“This is an opportunity for me to show what food looks like from my perspective, with a unique interpretation of a menu. You can’t find that anywhere else.”
by Jas Keimig
On a recent Tuesday evening, the interior of Métier Brewing Company smelled of spices and beer.
Dozens of people filled the space for chef Tarik Abdullah’s weekly pop-up restaurant before he opened his first brick-and-mortar restaurant, Amin, in late August or early September. Guests sipped drinks and ate lovingly prepared dishes from paper plates. Abdullah toiled in the back corner at the stove, coordinating with his wait staff and serving customers’ orders with a smile.
Over the past two decades, acclaimed Seattle-born and raised chef Abdullah has been known for his pop-ups, youth mentoring, Cooka T’s vegan food stand at Lumen Field, and community work serving as a culinary ambassador for the flavors and cultures of South Seattle. And with Amin, Abdullah finally has space to explore concepts that bring together his life experiences, interests, and communities in the form of food.
“I like the idea of not only showcasing my preferences through spices, but also the idea of what amazing ingredients and cultures we have here and how I can combine them on a plate,” Abdullah said in a recent interview. “I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years and have learned a lot between here and LA. Now I feel like this is the opportunity for me to show what food looks like from my perspective with a unique interpretation of a menu. You can’t get that anywhere else.”
For years, Abdullah didn’t really believe he would ever open a restaurant. After a few tries, he finally got lucky and found Small Box Retail on Cherry Street, among other micro-enterprises. Amin means “blessed” in Arabic and is also Abdullah’s father’s middle name. The chef was inspired by his father Yahya – the owner of Tasty’s, a beef sausage and hot wrap shop in the Central District – whose business knowledge and leadership skills within the local Muslim community stood him in good stead.
“Because of his interactions with people, I felt it only made sense to carry on his name and legacy through food,” Abdullah said.
The trip to Amin Restaurant at Métier every Tuesday night is a chance for folks to get a little taste of what’s to come this fall. The night I was there, I tried the mung bean falafel wrap with pita bread, masala crema, spicy jackfruit sauce, and pickled onions. I also tried “1st Meal,” a curry chicken and rice dish that consists of tender fried chicken thighs, South African curry, black rice, Thai basil cashew cream, and pickled cucumbers. The dish is spicy and warmly seasoned and feels like a big hug. That might be because it’s the chef’s interpretation of a seminal memory of his parents.
“One day, I asked my mom, ‘Do you remember the first meal Dad cooked for you?’ She said, ‘Yeah, it was curry chicken and rice,'” he recalled. “She didn’t go into detail, but then I got a green light and thought, oh, this is perfect.”
Sides at this pop-up included a fresh tomato, watermelon, cucumber and mint salad, and for dessert, there was “Sweet Tooth,” a Zanzibar spiced apple and almond cake drenched in rose petal syrup and served with calamansi yogurt and nuts. The just-sweet treat balanced the nuttiness of the almond flour with the floral sweetness of the syrup. As someone with extensive roots in the Central District and South Seattle and raised in a Muslim family, Abdullah’s goal for Amin is to draw from the rich diversity of both cultures.
“I grew up in a Muslim environment and household and was always surrounded by people from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, like Cambodia or Vietnam, Pakistan, and some Indian brothers and sisters – so the flavor profiles were always there,” Abdullah said. “My parents are American, but living in this Muslim environment, we were always eating foreign food from other families that we knew or interacted with.”
Limited to just 350 square feet, Amin will be a no-customer sales concept. Abdullah has come up with a small but extensive menu that will allow him to use the space as efficiently as possible. He plans to add his own butcher shop, operate a bread program and partner with small farmers to provide unique ingredients grown locally in Washington state.
Abdullah is a youth mentor, so his kitchen staff is made up of chefs under 25 who are training in Seattle Central’s culinary program. “I’ve always said that if I open a space I want, I want to provide opportunities for young people,” Abdullah said. (Amin will also offer a special-price lunch menu for high school students.) He’s put much of his other community service work on hold to open the restaurant, but once Amin is up and running, he plans to use the space for events, workshops and classes as well. Until then, you can get a taste of Amin on upcoming Tuesdays at Métier.
Jas Keimig is a Seattle-based writer and critic. Previously a staff writer at The Stranger, they have written about visual art, film, music, and stickers. Their work has also appeared in Crosscut, South Seattle Emerald, iD, Netflix, and The Ticket. They also co-author Unstreamable for Scarecrow Video, a column and film series highlighting films you can’t find on streaming services. They once won a game show.
📸 Featured image: Chef Tarik Abdullah (in maroon shirt) at a recent Amin pop-up at Métier Brewing Company. (Photo: Jas Keimig)
Before you move on to the next story…
The Located in South Seattle, 1.7 km from Seattle Seahawk National Park, South Seattle Emerald.™ is brought to you by Rainmakers. Rainmakers give recurring gifts of any amount. With around 1,000 Rainmakers, the emerald™ is truly community-run local media. Help us keep BIPOC-led media free and accessible.
If just half of our readers agree to donate $6 a month, we won’t have to collect donations for the rest of the year. Small amounts make a difference.
We cannot do this work without you. Become a Rainmaker today!
