Tag Archives: dining

Moctezuma’s plans soft opening this week at Kitsap Mall

Diners can get their first taste of Moctezuma’s Mexican Restaurant and Tequila Bar in Silverdale this week.

The Kitsap Mall Moctezuma’s will hold a soft opening Wednesday afternoon, with a full opening tentatively scheduled for Friday or the weekend. Soft opening hours are 4-8 p.m.

“We’re definitely excited about opening and our staff is super excited,” Director of Operations Michael Goronkin said.

Moctezuma’s moved into an 8,000-square-foot space previously occupied by Hale’s Alehouse. Goronkin said Moctezuma’s hired about 130 employees to staff the Kitsap Mall restaurant.

Silverdale is the fourth location for the family-owned chain, which has restaurants in Gig Harbor, Southcenter and Tacoma.

ChocMo, High Spirits plan move to new Poulsbo building

Tad Sooter

Poulsbo’s ChocMo restaurant and High Spirits liquor store plan to move to a new building and expand next year.

The businesses will set up shop in a 28,000-square-foot commercial facility planned by the Crabtree and Ryan families on Eighth Avenue.

The building is expected to open in the fall of 2017, according to a news release.

ChocMo and High Spirits will be joined in the facility by a 180-seat restaurant called Crabtree kitchen + bar and a shared workspace center called Vibe Coworks.

The move will allow High Spirits to grow from 4,000 to 10,000 square feet.The store will add a growler-filling station, “beer cave,” and wine cellar, and plans to host classes and tastings.

A delivery service is being considered, according to the release.

ChocMo, which began as a chocolate shop in 2005, will offer breakfast, lunch, espresso and chocolate drinks. With added space to work in, ChocMo staff will start making chocolate from raw cocao beans.

Upstairs, Crabtree kitchen + bar will focus on connecting diners with locally-grown food, including fruits and vegetables cultivated onsite. Beef for the restaurant will be raised at the family’s Silver Creek Angus farm in Kingston, which currently supplies ChocMo.

Jimmy John’s opens in Port Orchard

Tad Sooter

A Jimmy John’s sandwich shop is now open at 1800 SE Mile Hill Dr. in Port Orchard, according to a Tuesday news release.

The 1,400-square-foot store features a drive-thru window, as well as indoor seating. Delivery and catering are available.

The Port Orchard franchise is owned by Angela Daniels and Mary Jo Smallman, who also own the Jimmy John’s in Bremerton.

They plan to open a Silverdale location in 2017.

Kingston farm named finalist for $20k prize

Tad Sooter

A Kingston cattle farm is the last Kitsap company left in the running for the $20,000 edg3 FUND small business prize.

Silver Creek Angus was one of five finalists Kitsap Bank announced for the prize last week.

The longtime family farm raises Black Angus cattle and sells beef. You can learn more about their operation in the video above.

The edg3 FUND competition, now in its third year, promotes entrepreneurs “dedicated to growing our local community economically, socially and environmentally.”

This year’s $20,000 winner will be selected by a panel of judges during a live event Nov. 17 at Kitsap Conference Center in Bremerton.

An additional $5,000 will be awarded to the entrant that best embodies “the spirit of community.”

Hitchcock’s pizzeria spinoff opens in November

Tad Sooter

721629 — Chefs Brendan McGill, right, and Brandon Thompson

A popup pizzeria on Bainbridge Island will become a permanent restaurant in November.

Bruciato, a gourmet pizza popup created by Hitchcock chef Brendan McGill and partner Brandon Thompson, is taking over a renovated space in the former Winslow Hardware building.

687697 According to a news release, the 2,000-square-foot restaurant will provide seating for 75, with another 15 spots at the bar.

The interior design showcases exposed beams and metal that “recall the building’s history,” and white marble that “lightens it up a bit.”

Bruciato will feature wood-fired Neapolitan “pizze” and more modern pies, with an emphasis on authenticity. Dough will be mixed by hand, tomatoes imported from Italy and salami cured in house.

0307_ksap_hitchcock3 Seafood, salads and antipasti will round out the menu. The bar will serve Italian and American spirits, wine and beer.

The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and stay ope until 1:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Bruciato isn’t the only new eatery McGill has in the works. He plans to open a Café Hitchcock north of Seattle’s Pioneer Square in early 2017.

Check Bruciato’s Facebook page for updates on the Bainbridge opening.

Suquamish Tribe completes casino expansion

Tad Sooter

The Suquamish Tribe put finishing touches this summer on a three-year expansion and renovation of Clearwater Casino Resort.

Mark Lindquist Campaign Kickoff The project launched in 2013 when lead contractor Korsmo Construction began work on a 700-stall parking garage attached to the casino.

Additional phases included the creation of a 98-room hotel tower, a fine dining restaurant and café, three commercial kitchens, a sports bar and lounge, a renovated buffet and service area, 3,500 square feet of non-smoking gaming space, and improvements to the existing gambling floor where people will continue to bet in the ncaa tournament but this time around they will have more options!

Construction wrapped up at the end of August with the upgrades to the main entrance, according to a news release from Korsmo. Work finished a month ahead of schedule.

