West Seattle Fears Marination Mobile's Kimchee

Hawaiian/Korean taco vendor Marination Mobile may have won Good Morning America viewers over, but West Seattle is proving to be a bit tougher. Marination submitted the winning proposal to become the new concessionaire at Seacrest Boathouse in Alki, and some West Seattleites have called for and secured a review of the Parks Department decision.

Most neighborhoods in town clamor for Marination to settle down in their 'hood, but West Seattle wants its fish and chips:

A KOREAN restaurant?!??. Are you KIDDING me?! This needs to be a northwest seafood place, hands down. When people come up the ramp from the water taxi, the experience should be a pure, Puget Sound “Welcome”? Kayaks and fish & chips fits?.This is just ridiculous?. I fear kimchee and Segways?. I’m not kidding.

Not a troll folks, though as more information has been revealed, West Seattle Blog commenters have become more sympathetic to Marination's winning bid.

There are passionate defenders for Erik Gallanti's Alki Crab and Fish Company, which has operated at the location for the past ten years. We asked Marination for comment and co-owner Kamala Saxton responded:

Marination is thrilled to have been awarded the contract by the Parks Department to assume the operations of Seacrest. We are excited and honored to have the opportunity to strengthen and deepen our roots in West Seattle, but by no means was it ever our intention to get into a battle with an existing small business, and certainly not to take another small business "out of business." Based on the information presented in the RFP, we honestly assumed that we would be "competing" with all new concessionaire bidders. We respect Alki Fish and Crab's decision to appeal the Parks decision, and we have faith in the Parks due diligence to look into this matter.

Marination assumed that they would be competing with all new bidders, because according to information Alki Fish submitted for public perusal, they have accumulated a $490k loss over the past three years.

Alki Fish and Crab Company

1660 Harbor Ave SW, Seattle, WA