Brady Williams is serious about White Center; New restaurant TOMO is sold out before opening
Wed, 08/11/2021
Brady Williams, former Executive chef at Canlis, and owner of the soon to open TOMO restaurant in White Center loves the community already. This is fine dining in every sense from the charcoal gray interior, to the art, music, staff and prix fixe menu. It's located at 9811 16th SW.
Why White Center?
"It's a vibrant, diverse neighborhood that seems to be very community focused." Williams said, "Seems like my experience here is that the businesses and the community really tend to support each other and take care of each other and champion each other and as a hospitality area, that's like at the core of what we do, you know." He sees similarities to where he grew up in Whittier California.
Starting Sept. 9 he will be joined by his own hand picked staff in preparing food in a fashion never seen in this area.
Instead of a conventional set of ala carte menu items, TOMO, will offer two five-course tasting menus for dinner at $68 per person (including one vegetarian). The menu will change seasonally, even "micro-seasonally" he said with a focus on produce and limited proteins. "This will not be a steakhouse," he emphasized. "I think at lunch you'll find a lot of like raw or lightly cooked fish and shellfish when it's in season."
There's considerable buzz in the food centric media about TOMO with both Seattle Met and Eater doing stories about it. So the interest has led to a complete sellout for the first few weeks of operation.
Reservations are made through a site called TOCK but won't open up again until Oct. 1.
Much of the inspiration for the menu and Williams style comes from his upbringing and his mother's Japanese heritage. "From age 15 to 19 my grandparents owned a diner in Seal Beach California and he worked there. "My mom and aunt were the managers," he explained. TOMO in fact is named for his grandmother Tomoko Ishiwata Bristol, who is now 94 and still inspires him.
He left home when he was 15, after being recruited as a hockey player (he was a goalie) for a team in Chicago (who then loaned him to a team in Detroit). These teams were minor league affiliates of NHL teams.
What he learned in sports applied to his work as a chef. He became executive chef at Canlis when he was 29 and while he had cooked in Dallas, and New York City, Seattle was new for him.
To run an efficient restaurant means being a leader, "It's an absolute team, so that's that's what I learned first and foremost on that side, I never worked in the northwest before, I cooked under some really great people. So I was exposed to brand new product. I learned a ton about the seasons and the micro seasons of the Northwest."
The more limited ingredients means being creative with what you have.
"It really is like trying to generate as much complexity and depth through as few means as possible, through simplicity, It's complexity through simplicity, It's the idea that you either add something until it's right or take away from something until it's right and I'd rather, take away. I've considered my cooking style to be seasonally focused, ingredient focused, and it kind of banks on my Japanese heritage more than it does any Eurocentric influence."
A sample dinner menu, posted on their website reads:
Sungold tomato, cherry, verbenaDumplings a la blanca,
Plankton spot prawn, ennis hazelnut,
Our honey lamb,
Fava bean, curds and whey, fig leaf, blackberry 68
Sample Dinner supplements
Hokkaido uni pizza 20
Honeydew and sake lees kakigori 15Sample Lunch Menu
Sungold tomato, cherry, verbena 13
Rockfish ceviche, buckwheat tostada 13
Cured duck breast, hazelnut, melon 16
Smoked salmon, big leaf maple, frisee 16
Market greens, radish 14
Grilled spot prawn, smoked chilies 18
Baked egg, potato, ikura 24
Squash, cranberry bean, fennel 22
Lamb belly, fava bean, curds and whey 31
Pastrami, fried egg, cabbage 28
Shiso and chocolate chip ice cream sandwich 11
See their wine list here
TOMO will have seating for 28 inside and a few more outside on the deck which will be largely enclosed for winter and have heaters.
"Art will be a big part of TOMO," Williams said. "My business partner had an art gallery here for a number of years and was a collector so the art will be seasonal, like the food, with things like sculptural glass, textile pieces, and a really beautiful copper sculpture."
Tomo will be open for dinner from 5pm to 9pm Thursday through Sunday and 11am to 2pm for lunch on the weekends, featuring a la carte items. Al a carte items will also be available at the bar. The bar will offer more than 200 different wines.
A quarter of those wines will be made by female vintners.
TOMO is truly about fine dining and the people he has selected reflect that too.
Williams will be joined by Diana Mata Garcia (also formerly with Canlis) as chef de cuisine, and by pastry chef Richard Garcia (not related). The Bar Manager is Greg Bonney, and the Wine Director is Andy Comer.
From a core of five, TOMO will employ around 12 full and part time people.
The team at TOMO is working offsite as the build out continues, "developing ideas and templates" with some recipes about to enter the testing stage. "I have years worth of recipes that are tried and true," explained Williams, "but then we also cook very intuitively, and I think that's going to be a lot of what we do."
It's more experiential than by rote.
