TOMO is comfortable fine dining with a focus on collaboration

Every restaurant has its own heartbeat, its own spirit.

“A restaurant is like a living, breathing thing. It goes in the direction you feed it,” said Brady Ishiwata Williams, chef/owner of TOMO.

For Williams, TOMO is a reflection not just of himself and his heritage, but also the ideas and perspectives of all those who contribute to it.

“I think that kickstarts your own creative energy. That’s what we’ve seen here. It’s super exciting and I think we’re a better restaurant for it,” said Williams.

A James Beard Award winner, Williams spent some six years as the executive chef of Canlis.

Watch: Canlis, a magnum opus

In 2021, he decided the time was right to set out on his own and found a home in the heart of White Center.

“I love this neighborhood. It reminds me a lot of the neighborhood I grew up in, which is in Southern California. It’s a very diverse community. I like to say it’s a neighborhood of specialists. There’s a lot of people doing really great things . They’re just doing the best at whatever it is they do and they offer it in this community. We love being here,” said Williams.

At TOMO, Williams and his team serve an ever-changing 5-course menu, inspired by the seasons and whatever product is best at the moment.

“We try to straddle that line between being a neighborhood drop-in place and also a place that feels like you want to make a special night of it,” Williams explained.

When first conceptualizing the restaurant, one of the most intentional decisions Williams made was placing an emphasis on collaboration.

“You work your whole career to do your own thing and then you realize it’s not about you,” said Williams. “When you work with really talented people, it’s just this constant conversation and discourse around what we’re doing, what is good, what is cool, what we could be doing better. Then, it builds on itself.”

Read: The love story behind celebrated restaurant TOMO in White Center

That spirit of collaboration manifests itself not just internally, but also with events like ‘Buds: a TOMO Dinner Series.’

“Buds is really just an excuse to cook with friends,” Williams explained. “We started planning it a year ago, maybe even before we opened the restaurant. There was probably a list of 30 chefs we started with. Jay (Blackinton) was always at the top of the list.”

During our visit, TOMO was hosting Jay Blackinton. A six-time James Beard Award nominee and one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs in 2017, Blackinton and his wife, Jocelyn, are the owners of Hogstone on Orcas Island.

“We cook with food from our surrounding area and we just try to make it better in whatever way we can,” Blackinton explained. “Then, we also do pizza and we try to do that really well.”

“Jay is an incredibly thoughtful and principled chef,” said Williams. “His food is tasty. His food is soulful. Hogstone really is a restaurant that is so easy to love and so comfortable to be at. This is an opportunity for us to bring him to Seattle for one night and just show how talented of a boss hey is.”

For Blackinton, this dinner was particularly meaningful. Hogstone shut down during the pandemic, then a nightmarish remodel with countless delays and ballooning costs nearly forced him to close the restaurant for good. Though he had been running regular pizza pop-ups, the meal represented a real return to the kitchen.

“It’s exciting. It’s also scary,” said Blackinton. “We haven’t cooked like this in well over a year. No — three years. No one has been in our dining room in almost three years.”

“There are a few (dishes) that, when we put it down, we’re like this is the best we have right now. So yeah, we’re just picking up where we left off in 2020.”

Two chefs, two restaurants coming together for just one night. And yet, both taking something from the meal that will last much longer.

“I hope people know that we’re still here. This is what we want to do. We’re still doing it,” said Blackinton.

“This creative energy is contagious and infectious,” said Williams. “We walk away from these experiences with something we’ve taken away and we’re adding to our restaurant because we were inspired by our time cooking together.”

Learn more about TOMO here.