Obachine Restaurant Fulfills Rumors: It Closes

The recent closure of ObaChine, one of Seattle's upscale pan-Asian restaurants, was a self-fulfilling prophecy, says the president of the restaurant's parent company.

Frank Guidara, president and chief executive officer of the Wolfgang Puck Food Co., said rumors that the restaurant might close had been circulating for a year.

"We had a great restaurant in Seattle . . . outstanding employees, we had great customers. . . . But no matter what we did, we could not stop the rumors," Guidara said.

ObaChine, the signature restaurant of Wolfgang Puck, a chef of international renown, was his first foray into the Seattle market in 1997. Previously, Puck had wooed Los Angeles celebrities to Spago, a restaurant in Beverly Hills that exhibited an open kitchen and served innovative dishes with eclectic Asian and European touches.

The Seattle ObaChine gained national attention for its opulent decor, but that very decor also brought it trouble.

Designed by Puck's wife and business partner, Barbara Lazaroff, who has an interest in Asian culture, the dining room featured artwork that included Chinese temple reproductions, Buddhas, Asian textiles and Vietnamese paintings.

Last year, a controversial portrait of a demure Chinese man clad in a servant's jacket sparked wide criticism by some who felt the poster was demeaning to Chinese Americans and demanded that it be taken down.

Lazaroff at first promised to remove the offending poster but later changed her mind. It remained on a wall until Monday, when the restaurant closed, Guidara said, "because we realized it was not the whole Asian community, but just a few outspoken people, who protested against it."

Guidara said bad publicity over the painting was not the main reason for the closure, but it was a factor.

Puck's company had two other ObaChines - one in Los Angeles, which is still operating, and another in Phoenix, which shut down recently for lack of business.

"We simply were not making as much profit as in other restaurants, and after all it's just a business."

The other ObaChines featured decor similar to Seattle's, but only Seattle proved so sensitive about it, Guidara said. "I could never understand it. This thing about the poster was very, very strange. Everybody in L.A. and in Phoenix laughed about it. But that's behind us."