A 5,803-square-foot Korean barbecue restaurant is targeting a September opening on NW Market Street, filling a prominent ground-floor retail space in a corridor where three businesses have announced departures this summer.

Exit 5 Korean BBQ, the family-run all-you-can-eat spot co-owned by Mison and Max Kang, will occupy the corner storefront of the Ballard Independent apartment building at 2318 NW Market St. An employee confirmed the timeline to My Ballard on Tuesday, Aug. 4: "Maybe in September," they said.

The Kangs opened their first Exit 5 location in Renton in 2019 after nearly 30 years of planning. According to an Intentionalist profile, the couple always dreamed of starting a restaurant from scratch.

Mison Kang designed the Renton space to mirror the street markets she grew up with in South Korea, complete with '90s Korean pop music and built-in ventilation fans under each table grill that eliminate barbecue smoke.

The Ballard location will be their second restaurant. Exit 5 first announced its Ballard plans in August 2024, meaning the build-out has stretched roughly two years. The space sits inside the seven-story, 238-unit mixed-use building developed by Holland Residential.

At the Renton location, all-you-can-eat lunch runs $23.99, dinner $32.99 and premium dinner $38.99. Ballard pricing is unannounced.

Three departures, two arrivals on NW Market Street

The opening arrives against a summer of closures along Ballard's commercial corridors. September, a clothing boutique at 5410 22nd Ave NW, announced in late July that it would shut down after 10 years. Koshari, the family-run vegetarian restaurant inside Salt & Sugar, said it would leave its Ballard space after Aug. 15 and pause operations while searching for a new location. And Salmon Bay Paddle, the surf ski and SUP school Rob Casey ran for 16 years, is winding down classes through the end of August before closing permanently.

Exit 5 is not the only new tenant betting on the corridor. Petit Pierre, a French bakery, is also moving into the former Starbucks space at 2200 NW Market St.

The restaurant's website now features a "Ballard Location Updates" section directing customers to its Instagram account for construction progress. No confirmed grand opening date has been set beyond the September target.