Pike Place Market’s Southern Brunch Charmer Is Gone

Some things at Pike Place Market never change, but plenty of shuffles are afoot at the moment: Disappointingly, after a little more than a year in business, well-received Southern restaurant Cycene has closed in Pike Place Market. Another respected Market staple, Country Dough, is closed temporarily for remodeling. And a restaurant called Pasta Casalinga is preparing to open in the former Atrium home of Honest Biscuits, which recently relocated to the new Marketfront expansion.

Cycene owner/chef Hassan Chebaro and his wife Patsy Williams decided to close their restaurant and move back to Kentucky, where they lived previously. Chebaro and Williams started serving their menu of Southern-inspired breakfast, brunch, and lunch centered around sandwiches and grits bowls in November 2016, and the fare was received warmly by critics.

Elsewhere in the Market, hidden behind Emmett Watson’s Oyster Bar, Chinese restaurant Country Dough — which specializes in Szechuan flatbreads (called guo kui) and hand-shaved noodles — is closed briefly for remodeling, according to a hand-written sign on the restaurant’s door. The Yelp page notes that the restaurant is scheduled to reopen on February 12.

Adam H. Callaghan/Eater

And the vacant spot inside the Pike Place Market Atrium wing, home to Honest Biscuits before it relocated to the new Marketfront expansion, will soon become a new restaurant called Pasta Casalinga. Co-owned by Italian cooking school Cucina Casalinga’s Michela Tartaglia, the restaurant promises rustic, handmade pasta dishes. The Facebook page has teasers of styles that may emerge from a La Monferrina extruder, like gigli pasta or “spagghetoni aglio olio e peperoncino.”

Adam H. Callaghan/Eater