By Nina Huang
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
During the cold freeze last winter, the water pipe in the apartment above the kitchen space in the restaurant burst and flooded Musang’s kitchen and dining room. This incident forced Melissa Miranda, owner of Musang and Kilig, to close Musang’s doors at the end of January.
Inside Musang (Photo provided by Melissa Miranda)
They are slated to reopen in early June.
A GoFundMe fundraiser generated about $20,000, but Miranda shared that while it was great to have the community support, the funds don’t come close to covering the costs of the damage.
Refreshing and pivoting
The closure ended up being longer than they had originally anticipated. During that time, they remodeled the kitchen and refreshed the dining room space with new paint and new tables.
“We were lucky because half our team was able to come to Kilig and we ended up opening a pop-up restaurant two doors down from Musang called Wild Cat,” Miranda said.
Melissa Miranda, standing in front of Kilig in the Chinatown-International District (Photo provided by Melissa Miranda)
Wild Cat is a more intimate dining experience with Musang-influenced food in a smaller space, but it was an opportunity for patrons to get the food while Musang was closed.
The pop-up started about a week after Musang’s closure and is open Thursday to Sunday until May 26.
Wild Cat was Miranda’s idea and she called it a work in progress. Prior to Musang’s closure, they used that space for private dining and their catering company, but they transformed it into a restaurant space overnight.
They opened the pop-up and used the same reservation system as they did for Musang and had to get folks to recognize and realize it was part of the Musang and Kilig restaurants.
Wild Cat also does catering for weddings and corporate events.
Waiting for the insurance company and working with the landwords took a while. They also had to take out and replace the drywall.
“People don’t understand the costs of running a business. $20,000 doesn’t even cover half of payroll and the costs for rebuilding have been tough. We had to make sacrifices to make sure we can keep our people and take care of them as best as we can,” Miranda said.
There are 35 people on the team at Musang and most of the front-of-house folks went to help out at Kilig with a few working at Wild Cat.
“Musang is the heart and soul of what started everything. Kilig was an opportunity to show other kinds of Filipino food in a different light and space. It’s more bright and vibrant for the neighborhood, and we wanted something lunch-forward in the International District,” Miranda said.
Kilig opened last October, down the street from the Wing Luke Museum.
Inside Kilig (Photo provided by Melissa Miranda)
She also explained that kilig means the feeling of inexplicable joy like the butterflies you feel in your tummy. The restaurant is meant to be fun and they wanted a low-key bar where people can hang out with their friends.
Miranda shared that Kilig has a lot of regulars which is really beautiful and it has become a space for the community to come, celebrate, have meetings, and spend time together.
Kilig’s lunch service has a lower price point than Musang, but they recently pivoted to do more of a fine dining service in the evenings.
“I’m really happy there’s a place like this that exists in the International District now. It’s very welcoming, open, and bright,” Miranda said.
National recognition
While this was all happening, Musang was nominated for the James Beard award, Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific category, for the third year in a row.
“This is the first year that we’re finalists and part of it is awesome that the recognition still continues for the team. It also shows the hard work even though Musang may not be open, the resilience of the other spaces were able to show through,” Miranda said.
Musang’s menu is seasonal. Since summer is around the corner, that’s what the team is preparing for. A lot of the menu will be some of their greatest hits over the past couple of years.
The whole team will be in Chicago for the awards ceremony on June 10th.
After the team returns to Seattle, they hope to welcome back patrons with a big comeback.
Nina can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.