Sneak Peek: Puyallup Tribe’s waterfront restaurant with Roy Yamaguchi to open in summer

The Puyallup Tribe’s waterfront restaurant, a collaboration with celebrity chef Roy Yamaguchi, will open this summer. Its name, Woven Seafood and Chophouse, honors the fusion of the chef’s Japanese heritage and his pioneering Hawaiian Regional Cuisine with culinary traditions of the Tribe and the bounty of the Pacific Northwest.

Columbia Hospitality, a Seattle-based restaurant management and consulting group with dozens of properties across the Northwest, has been hired to run the project at 3017 Ruston Way. The chef de cuisine, who the Tribe teased has worked with Yamaguchi in the past, starts later this month.

The Tribe first announced its partnership with the James Beard-winning chef, whose company operates a dozen restaurants on four Hawaiian islands, in May 2022. It followed the Tribe’s 2021 acquisition of the property that encompasses RAM Restaurant and Brewery and C.I. Shenanigan’s, which closed the year prior.

Kyle Eley, chief operating officer of Puyallup Tribal Enterprises, welcomed The News Tribune for a hard-hat tour of the space last week, outlining the vision and mission of this waterfront property that has reconnected the Puyallup people with a part of their ancestral homeland.

Woven joins the Tribe’s Kenmore Air seaport, introduced last year. A new terminal for jet-setters to San Juan Island has been carved out of a bonus room in the front of Woven; it’s scheduled to open in time for the summer season’s May 16 kickoff.

SNEAK PEEK OF WOVEN

Tacoma-based Ferguson Architecture (also behind 7 Seas Brewing’s new Gig Harbor taproom, E9 Brewing Co.’s Fawcett Ave. facility and First Citizens Bank at Brewery Blocks) and Korsmo Construction are actively working on the 15,000-square-foot building. The interior has been almost entirely gutted — although we did spot a vintage C.I. Shenanigan’s wall-wide mirror in the upstairs private event space. Outside of the structure’s footprint and oversized windows bestowing grand views of Commencement Bay, it will be largely unrecognizable.

The exterior will be freshly painted, while the entrance will be refashioned and, of course, the Woven logo affixed above the doors. A series of intertwining wavy lines in the Tribe’s signature red hue, the horizontal represents the fusion of Puyallup Tribal, Japanese and Hawaiian cultures and the vertical Yamaguchi, the Tribe and the Pacific Northwest.

With such “an abundance of natural resources” in the Pacific Northwest, ingredients at Woven will lean on local farms and fish, in addition to the steaks that will also be central to the experience, explained Eley.

Anchored by a front-and-center wood-fire grill, the menu will highlight local seafood cooked in styles that honor Coast Salish heritage and technique. That continued history resonated with Yamaguchi, who worked closely with the Tribe’s Heritage Division to develop the concept.

“The values aligned with Roy and our Tribe to create the restaurant,” added Eley. The grill “will be one of the first things you see — that’s going to be a really cool cultural piece.”

From the main dining room, guests will have clear sight of the open kitchen and finishing line, as well as a prominent wine display. It leads to an additional dining area down a few steps and an intimate private party room.

From the bar and lounge, guests can catch a glimpse of the live-fire cooking and stellar views of the water. The deck will also be raised on the right side of the building, allowing a seamless transition from the lounge to the outdoors. The lower deck will continue to be accessible from the main dining room.

Rest assured, views will abound from just about everywhere in the house, which seats around 140 people plus 100 outside.

A second, slightly larger private dining room and the 150-person party room offer second-floor vistas.

OPENING THE WATERFRONT RESTAURANT

The Tribe anticipates hiring around 50 employees, not counting seasonal and special event workers, with an emphasis on Tribal members where possible. Staff will be employed by Columbia Hospitality, which also operates resorts, golf clubs, conference centers, venues and other restaurants in 11 states and British Columbia. Benefits include a 401k plan; health, dental and vision insurance; paid time off and holiday pay; and discounts at sister properties. The general manager position was posted for $100,000 to $130,000, and the lead chef roles around $72,000 annually.

Though the Tribe has several restaurants inside the Emerald Queen Casino, it works with Columbia to manage North Shore Golf Club. For such a vast restaurant and private events space, said Eley with a smile, “We realized we probably needed a little help.”

It wasn’t necessarily a guarantee that the former C.I. Shenanigan’s would remain a restaurant, but Tribal Financial Officer Matt Wadhwani told The News Tribune in 2022 that it was “always the baseline hypothesis.” A consultant for the Tribe had a personal connection with Yamaguchi and floated the idea, which led to phone calls and eventually a flight to visit the site and meet with Tribal leaders.

The Tokyo-born chef honed his culinary career in Southern California, where he opened his first restaurant in 1984. Following a family move to Honolulu, he became the first chef in Hawaii to earn a James Beard Award (Best Chef: Pacific Northwest) and was one of 12 chefs credited with cultivating Hawaiian Regional Cuisine, a commitment to local sourcing that had been lost as the islands’ tourism and development boomed with increased air travel. His success also involves several cookbooks and appearances on shows like “Top Chef Masters,” “Iron Chef America” and his own “Hawaii Cooks with Roy Yamaguchi.”

The chef de cuisine’s name and the full menus will be released in coming weeks.

Woven is one of several projects the Tribe’s economic development arm has undertaken in an effort to “utilize the Tribe’s assets to create jobs and to create some buzz in the local economy,” noted Eley.

“What we’re going for,” he said, “is a confident world-class restaurant without the ego.”

WOVEN SEAFOOD & CHOPHOUSE

▪ 3017 Ruston Way, Puyallup Tribal Land (Tacoma)

▪ Details: Puyallup Tribe restaurant with chef Roy Yamaguchi, target opening mid-summer 2024

This story was originally published May 13, 2024 at 5:30 AM.