And that also matches his choice of White Center as a location. Its diversity is its strength.
"It's a team of specialists and I think White Center is a neighborhood of specialists in a lot of ways."
Comments
Right, a place with a $70…
Right, a place with a $70 dinner entree fits in real well with White Center #gentrification
I would like to partner and…
I would like to partner and bring local. Under- discovered Tashkent to the spot. DM me @eliasb00 on IG...
Congratulations, Brady and…
Congratulations, Brady and your entire TOMO staff!
Been following this story…
Been following this story and don’t know how $68 a person for dinner fits with White Center. Understand it’s a dream of Brady’s, but our community is rich in culture, history and generations, not necessarily dollars to afford one of the 28 seats. This is not a restaurant for the community. Those who come need to embrace us, not change us. Patrons included. What are Brady’s plans to be a part of the community as it is, not as newbies want it to be?
$68 in White Center??? Give…
$68 in White Center??? Give me a break. He is here because the rents are cheap.
I live in white center and…
I live in white center and can’t scrape up $70 to eat a dinner there. I assume lots of people who live outside white center will be dining there, but with homes now in white center going for over 1/2 million dollars who knows I bet a lot of new neighbors can afford this restaurant, not a person whose been living here for a couple of decades. Enjoy eating at this new restaurant and remember that if you park in residential streets people live on the street.
Just what Rat City needs. An…
Just what Rat City needs. An over priced hoity toity that's ashamed to serve meat. Bring back the steak house he's so afraid of.
$70 entrees in white center?…
$70 entrees in white center? I’m sure the food is going to be out of this world but White Center?
Excited for some fine-dining…
Excited for some fine-dining in the neighborhood, but for a lot of our neighbors this is really expensive and out of reach. How do businesses like this engage with and contribute to the community?
What about WC makes him…
What about WC makes him think this is the perfect fit for his higher end restaurant? Another gentrifier just catering to the rest of the gentrifiers that have moved in.
Welcome to White Center aka…
Welcome to White Center aka Rat City
Best wishes on your Grand Opening !
S. Watanabe
aka: Rat City Mom
WHAT I LEFT OUT OF THE STORY…
WHAT I LEFT OUT OF THE STORY
Which in hindsight was a mistake was this:
I asked him what he knew about White Center which he had in fact researched.
"I know as much as I've been able to find through the Internet around our business and we want obviously to be of the neighborhood and as much as we can we're going to participate in the fund raising event on the 28th or 29th for the businesses.
We very much want to be woven into the fabric of the neighborhood"
After I turned off my recorder he explained that these are very early days, (he's not even OPEN YET!!) but that it was his plan to give to the food bank, sponsor local events, and do other community outreach. But what that is, right now, is unclear. He's hoping to be a success, not create a franchise, or try to change the community. But it's one step at a time. Let him get it open, make some money, make some mistakes, find his way and make course corrections as he goes along. He's a VERY smart guy, easy to talk to, not full of himself or arrogant. He grew up as he said in a very diverse place.. in Whittier California and White Center reminds him of his boyhood home. He's comfortable here. If he charges more than $8 why should anyone have a problem. Negativity is very easy to spout and pour on things before anyone really knows. Give him a chance. You might end up very pleasantly surprised.
Patrick Robinson
westsideseattle.com
So much negativity in the…
So much negativity in the comments. Let the man breathe, stretch out, make his connections. It’s what America’s all about, right in your backyard.
I would really like to see…
I would really like to see people who actually have lived in the white center community for a long time to open up a restaurant versus people who come from elsewhere. Also, currently right now my quiet neighborhood has become a busy street with cars zooming up and down the street all day long, it’s impossible to take a walk let alone attempt to walk my dog with out almost getting hit by a car. Tons of cars are now parking in residential neighborhoods which did not occur 5 years ago. I know people have a right to park in residential neighborhoods but when I moved to white center over 20 years ago the neighborhoods around me were very quiet and one could walk around without almost getting hit by a speeding car. There is not enough parking in the downtown white center for all these new restaurants and bars ( let alone the circus crazy bar that will be opening that can hold 200 plus people) where on earth are people going to park. Most nights I have to close all windows in my house cause I can hear noise from bars one mile away, the bars have live music bands are actually violating the noise ordinance in this area.
This restaurant is completely overpriced!!
Brady is as creative as it…
Brady is as creative as it gets with a vision on life beyond most I have ever met. He has been a part of a resurgence in community both in Oak Cliff, Dallas, Tx and in Brooklyn. I cannot wait to see what he and his team bring to this community. Congrats to you all! I wish you all the best!
A chef opening a new restaurant is absolutely amazing. I always find this inspiring especially when it’s in an area close to where I live. But the people that live in White Center are not typically wealthy the people that live here will not be able to afford to eat at that restaurant it would just be people coming from outside neighborhoods