Bush Garden, Soon to Reopen in the CID, Tips Its Hat to 'Uncle Bob' Santos

If you've recently sauntered down Eighth Avenue South in the Chinatown-International District and looked up at the Bush Garden sign, you may have noticed a hat casually mounted on its corner, as if a strong wind had flung an oversized hat onto the sign.

Rather, the permanent sculptural installation is an ode to late Filipino community organizer, panama hat-wearer, and Bush Garden karaoke regular Robert Santos, affectionately known as "Uncle Bob." Designed by the InterIm CDA and fabricated by Haskett Works, the hat was mounted Dec. 18, right before the much-beloved Japanese restaurant and karaoke haven announced they would officially reopen this spring at their new location, after nearly two years of delays.

Uncle Bob regularly held meetings at Bush Garden and was known for his killer karaoke chops before he passed away in 2016. For the community, the sculpture symbolizes his dedication to the CID neighborhood as both a community organizer and resident.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring together so much of the history of the neighborhood. Because [the new Bush Garden] is on the property where Four Seas [Restaurant] used to be. And Uncle Bob, of course, is a legend in the Chinatown-International District in terms of his history of advocacy for the neighborhood," said Karen Akada Sakata, who has owned Bush Garden since 1999. "I feel like it's a unique opportunity coming together to represent that sense of the neighborhood and carry that forward."

Bush Garden's history stretches back to 1953 when Kaichi Seko first opened the restaurant on Jackson Street inside the Bush Hotel. By 1957, it became so popular, Seko moved to Maynard Avenue South, where it would be located until 2021. It became a hot spot for weddings, birthdays, and other community events over the decades, particularly becoming well known for karaoke (they were the first American bar to have karaoke, by the way). Uncle Bob loved to sing at Bush Garden, so much so that Tuesdays became known as "Bob Santos' Night."

Designing and constructing the hat has been years in the making, says Leslie Morishita, InterIm CDA's interim co-executive director. When it was announced in 2023 that Bush Garden would move into the ground floor of Uncle Bob's Place, an affordable housing community spearheaded by InterIm CDA, the organization wanted to honor Uncle Bob's memory and love of Bush Garden.

"We had a sketch and wanted it to look like he just tossed his hat up there and hung it on the corner of the sign," said Morishita. "It's whimsical and fun, a representation of Uncle Bob and how famous he was at Bush Garden karaoke."

Georgetown-based fabrication studio Haskett Works made the giant hat using EPS15 Geofoam to make the sculpture durable and lightweight. According to Bryce Winkler of Haskett, the studio then coated the hat with an exterior foam coat to weatherproof it and make it easy to clean. Despite looking heavy, the final product only weighs somewhere between 20 and 25 pounds, so that it sits on top of the Bush Garden sign without flying away in inclement weather.

On a gray day in early December, people gathered to officially affix the sculpture to the Bush Garden sign. Sakata, Morishita, and others watched as Haskett employees installed the hat. Morishita remembered the outflow of support on that day. "It's a personal touch," she said. "As soon as we put it up, I started getting all kinds of texts. … It just makes people happy. It reminds them of Uncle Bob, but it also reminds them that we're a community."

As for Bush Garden's imminent reopening, Sakata says they are eyeing a spring date. They were meant to reopen back in 2024, but a series of permitting and financial delays mired the attempt. Their new spot is a hop, skip, and a jump from their previous location on Maynard Avenue, which shuttered in 2021 during the early days of the pandemic and was sold in the intervening years.

While it's smaller than the Maynard location, Sakata notes that the new spot has a huge bay of windows as well as access to the community room at Uncle Bob's Place, which makes the space feel even more connected to the neighborhood. And though they are leaning into the new, they also incorporated shoji screens that were used in between the tatami rooms at the old location, to evoke memories from the previous locale. As for the menu, Sakata says it will be a mix of old and new items affordably priced for families. And, of course, karaoke will be going full throttle.

"[Bush Garden] meant so much to so many people. I feel like it almost has a life of its own," said Sakata. "It's not about who I am. I'm the caretaker carrying it over."