2020 James Beard Awards America's Classics Winner: Oriental Mart

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Each year since 1998 the James Beard Foundation Awards Committee has recognized our nation’s beloved regional restaurants. Distinguished by their timeless appeal, they serve quality food that reflects the character of their communities. We anoint these locally owned restaurants with a James Beard Foundation Award and designate them as America’s Classics.


Oriental Mart
1506 Pike Pl., #509, Seattle, WA

Owner: Mila Apostol and Joy Apostol

In 1971, Mila Apostol opened Oriental Mart also known as “O’Mart” in Pike Place Market to give fellow Filipino immigrants the groceries and culture they missed from back home. Eventually, Mila and her eldest daughter Leila raided their store shelves to make adobo and sinigang for farmers delivering produce to the market. Word spread to Filipino flight crews and cruise ship workers, but also to Seattle at large. Today, Mila’s daughter Joy runs the retail side of their market stall, while Leila oversees a counter in the style of the Philippines’ turo restaurants, filling her glass hot case with the fried noodles known as pancit, juicy longanisa, and long-simmered adobo. There’s always sinigang; Leila adapts the classic tamarind-sour soup to its Northwest surroundings with salmon collars procured from neighboring fish vendors.


Learn more about the James Beard Awards: https://www.jamesbeard.org/awards
Watch the full 2020 James Beard Awards broadcast:    • The 2020 James Beard Awards Broadcast  
See more America's Classics videos:    • America's Classics  


Community-focused and independent restaurants are at the heart of every city, town, and village across America and the world. The James Beard Foundation celebrates restaurants that showcase culinary leadership and provides training and resources for chefs and restaurateurs to use their voices for positive food system change.

Open for Good is the James Beard Foundation’s campaign to help independent restaurants survive this crisis, rebuild better, and thrive for the long term. Open for Good programs provide critical resources to help independent restaurants build the capacity to come back stronger, more equitable, more sustainable, and more resilient. Learn more at jamesbeard.org.