Salad-to-go shop expanding to Silverdale

Tad Sooter

Barely seven months after opening in Poulsbo, owners of a salad-to-go shop are planning a second location in Silverdale.

b0012681003-278298 Greens On Your Way founder Jenn Fredericksen signed a lease Friday on the 9517 Silverdale Way space recently vacated by Genuine Burgers.

Fredericksen plans to sell her grab-and-go gourmet salads at the shop, along with wraps, pita sandwiches, soups, smoothies and espresso.

The new location could open in October.

“Hopefully Silverdale will be a good spot for us,” Fredericksen said.

Fredericksen, who also owns latte stands in North Kitsap, opened the first Greens On Your Way in February on Poulsbo’s Viking Avenue.

b0012681071-45912 The business applies the coffee stand model to fresh-made salads, allowing drivers to grab packaged greens on the go. The shop encourages customers to pre-order their salads online, further streamlining sales.

Fredericksen said the concept caught on in Poulsbo, despite the shop being located on the edge of town.

“The feedback has been great,” she said.

The Silverdale Way space doesn’t have a drive-thru, but Fredericksen said two parking stalls will be designated as drive up spaces, where customers can have salads delivered to their car window.

You can check the Greens On Your Way Facebook page for updates.

Genuine Burgers calls it quits in Silverdale

Tad Sooter

b0012681623-683837 Silverdale’s Genuine Burgers was a bold culinary experiment.

The restaurant served traditional fast-food fare with a slow-food philosophy, making nearly everything on its menu — the burgers, buns, milkshakes, fries, even ketchup — from scratch each day.

b0012681629-651327 The staff ground grass-fed beef each morning for the fresh burger patties, which were cooked a full 15 minutes on lower heat to avoid drying out the meat.

“We do things a little bit differently here,” owner Stephen Foster-Shaner told the Kitsap Sun’s Terri Gleich in an interview earlier this year.

The experiment didn’t work out in the end.

Foster-Shaner closed Genuine Burgers on Sunday citing a multitude of factors:

You can read our February profile of Genuine Burgers here.

More than 500 planes confirmed for Bremerton airport fly-in

Tad Sooter

B0013904493--220111

Registration numbers are soaring for an aviation convention planned this weekend at Bremerton National Airport.

B0015742479--722623 As of Wednesday morning, 523 pilots had confirmed they planned to land at the airport for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Fly-In, which kicks off Friday evening and continues through Saturday.

Nearly 160 participants planned to camp under the wings of their planes.
Total registration for the event had topped 1,700, but closer to 3,000 attendees are expected, according to airport director Fred Salisbury.

“It should be a packed house,” he said.

Weather forecasts should help boost attendance. The National Weather Service predicts sunny skies and temperatures in the high 80s this weekend.

The Bremerton event will double the size of the AOPA Fly-In Spokane hosted in 2014, which attracted 1,500 attendees and 240 planes. (A torrential rainstorm the day before festivities began dampened attendance.)

Big registration numbers for Bremerton are encouraging to organizers, who believe the event will provide an economic boost to the area.

AOPA Fly-Ins typically generate about $680,000 for the local economy, according to the association. The conventions create business for hotels, transportation companies, food vendors and contractors.

Jack Edwards, manager of Bremerton’s Baymont Inn & Suites, said roughly one-third of his rooms (about 50 units) were booked for the weekend by Fly-In participants. He started receiving reservations from AOPA members as early as April.

“We’re still getting calls from them, but we’re full,” Edwards said.

A plane flies above Mt. Rainier as seen from the window of a Beechcraft Baron piloted by Avian Flight Center's Pat Heseltine on Friday, June 3, 2016. (MEEGAN M. REID / KITSAP SUN)

Visitors who waited until this week to book rooms would be hard pressed to vacancies anywhere in Bremerton, he said.

Visit Kitsap Peninsula Executive Director Patty Graf-Hoke said the Port of Bremerton deserved praise for bringing the Fly-In to Kistap.

“The AOPA very prestigious national organization and their West Coast event offers locals new opportunities to introduce hundreds tourists to the region,” Graf-Hoke said in an email. “Guests are filling up hotel rooms which is good for local businesses and the economy.”

The AOPA Fly-In is free and open to the public. Click here to learn more about the event.

You don’t have to be a pilot to enjoy the beauty of the Kitsap peninsula from the air. Click here to see Meegan Reid’s gallery of aerial photos taken earlier this year.

Whiskey Creek Steak House closes; pizzeria coming

Tad Sooter

whiskey.creek whiskey.creek.sign Whiskey Creek Steak House, a Keyport restaurant that experienced a brief and ill-fated brush with reality TV fame in 2012, has shut down for good.

A sign on the front door says the steakhouse closed Aug. 5, “to give the new owners time to make changes on the building to start their new adventure.”

That adventure, according the sign, will be a restaurant called Trendy’s Pizzeria, described as “an authentic East Coast eatery.”

Whiskey Creek had been in business since the 1990s and gained national exposure in 2012 when it received a makeover from Food Network program “Restaurant: Impossible:”

The TV show crew stripped Whiskey Creek of its kitschy Old West interior and nixed popular menu items.

The owners came to regret changes made by “Restaurant: Impossible.” They moved the restaurant to a larger space across the highway in 2013 and later turned the business over to employees.

Whiskey Creek closed without fanfare last week. It’s website and social media pages are already offline.

I’m hoping to get in touch with owners of Trendy’s to learn more about their plans.