Cascade Garden Closed By Fire

Issaquah noodle junkies are going to have to look somewhere else for their fix. At least for the time being.

Earlier today, I reported on the good news that those working downtown, in the neighborhood of 3rd and Madison, now have a new option for Indian food with the long-awaited opening of Pabla Punjabi Cuisine. Unfortunately, I guess we're in one of those close a door/open a window kind of situations, because all you Eastsiders out in Issaquah? You just recently lost a place for Chinese food with the (hopefully temporary) closure of the beloved Cascade Garden, tucked away in the plaza at 1580 NW Gilman Boulevard.

How do I know it's closed? Because I happened to be out and about at two in the morning when the fire trucks were rolling all over the plaza. This was Thursday night (well, Friday morning, I guess), and all the blinky lights caught my eye. Poking around as best I could, I saw that the bulk of the firemen were concentrated around the back corner of the plaza, so I figured it was going to be bad news for Cascade or one of the other couple local businesses that make their homes there.

Today, I stopped by again and saw the sign up on the front door saying that, due to some "kitchen repairs," Cascade was going to be closed for some unknown amount of time. The fire originated in the galley at Cascade and was contained mostly to the stoves and hood system.

This is all good news. Well, not the fire, but you know what I mean. What's even better news is that owner Andy Liu had all his insurance bills paid up and, according to the Issaquah Press, is hoping to reopen soon.

Right now, Liu is looking at around six to eight weeks before he gets Cascade up and running again. And when I was there today, it looked as though things were already under way since there were contractor's trucks all over the parking lot. There's no estimate posted on the Cascade Garden website just yet, but Liu has put up a note about the fire urging his regulars to "check back for updates on a re-opening date."