Teriyaki , the peach that theNew York Timescalled Seattle ’s variation of the Chicago dog , is fade from the collective food brain of the metropolis , as the occupier who think its flush get price out of their neighborhoods – along with the eating house that served it . For the newly go far dweller taking over , teriyaki moderate none of the worldly authenticity of phở nor the voguish uber - local appeal of forage mushrooms . As the urban center continues to grow at one of the fastest rates in the country , its theme song dish is getting left behind : there are a third few teriyaki restaurant in Seattle today than there were a decade ago . What happened ?
Sweet and sticky with sauce , all Seattle - style teriyaki stems from the basic rule Toshihiro Kasahara developed when he opened his first store , Toshi ’s Teriyaki , in 1976 . The meat , traditionally chicken thighs slippery and brown from marinade , gets slap on a hot grillwork . The high-pitched heat caramelizes the lolly , crisping the meat and leaving it with a crunch of barely burnt soy sauce on the exterior . slice up into insect bite - size pieces , it ’s served fan out across a molded mound of white - as - snow Elmer Reizenstein , the sauce seeping down between the grains . The salad , like the meat , is sweet and crunchy , the iceberg lettuce and slivers of carrot and cabbage evocative of coleslaw , with only the rice vinaigrette separating it from previous - schooltime American pushover transportation .
There are a third fewer teriyaki eating place in Seattle today than there were a 10 ago .
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Toshi ’s Teriyaki opened its doors on Roy Street in 1976 to almost no fanfare . Business started off tardily for the transplant . After graduate from Portland State University , Kasahara had moved to Seattle from Portland , looking for better opportunities . He attended shoal as a competitive matman , but wanted to become an spokesperson . However , that ’s not exactly how things turned out . “ All of my friends had eatery , ” says Kasahara , so he image why not follow courting . While his pals run traditional Japanese eatery , Kasahara require to specialise . Specifically , he wanted to find something he could lock without depending on other people , “ so when they take leave , I could still manage it . "
“ I wish well I could say it ’s from my ascendent , ” Kasahara remarks of the recipe he developed . He always liked cooking growing up , but the closest he can come to defining the line of descent is to say that what he make is interchangeable to the Japanese version of teriyaki – a clear finishing of soy sauce , rice beer , and mirin ( rice wine-colored ) brush onto grill or broiled proteins , often seafood .
Wherever it came from , teriyaki was a knockout . Kasahara owned – or franchise – as many as 17 stores , including one in Phoenix . Copycats and rogue former franchises spring up , as theSeattle Timesput it , “ like mushroom in a damp meadow . ” There was Toshio ’s , Toshi ’s Teriyaki the Original , Yoshi ’s , Yoshino , Yasuko ’s , and so on . Today , there are nationwide teriyaki string : both Teriyaki Madness and Glaze Teriyaki control around the country . Teriyaki Madness , which halt from a local store partnering with two former customers , now operates an impressive 31 outlets in 14 states , with 18 more gap this year . CEO Michael Haith is bullish on the popularity , both with customers ( “ It ’s a sapidity that everyone can connect to , it ’s healthier , and it ’s on the go ” ) , and his franchisees , many of which are now opening a 2nd or third positioning . But for Kasahara , after build up the franchise business , he had to admit he was n’t cut out for it . “ I did n’t really have the management accomplishment . It was a rough-and-tumble . ” For a while , he step out of the teriyaki business entirely , but he could n’t stay away . Now he cooks in a single three - table shop inhume deep within the building of a Mill Creek funnies mall call Toshi ’s Teriyaki Grill .
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As quickly as the teriyaki lunar time period rises around the country ( part of the Asian firm - casual class that ’s thefastest develop restaurant section in the country ) , it ’s ebbing in Seattle . The shop fall dupe to the same problem as any other small , family - run patronage . Of the 15 teriyaki shopswe rounded up as the best in town in 2014 , two have closed ( Yasuko ’s and Setsuna ) , one changed hands ( Katsu Burger ) , and another is slated to close later this yr ( King Donuts , as the possessor have decide to retire and have no one to take it over ) . It ’s a testament that even the best ca n’t survive .
Teriyaki used to be the ultimate everyman meal .
In 2015 , Yasuko Conner fold her namesake teriyaki workshop on Broadway after more than twenty year . Long a haven of affordable food alongside the now rapidly gentrifying tracks of the new tramcar , a combination of declining business concern and rise prop taxes – the assessed value of the building increased 129 % that year – sounded the last knell for the tiny Yasuko ’s . The naked walls ( white except for the willy-nilly station and amended carte ) cover the reverberance of the smell served . The floor , tabular array , and chairman were all colorless save for cryptic filth , remnants left behind by the client , homeless , working - class , and affluent likewise , plus a dependable smattering of Seattle ’s high schoolhouse students , come together in a stead serve unsubdivided food at eminently reasonable prices . Teriyaki was the ultimate everyman meal .
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These day , Amazon worker living in fresh gamy - upgrade get whisk off by the building ’s turning point aboard the streetcar . For lunch , they ’ll prefer between sushi delivered by Uber and pizza cooked by one of Seattle ’s superstar chefs . Teriyaki does n’t record the equation . Its bequest in Seattle , the urban center where Kasahara created it , is fading .
