The Stumbling Goat's Seth Caswell finally has his own place, Emmer & Rye, at the top of Queen Anne where Julia's was. (I met Caswell two summers back at the amazing carnivorous feast-in-a-field Burning Beast and haven't seen him since, though I heard one potential space for the restaurant got frustratingly far along before falling through.)

Emmer & Rye's local/seasonal menu—check it out here—doesn't sound surprising anymore (which is a good thing), but it does sound delicious, so I went up there last night and had the honor of being the very first table at 5 p.m.

The space, which is in an old house, still feels like brunch at Julia's, with old-fashioned wooden chairs and decorations of the farm-tools-and-antique-photos ilk, more ye olde Americana than the rustic-Italy template. It's not a style I especially admire, but I do admire Emmer & Rye for taking over the place and getting up and running in a matter of weeks, decor be damned.

And the food is good. A dish of cauliflower, foraged mushrooms, and wild greens didn't look like much, but walnut oil rounded out the earthy healthiness, making it something people actually fought over. The other undeniably great menu item (so far): goat crepinette—meat and herbs chopped together and formed into rustic sausages—that'll be changing minds about goat right and left. It's meaty yet light, served with slippery/snappy black trumpet mushrooms and a butternut gratin that practically floated up off the plate.

Service was, of course, not 100 percent smooth, but they acknowledged bumps and had a sense of humor about it, which for me is all it takes to make a little sloshed drink or a moment of whose-plate-is-whose totally forgivable.

The place was full up when I left at 7 p.m. Didn't see Caswell—there's no fancy open kitchen here—so congratulations, sir.

You should go try it out, but better call for a reservation.