I’ve heard it said, and I believe it now, as a co-owner of a new restaurant: the first year is the hardest. There is a saying that describes a restaurant in its first year as “building the boat while sailing it.” You might find that the sails catch wind and you roar forward. Just as quickly, you may hit a bump that sinks you. A larger, more thoroughly constructed boat could sustain a few bumps or weather a storm, but you, a mere framework of a restaurant, cannot. 

Why is this important to diners? Because in the first year especially, every new dish, new menu, new location, change in the dining room, or way of taking orders is an effort to calibrate with the needs and wants of diners. Feedback and patronage help build that boat.

Are the wait times too long? Is the dish too salty? Does a second location live up to the first? All of this helps restaurants make critical, foundational adjustments. Positive feedback? It’s wind in our sails telling us, we love what you’re doing, keep it up, and don’t you dare take this off the menu. Aye, aye Captain.

Citrus olive oil cake at Elixir

Sweet Alchemy owner Lois Ko has operated her celebrated ice cream shop on “the Ave” in University District, doling up her signature ice cream flavors as an elixir for tougher days, first dates, casual gatherings, summer celebrations, and more. Today, her newly opened dessert bar Elixir serves new iterations of her ice creams in the form of creative floats and various desserts à la mode. You can bet the flavors you get from Ko’s menu of parfaits, cakes, and crumbles are anything but vanilla. I enjoyed her citrus olive oil cake with honey chantilly and pistachios after a day of blossom gazing in the neighborhood, and learned that the honey used in the chantilly cream is harvested from UW’s Horticultural Center. It lent to the all-encompassing experience of what the neighborhood had to offer. It may be U-District, but Elixir, with its citrus olive oil cakes and tarragon blueberry crumble, adds a more grown-up face to the neighborhood. 

Poblano cashew enchiladas at KOKO’s Restaurant and Tequila Bar

KOKO’s first opened in Seabrook, a beautiful town on the Washington coast. This month, owners Gibran Moreno and Alexi Torres celebrate the opening of Koko’s city iteration in Capitol Hill. The lush plants and natural light from the skylight above the bar bring a bit of the restaurant’s chill seaside vibe to the space, which serves modern Latin food with some international twists. Its verdant-hued poblano cashew enchiladas are a visual match to the restaurant’s interior. The enchiladas are generously packed with mozzarella cheese and a choice of vegetables or proteins, including chicken, carnitas, prawns, or steak, then topped with a bright green poblano sauce, delicate swirls of white crema, and bright pink pickled onions. 

Uzbek plov at Caravan Restaurant

For many years, the space that now houses Caravan Restaurant in Wallingford on NE 45th Street was one of those places where you order a subpar pizza on a late night, when few other options existed. When I drove by and saw a new bright yellow sign advertising Seattle’s first Uzbek restaurant, this place quickly moved up on my places to try. Manager Aladin Akramov recommends the Uzbek plov for first-timers. The dish is a fragrant rice pilaf with onions, carrots, chickpeas, raisins, and cumin served with spiced lamb and boiled eggs. 

“It is traditionally prepared for family gatherings and special occasions, symbolizing hospitality and bringing people together,” says Akramov. 

I recommend bringing your own group of people together to try the rest of the menu, which includes samosas, hand-pulled noodles, and momos. 

Tableside French toast at La Loba

Was it Mother’s Day that made May the month to brunch? Regardless, new Barcelona-inspired La Loba, situated in the nature-centric 1 Hotel, is debuting its brunch service on Sunday, May 10. La Loba’s brunch includes all the brunch heavy hitters, all done with a luxurious flair that caps off an indulgent staycation at 1 or an unforgettable brunch experience. Take the bloody marys, in granita form. Savory waffles standing toasted and upright in a decadent cheese and chorizo sauce or a smoked lox and bagel still steeped in smoke under a glass cloche. The most striking is its French toast. This is not-your-average-white-bread kind of French toast, but a large brick of toasted shokupan presented on a branded cart, and dressed tableside with a brûléed top, gelato, berries, granola, plus a choice of honey, dulce de leche, or yes, rum drizzle. 

Sakura tendon set at Tendon Kohaku

Seattle waits with bated breath for Tendon Kohaku’s new International District location, set to open this month. With every tempura rice bowl looking like a complex arrangement, it could be tough to choose between them. Still, the sakura tendon set is a springtime tempura cornucopia with two tiger prawns, kabocha squash, chicken, asparagus, white fish, lotus root, tamagoyaki, and avocado with a crispy kakiage fritter of onions, squid, and broad beans. Sounds like a lot of fried items, but when topped with shiso powder and paired with sakura pickles, the sakura tendon set has a sense of lightness and floral fragrance that is unexpectedly complex for the humble tendon, which Tendon Kohaku creatively uplifts in many ways.