In 2010 , John T. Edge wrotean ode to Seattle teriyakiforThe New York Times . He cite Knute Berger , elder statesman of Seattle medium , as saying the shops are “ so ubiquitous as to have become invisible . ” And once invisible , they in reality disappear ; two of the four restaurants Edge focused on have since fold . For those who grew up in Seattle , teriyaki was a way of life . Eula Scott Bynoe of the podcastHella Black Hella Seattletells the story of bringing a dying relative teriyaki from a favorite spot : " I was there to say goodbye , " but the relative , a Seattle aboriginal , she joke , " just want the teriyaki . " For new transplant , the simple dish antenna does n’t fit out the narrative of the sheeny , new city . Teriyaki shop – dirty and run - down – are n’t list on any hot lists of where to eat in Seattle . Not inSeattle Metropolitan ’s 30 restaurant experiences you " must have , " nor in alt - weeklyThe Stranger ’s " wipe out Like a Local . " To Seattle ’s latest Amazon and Microsoft recruits – living here as Seattle earned ( and is still earning ) plaudits for its culinary scene – the city was built on Copper River salmon and Taylor Shellfish oysters . A post where neighborhood restaurants likeAnchovies & Olivesshuck bivalves fresh day by day and help pristine fish , even aside from the waterfront tourist traps . To have arrived in Seattle in the last five years was to watch Zoi Antonitsas and Jason Stratton both winFood & Wine"Best New Chef " awards and appear onTop Chef , to see Ethan Stowell ’s combination of Northwest and Italian cuisine disperse to more than a XII outlets , to taste Blaine Wetzel ’s food atWillows Innand Jamie Boudreau ’s drinkable atCanon– as each were celebrate for being one of the Earth ’s best eating place and bars , severally .
But for all the seafood and all the honour , formerSeattle Timesfood writer Nancy Leson admits of Seattle ’s iconic intellectual nourishment , “ When multitude talk about ingredients , I would go with the Salmon River and huitre , and that ’s fine … but when it amount to definitive dishes , teriyaki is on top of the list . " In the 2010New York Timespiece , Berger put up brainwave to why such a major dish is n’t more outstanding . “ Seattle yuppie love the idea of die to some obscure Chinese place for dim sum total , but they wo n’t dare say you that they exhaust chicken teriyaki . ”
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For fresh transplants , the simple dish does n’t fit the narrative of the shiny , new city .
And while new Seattleites might throw out the stunner , elsewhere hoi polloi are just learn its allure . Middle America , for one , does n’t care that teriyaki did n’t settle from a centuries - old Nipponese custom or from Kasahara ’s grandmother . “ We ’re in Jonesboro , Arkansas , for God ’s sake , ” laughs Teriyaki Madness ’s Haith . He profess that the idea of genuineness never occurred to him . He ’ll even go so far as to compare it to Tex - Mex : “ it ’s authentic Americanized - Japanese food . They [ the customers ] like the volume , they like the healthy aspect , and they wish the customization abilities . ”
In the end , it issue forth back to a universal appeal : “ There ’s a earnestness to it , from the owners , that really render . It ’s comfort food , ” states Haith . And he ’s right-hand . What Teriyaki Madness does is not only imitate the meal that have drawn in Seattleites for decades , but also the environment that spawn it . The corner store - style serve , the friendly grimace behind the return , the unornamented - osseous tissue atmosphere . The knockout that Kasahara came up with to open his small Queen Anne shop class , with its mangled root … if it ’s authentic anything , it ’s authentically onetime Seattle .
But new Seattle – with the local priced out of the area , those that remain forgetting teriyaki exists , and neophyte ignoring it – risks losing those real shops for good . Teriyaki could be head the direction of deep - dish … just ask a Chicagoan about it and they ’ll say , “ Oh , that ’s for tourer . ” Teriyaki is from a unlike era , and it ’s fading as tight as dealings - devoid day on I-5 . Since teriyaki came to town , Seattle ’s waved au revoir to the Kingdome , Kurt Cobain , and the Sonics . A signature stadium , a signature tune musician , a touch team – and now , perhaps , a key signature stunner .
As cabalistic as that may sound , it ’s still not too late . There are still shops that marinate their chicken and make that perfect teriyaki rice , that use fresh constituent behind the unsympathetic door of their sauce - tarnish kitchens . Sixty - six shops stay on in Seattle with teriyaki in their name – plus one special one in Mill Creek . And Kasahara , like Seattle teriyaki itself , is n’t ready to be counted out quite yet : “ I ’m not quitting . I ’m waiting to see how things go here . ” Meanwhile , it ’s up to Seattle ’s umbrella - shunning loyalist , incoming Amazon hordes , and everyone in between to know – and support – what ’s great about Seattle . To run through teriyaki . To keep going the small businesses , the independent shops , the unequaled and terrific cuisines that define the townsfolk . By eating an low-priced , delicious meal , you could save one more bit of sometime Seattle from going the way of grease . And would n’t that be something ?
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Naomi Tomky/Thrillist
Naomi Tomky/Thrillist
Katsu Burger
