Following the demise of the Ama Ama Oyster Bar and Grill new restaurant Table 35 opened its doors for the first time on Jan. 9.
Ama Ama’s last day of business was July 25, the owners citing economic conditions as the reason for closing.

The space did not remain vacant for long, however. Brothers Sammy and Yaz Faour recently sold their Italian restaurant Salute in Bellevue to open Table 35 in West Seattle.
The night of their grand opening they started turning people away at 8:30 p.m., once the crowd inside reached 366, well over twice the restaurants capacity of 150.

Sammy Faour said he was happy with the opening week, saying the biggest challenge has been getting everything to run smoothly, getting the staff into a rhythm.
They have an international menu featuring some of their favorite Italian dishes from Salute, to seafood and hamburgers. Faour said they have been experimenting with the menu, which is slowly growing as new dishes are deemed to have made the cut.

Dim lighting, a piano player in the corner and several screens placed above the bar showing games sets the ambience. You will see jazz pianist Tony Mamon playing every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.
But those are all secondary to the service and the food, Faour said.

“Service and good food, I don’t care what the restaurant looks like,” Faour said. “The big screens all these beads and the lighting, that is secondary. The most important part in the restaurant business, in my opinion, is to make people happy.”
In addition to live piano music, Faour plans to begin having an opera show, beginning the second Sunday in March. He said they did it at Salute for the seven years they owned it.

Faour also emphasizes the restaurant is family friendly. With two daughters himself, he said when he lived in New York he would not go to a restaurant that would not allow children.

“In Bellevue I had fine dining with table cloths and I allow children,” Faour said. “I am a parent and we are children friendly.”
Having been in the service and hospitality business for 30 years Faour says he has been doing it most of his life. He used to live in New York where he owned gas stations, convenience stores and Subway franchises. While he was doing that he also worked as a server in what he described as some of the biggest restaurants in New York City.

His passion for food comes from his family. “The whole idea of food comes from the family. My father and my mom love to cook, they were always in the kitchen. It was contagious,” Faour said.

The unusual name Table 35 comes from table 35 at Salute. Faour said they called it the family table. “That’s where I sat with my family, with my friends, with my vendors, with the sales reps and all the dealers,” Faour said. “Everything happened there. So one time a friend of mine said, you know what Sammy, you should really open up a restaurant and call it Table 35. I said you know what, that’s a great idea.”

That conversation with his friend was over a year ago, before he and his brother were thinking about selling Salute. He said the idea stuck in his head and he immediately thought of it when choosing a name for their new restaurant.
Table 35 is located on California Ave. and Edmunds. You can check out their menu at their website www.table35.com or go to the restaurant and experience it firsthand.