke with sushi chef Kotaro Kumita about the Moshi Moshi menu. He's focusing on wild and even live fish which will be flown in daily direct from the Tokoyo Kitchen Market. Some of you may recognize Kotaro Kumita from Shun and Shiro's in Belltown where he trained with the master. Kumita's menu will focus on traditional Japanese sushi. That means all you cream cheese lovin' SoCal nouveau sushi jackasses will have to learn what fantastic sushi is all about. Foodies will recognize executive chef Dan Miller from Cascadia and Wasabi. Talent abounds.

Drinks!
We were also so very excited to learn that while Moshi Moshi will have the finest sushi around in a nod to Ballard's working class, they'll offer $2 PBR all day long. Hot shot bartender Eric Carlson (from San Francisco's Redwood Room at the Clift Hotel and Umami) will be pouring drinks. What a treat! We can't wait to take advantage of TWO happy hours at the sushi bar.

Parking!
Are you f'ing kidding us? Seriously, there is a lack of parking in Ballard, but Moshi Moshi's building (the oft jived Blandmark) has over 100 parking spaces! Best of all, it's $1 per hour. Holy Calamari, it's like the restaurant trifecta of perfection has finally arrived. Sushi, Drinks and Parking.


Start counting the days, kids. Awesome drinks and sushi are right around the corner.

4 comments:

Matt S said...

ugh, why are they wasting any space with PBR? i wouldn't expect them to "nod to the working class" by serving two buck chuck. with the pedigree of everything else in this otherwise nice looking restaurant, there really is no excuse for serving such awful swill. if they want to serve a special inexpensive lager they should go with full sail session lager.

Ballard Gossip Girl said...

Yeah, but Session tastes like ass. Kidding! We don't really drink beer but we notice that a lot of the folks who work in bars and who drink in Ballard sure love some PBR. They said they'll be serving reasonably priced Saki, too.

LittleNorwegian said...

I am so excited!

. said...

u have quite a mouth on you BGG...
wow, a big tree and more sushi and booze in ballard....now there's a unique concept.