Wanting to create a second home for the community, Maria and Ricky Eng came up with the casual concept of their new restaurant, the BeachHouse Bar & Grill that opened at Houghton Beach last week.
“People have beach houses to go there and relax and get away from everything else,” Ricky said. “We wanted to create for our guests a place to go and hang out. Come here to let us take care of you.”
The BeachHouse, which celebrated its soft opening last week, is a casual restaurant that offers a universal menu, from the all-American cheeseburger ($9) and wild salmon BLT ($13), to seared rare ahi tuna ($10) and fish tacos (cod, $12; halibut, $14).
During the soft-opening event, patrons like Luz Jauregui and Miguel Resesndez of Bothell came by from open until close to order up a free dish.
“I like it a lot, especially the view,” said Resesndez, who enjoyed Beachhouse crab cakes ($11) and a 10 ounce rib-eye steak (hand-cut in house, served with sautéed mushrooms, rosemary garlic butter, fried onion strings, mashed red potatoes and seasonal vegetables, $19).
Jauregui added the restaurant is “nice and comfy.”
Nearby, Bob and Sandy Bird – self-described true restaurant aficionados – enjoyed a four-course lunch, including halibut fish and chips ($14) and a banana-split sundae.
The Lake Stevens couple gets around to many Eastside restaurants because of their company, T&M Restaurant Repair.
“We’ve been to a lot of openings where everything is missing or things go wrong – this is professionally done,” Sandy said, adding the prices are reasonable and she thinks the owners will do well.
After the event, the Reporter sat down with the Engs to find out what makes the BeachHouse unique.
Reporter: How did the soft opening go?
Ricky: We were crazy busy. But overall, being our first time opening a brand new restaurant, I’m very satisfied how it went.
Reporter: What was the turn out?
Ricky: On the books, just for reservations, we had 203.
Reporter: What kind of feedback did you receive?
Maria: Several times, (we heard) it’s just what Kirkland needs. Everyone was so excited, all the neighborhood people are really supporting us and so glad we’re here and love the changes we’ve done and think we have a really good shot at making it.
We just feel like this is going to be their local hangout.
Ricky: They like the menu. It’s simple, yet exciting. And to come back to their old hangout, which has been freshened up from head to toe, makes it that much more special for people who used to come here.
Reporter: What was here before?
Ricky: Originally, it was the Fog Horn for 20 or 25 years … then it became an Italian bistro.
Reporter: Tell us a little about yourselves.
Maria: We’re Northwest natives. We’ve been married almost five years. We have a daughter, Ashley, and another girl on the way. I’m a stay-at-home mom right now, but I’ve definitely been here helping out quite a bit.
Ricky’s been an executive chef for about 11 years and this was always a dream of his.
So we’ve been looking for a few years, just casually seeing what’s on the market, locations to start a restaurant. We didn’t want to rush into anything. So when this became available to us, we were like, oh my God, we can’t be patient anymore. We have to jump on this. And it was at a time in the economy when everyone’s scared and not really going to jump into something like this. So we were just crazy enough to try it.
Reporter: What was it about this spot and the city of Kirkland that you liked?
Ricky: I started my career in Kirkland down at Newport Bay restaurant as a line cook and worked my way to their executive chef.
Maria: This location in particular is exciting because there’s the waterfront. Just the feel and the size of the building (3100 square feet), it’s not too big, but it’s not just a tiny restaurant.
When we took it over, it needed a lot of work. So we found that challenge exciting to make it our own.
Reporter: How did you come up with the concept of the Beach House Bar & Grill?
Ricky: The menu, the concept, it’s my style of cooking. It’s simple, but exciting. You can go to a lot of restaurants and read their menus and they’ve got these big fancy words, and we’ve structured our menu to be simple. So that when you do get your food, you get that wow factor. A lot of people, when you read a menu, you’re thinking it’s a great dish, but when they deliver it wasn’t so great as what the menu said. I like to leave it nice and simple, but when I actually present you the food and you bite into it, you get that bold flavor and freshness.
Reporter: Can you give us some examples?
Ricky: A lot of my sauces and burgers are just infused with flavors.
Maria: We try to use as many natural ingredients as we can. A lot of natural chicken. Our price point is so reasonable, because usually if you are getting those kinds of ingredients, you’re being charged an arm and a leg. I mean, we’re really reasonable in our pricing.
Ricky: There’s nothing over $20 on our menu. Our core menu is $10-$12.
Reporter: How would you describe the ambiance?
Maria: Like a second home to people and just fun.
Reporter: Who came up with the name “Beach House”?
Reporter: What makes the Beach House unique?
Ricky: The location. And number two, we’re away from everyone else. I think the dining experience here is just a different feeling from being downtown in the midst of all those restaurants of people just walking by you on the sidewalk. It’s a beach house and a little more intimate.
Reporter: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Maria: We’re happy to finally be open. We’re excited that we have our own private dock to offer people this summer to tie up to and come in. We’re the only restaurant on the water that have their own private dock. So we really want to market that and we’ll be offering dockside service where you can tie up and come in and dine or you can call in ahead of time and we’ll run it out to your boat.
Dine Out
The BeachHouse Bar & Grill is located at 6023 Lake Washington Blvd. N.E., Kirkland
For information, call 425-968-5587 or visit www.beachhousekirkland.com
