A new Asian fusion restaurant in Searsport offers sushi, poke bowls and unconventional takes on local favorites from a well-traveled chef.
Sakura Harbour, located just over the Belfast line in the space that once housed Rio’s Spiked Cafe, also is part homage by the owner, Supannee Saengwong, to her late mother.
Saengwong is a restaurant industry veteran and daughter of Thai immigrants whose cooking is influenced by her travels to places like the Cayman Islands, Taiwan and Jamaica and her work in various restaurants in the U.S.
Her decades of experience working in Asian cuisine from different cultures is evident in the menu, which ranges from classics like Pad Thai made using her mother’s recipe, to a Thai-style lobster bisque made with lemongrass and coconut cream.
“What I’m trying to do is not traditional,” said Saengwong, whose restaurant is the latest in a surge of small businesses that have opened in Searsport in recent years.
The menu at the restaurant, which celebrated its grand opening on Friday, features a variety of noodles, from Vietnamese vermicelli to ramen to pesto pasta spiked with prik pao, a Thai roasted chili paste.
Korean specialties that can be harder to find in Maine, such as beef bulgogi, kimchi pork stew, and scallion pancakes served with housemade kimchi, also are on the menu.
Saengwong grew up steeped in the restaurant industry in the Boston area, where her parents worked in several Asian fusion restaurants. She has worked in eateries from Miami to Auburn, where she ran Jasmine Cafe until 2018. She also operates three food trucks specializing in Thai food, noodles and boba tea in Maine.
Saengwong closed Jasmine Cafe after eight years in business because she was burned out, but dreamed of someday reopening another.
She didn’t intend for it to happen so soon. Saengwong was looking to rent a kitchen that she would use to supply her food trucks when she came across the Searsport space.
“As soon as I walked in here, everything just attracted me,” she said. “Instead of using the kitchen to prep for the food truck, I decided this would be a great opportunity to start again.”
The restaurant’s septagonal dining room, anchored by a stone fireplace, is both airy and cozy. In a separate room there is a smaller dining area and bar. The restaurant serves sake from several regions, a wide variety of wines, and nonalcoholic beers and drinks. Saengwong enjoys helping patrons pair lesser known beverages with their meals.
To staff her new restaurant, Saengwong brought friends and former colleagues from Miami and Chicago as well as family members, including her father.
The presence of Saengwong’s mother, Somrudee, who died of cancer two years ago, is everywhere in the restaurant. The name, Sakura, is the Japanese word for cherry blossom, reminds her of her mother who loved the flowers.
Many of the recipes are also based on Somrudee’s recipes, including the ones for Korean specialties like kimchi stew that her mother traded with a Korean chef when they worked together at a fusion restaurant.
“I’m just trying to honor her,” she said. “My mother’s recipe has her signature, her flavor in there.”
During the restaurant’s soft launch period, which began in mid-July, Saengwong has been pleasantly surprised by how many locals, many of them small business owners themselves, have come in.
“The locals have been so cute, they’re really generous,” she said. “They want to test it out and make sure that I pass the test.”
Sakura Harbour, located at 357 West Main St. in Searsport, is open 11:30-9 Tuesday through Sunday, and open for dinner only on Mondays.