Just five and a half months after the former Phoenecia at Alki Restaurant closed its doors due to the death of its owner, Seattle icon Hussein Khazaal, it rises again with a grand opening Friday night, Jan. 29, 5pm-11pm. The location is the same, 2716 Alki Avenue SW, but the interior’s carpeting and white tablecloths have been removed to expose the unpolished, retro cement floor and heavily laminated wooden tabletops. Bar seating has also been added. The prices are generally lower, and some of the old dishes will remain, though tweaked slightly.

“We couldn’t even walk inside the restaurant for a month after my father died,” said Hussein’s son, William, 35. His Lebanese-born father died Aug. 7 in his sleep in his West Seattle home. He was 63. Hussein left behind William, Sonya, Nadia, four grandchildren, and his wife of 40 years, Inaam. She is the owner of the new restaurant, simply called Phoenecia.

“After two months we were thinking of selling it, but then decided to reopen it,” said William, a student at Foster business school at UW. "All my dad’s recipes were in his head. Dad’s cook Ali is still here. We hired a chef from Australia, Byron. We were worried with trying to do it exactly the same. I could see people saying, ‘They tried but it’s just not quite the same’ so we didn’t try to duplicate everything. There’s no way to duplicate what he did, not just his dishes, but just his way. He was magical, one-of-a-kind.”

They will now specialize in high-temperature 900- degree cooked pizzas, a new twist to their dad’s pizza recipe. The dough “springs” to give you a crunchy bite on the outside with a bit of smoke taste, but airy on the inside. Truffle pizza, delicata squash pizza, and forged hedgehog mushroom pizza.

“We still have hummus, baba ghanoush and labneh. We’re doing some traditional stuff, but with a twist. We’re doing a lamb curry ratatouille, slightly different than my dad’s lamb curry.

“So many people loved this as a special occasion place but found it too spendy to come all the time. The most expensive dish is $19.

“Half of me thinks that he would probably tell us we’re crazy and should stay out of the restaurant business and the other half of me knows he would be very proud that we were all holding together as a family. It’s mom’s thing and we just have to help her. I mean, she’s our mom, you know? My dad had a really great thing, a great reputation, and we don’t want to ruin 35 years of building that. We definitely want everyone to feel that it still is a homey, not so modern that it’s lost that.”

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