Five tables, no chairs: Inside Beecher’s founder’s new Redmond steakhouse

A new steak restaurant from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese founder Kurt Dammeier offers customers a place to eat, but nowhere to sit.

Yukon, which Dammeier launched with his son, Liam, opened Oct. 19 in Redmond’s Rail District building. The 1,500-square-foot restaurant has five tables and no chairs, a design meant to encourage customers to stand, eat, and socialize, according to The Puget Sound Business Journal.

The quick-service concept pairs American wagyu beef with a streamlined menu and kitchen. Dammeier told The Puget Sound Business Journal he wants to reach diners looking for fast, healthy meals while offering quality steak at prices below those associated with a traditional steakhouse.

A smaller menu keeps steakhouse costs down

Steak plates cost $17.99 to $28.99 and include potatoes and salad. Customers choose from two steak cuts, served in bite-size pieces, and three sauces. A steak sandwich and prawns rotate onto the menu.

The limited selection is central to the business model. Dammeier said the kitchen was designed to reduce equipment and labor needs. Yukon employs 10 people.

“We’ve basically wrung out all the cost of running a steakhouse,” Dammeier told The Puget Sound Business Journal.

He cited Raising Cane’s, the chicken restaurant chain known for its tightly focused menu, as an inspiration. Rather than offering the broad selection common at steakhouses, Yukon concentrates on a smaller number of dishes.

The restaurant also represents a shift in how Dammeier develops new concepts. He described Yukon as a team effort that incorporated ideas from younger employees, rather than relying primarily on his own dining preferences.

“This is the first restaurant I’ve done where I wasn’t making it just for me,” he told The Puget Sound Business Journal.

Dammeier said Yukon’s target customers are between 25 and 45, although he wants the restaurant to appeal to people outside that age range as well.

Yukon brings Sugar Mountain’s steak expertise to Redmond

Yukon is the fifth concept in the portfolio of Sugar Mountain, the company Dammeier founded in 1999. Its businesses include Beecher’s, Pasta & Co., Mishima Reserve and The Butcher’s Table.

Dammeier bought Seattle’s Pasta & Co. in 2002. His existing steak businesses approach the category differently: Mishima Reserve is an American wagyu beef line, while The Butcher’s Table in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood operates as a more traditional steakhouse.

Yukon takes that experience into a smaller, faster-service setting, with fewer menu choices and a dining room built around standing tables.

The restaurant is the first tenant to open in the Redmond Rail District building at 16421 Cleveland St. The property’s owners have also signed leases with Shake Shack, Joe & the Juice and Hawaii-style bodega 45th Stop and Shop, The Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

For Dammeier, the deliberately narrow approach reflects a broader company philosophy: Build something that strongly appeals to a particular audience rather than trying to satisfy everyone.

He expressed confidence that customers will embrace the concept once they try the food.

“I have no fear — it’s going to work,” Dammeier told The Puget Sound Business Journal. “We believe in the product; it just needs to get trials.”

For now, those first visits come with one requirement: standing.

Manda Factor is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. Follow Manda on X and email her here. 

Follow @MandaFactor