If you try going to Pan Africa Grill at 5905 California SW tonight – that’s what you’ll find. We’d heard rumors they were closing, but no confirmation until the sign went up. It had only been open a year and a half, taking over the space that was home to Ho-Win Chinese Restaurant for 12 years. At the time Pan Africa opened here, it had an original location at Pike Place Market, but the owners closed that last April.
So what will happen to the West Seattle space, you ask? We do have the answer. It will be a Chinese restaurant again – called Chopstix. No, the former owners aren’t coming back; this is a brand-new venture, says proprietor Mark Lam, whose family has been in the restaurant business for more than 20 years in South King County. “West Seattle has a little bit more population density, it’s more diversified, a great place for any kind of business,” he told WSB’s Katie Meyer in a phone conversation this afternoon. He says Chopstix won’t be exclusively Chinese – it’ll veer toward Pan-Asian with “a little bit of Vietnamese, some teriyaki as well, some Japanese tempura.” No grand-opening date just yet – he just got the keys to the restaurant this week and expects to know more next week, after some cleanup, changes, and menu development. We’ll follow up, of course.
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