What Happened to 5 Corner's Ultra-Rare Josper Oven?

The unexpected shuttering of 5 Corner Market Bar & Kitchen (recounted more fully today by Nancy Leson) got us thinking--what happened to the Josper? When Seattle's Best/Starbucks R&D guy Steve Hayter opened the gastropub just four months ago, one of its most noteworthy features--aside from the glitzy illuminated signage that looked out of place in Ballard--was this fancy charcoal broiler oven. The Josper, which fires up as high as 900 degrees but circulates heat evenly like a convection oven, did unspeakably good things to everything from king oyster mushrooms and cauliflower to chicken and steak. These babies don't come cheap and only a handful of them exist in the US.

Leson says the space is currently for sale, but aspiring restaurateurs can give up their dreams of scoring a slightly used Josper on the cheap. A representative from Wood Stone, the Bellingham company that is Josper's outpost in the US, confirmed that 5 Corner sold the oven back to the company because the ventilation was insufficient and bringing it up to code would be too expensive. To our knowledge, the only one in Seattle is over at Cafe Lago in Montlake.
· 5 Corner Market Down--and Out--After 4 Months in Ballard [Seattle Times]
· All Previous 5 Corner Market Bar & Kitchen Coverage [~ESEA~]
[Photo by Eeliem C/Yelp]