Asian Food Is Going Mainstream -- Asia Grille By Leann Chin Aims To Serve Ethnic Foods Niche

First it was Mexican with El Torito, then it was Italian with The Olive Garden, and now the new frontier for casual, moderately priced national chain restaurants is Asian.

It seems like the inevitable next step. After all, Chinese food now is as American as apple pie. And with once hard-to-find Asian food items readily available and increasingly mainstream, restaurant owners are getting another chance to tantalize America's taste buds.

One of those attempting to do just that is Asia Grille by Leann Chin, which just opened a full-service restaurant at University Village this week, bringing a fusion of different Asian cuisines - Chinese, Japanese and Korean - en masse. Entree prices range from $5.95 to $12.95.

Leann Chin Chinese Cuisine already is sold at express locations at seven Seattle-area QFCs, and the company plans to expand that number to at least three more QFCs in Issaquah, Redmond and Federal Way in the coming year.

And if the Asia Grille restaurant does well here, its owners are looking at opening in Kent, Renton and downtown Bellevue, said Ron Fuller, president and chief operating officer for Leann Chin Inc.

The first Asia Grille opened in Eden Prairie, Minn., just outside Minneapolis, this July.

The Seattle area's familiarity with Asian cuisine is part of the reason why Leann Chin Chinese Cuisine chose to come here, Fuller said.

The menu is tailored to consumers' desire for lighter fare. Sashimi-style tuna spring rolls, four mushroom stir-fry and Asian style rotisserie chicken salad are some of the items listed on the menu.

"It's really a melting pot of Asian cuisines," said Fuller. "We look at this as an evolution of our 15 years of experience in the Asian segment."

A study done this year by the National Restaurant Association shows that Italian, Mexican and Chinese cuisines dominate the market for ethnic foods, with 90 percent of Americans having tried them and about one-third eating them more than they were three years ago.

And more than half of Americans have tried Asian food - Chinese and Japanese, the report said. The report did not account for Thai food, which is popular in the Seattle area.

Wendy Webster, a spokesperson for the National Restaurant Association, says it wasn't until recently that the market for Asian restaurant chains began to develop.

"Why had they come so late in the chain game?" Webster asked. "In large part, many Asian restaurants are family enterprises and they have a really strong mom-and-pop heritage," she said.

Leann Chin restaurants also began as family-owned. Founder Leann Chin said she opened her first restaurant in Minnetonka, Minn., in 1980 after teaching cooking classes and opening a catering business.

Her company also owns three buffet-style restaurants, several grocery stores and carry-out locations in Minnesota.

The restaurants were purchased by General Mills in 1985, which owns the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains.

But Chin bought back her company in 1988 with three investors, Chemical Venture Partners (a subsidiary of Chemical Bank), U.S. Venture Partners of Bellevue and Western Presidio Capital of San Francisco.