Shota Nakajima Will Open Banzai Teriyaki in Cle Elum The Top Chef favorite heads east with char-grilled chicken and a seattle’s best teriyaki rooftop patio. Shota Nakajima, photographed for Seattle Met’s winter 2020 issue. Shota Nakajima is readying a restaurant called Banzai Teriyaki that offers everything from elegant appetizers to a kids menu to a massive rooftop patio. The news you perhaps weren’t expecting: This project is located in Cle Elum.
Eric Bolstad to launch a preternaturally fresh-tasting teriyaki sauce under his Make Umami label. Bolstad, as it happens, also owned real estate in downtown Cle Elum. Nakajima knows the area well as a jumping-off point for his frequent mushroom foraging trips. The idea, says the chef, is to bring more restaurants and nightlife businesses to this pocket of Central Washington, 80 miles east of Seattle on I-90. The Banzai team believes this will be the first rooftop deck in the Cle Elum and Roslyn area. The location at 219 First Street also portends plenty of excitement from Seattleites who visit nearby Suncadia. Banzai’s menu centers on teriyaki, as you might imagine.
Though dive bars don’t usually offer duck spring rolls, mochi ice cream parfaits, and sake. Seattle artist Shogo Ota of Tireman Studios will imbue the space with the same frenetic Osaka nightlife vibe he lent to Taku. Upstairs, the rooftop can hold more than 100 people. Artist Shogo Ota, who also had a hand in Taku’s vivid aesthetic, painted a large-scale mural for the space. Grilled chicken in sweet soy sauce is one of the few foods Nakajima actually enjoyed as a little kid. Nakajima remembers visiting Toshi Kasahara’s seminal Toshi’s Teriyaki Grill restaurant as a kid. He grew up with Kasahara’s kids and would go with them to watch their dad char-grill chicken thighs at Seattle’s first teriyaki shop.