/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60740425/china_20pie_20FB.0.0.jpg)
The unusual combination of offbeat pizzas and dumplings at Fremont’s China Pie (sometimes written as Chinapie) is no more. There’s been no announcement on social media, as is common when restaurants close, but Yelpers have reported the business as closed and the phone line is disconnected. Neither China Pie nor sibling restaurant Pomerol responded immediately to requests for comment via Facebook.
Chef Vuong Loc, whose next-door French restaurant, Pomerol, has been around since June 2014, opened China Pie in November 2016. The menu’s Asian and Italian mashup included wood-fired pizzas with toppings like caramel fish sauce, cilantro pesto, jalapeno, and mozzarella. Complementing the pies were dumplings served in broth or chili sauce, plus seasonal salads.
Loc’s offbeat pairing was largely successful; reviewers at the Stranger and the Seattle Times gave the restaurant high marks, as did Yelpers. “The pizza is great, the dumplings aren’t bad, and a handful of eclectic snacks, salads and small plates round out the menu,” said The Times’s Providence Cicero, who awarded the restaurant a very solid two and a half stars.
Loc opened Pomerol in June 2014 after selling his Queen Anne restaurant Portage. He was also an owner of Greenwood’s Pig ‘N Whistle (now the Angry Beaver’s home) and Madrona’s June (where Ethan Stowell’s Red Cow now lives).