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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Chow New in Restaurants and Bars: More, More, MORE

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 11:36 AM

tengusushi.com
Sushi coming at you at Tengu.

NOW OPEN:

• The Unicorn on Capitol Hill: a circus-themed piece of striped insanity, with a menu that includes a ton of fried stuff (elephant ears, unicorndogs) and also surprisingly tasty Frenchified pub food (cod in parchment paper with peas-'n'-mashed-potatoes, a bourguignon potpie)

• emmer&rye: chef Seth Caswell's much-anticipated restaurant, replacing Julia's on the top of Queen Anne (read a Chow Bio on Caswell over here)

• The Night Kitchen: an open-all-night restaurant—6 p.m. to 9 a.m.!!!—near Pike Place Market, with a chef who's worked at Brasa and Txori cooking

• Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a burger chain that Paul Constant swears is great, conveniently located near the Thornton Place movie theater at Northgate

• Tengu Sushi: better-than-usual inexpensive conveyor-belt sushi, also conveniently located near the Thornton Place movie theater at Northgate

• Beam's on First Hill, serving steaks and seafood in the gorgeous old-world room that once housed Geneva (then, briefly and reportedly deservedly so, an Italian place called Rustica)

• Table 35: where Ovio Bistro/Ama Ama Oyster Bar were in West Seattle, with a "moderately priced, familiar food menu [that] features tasty items that range from to Kobe burgers to steaks and pasta"

• The Spice Room: reportedly good Thai food in Columbia City

• STILL Liquor and the Lobby Bar: more bars—one nostalgia-based, one gentlemen-oriented—on Capitol Hill

• Sweet Iron Waffles downtown

• Dubsea Coffee in White Center

• Ground Control cafe in Georgetown

FAIRLY NEW and recently written about in The Stranger: Po Dog on Capitol Hill, Mistral Kitchen downtown, Louisa's on Eastlake (under new ownership, newly serving dinner), Cicchetti on Eastlake

DEAD: Luau; Crimson C; Trattoria Mitchelli (and good riddance--from our accurate longstanding dining listing: "The food coming from Mitchelli's kitchen shows the kind of indifference that's not just retrograde, but infuriating")

BACK FROM THE DEAD: the J&M in Pioneer Square, the Scarlet Tree on 65th

CHANGING: Superfancy Lampreia has closed, will become small-plates Bisato, still under Scott Carsberg's mercurial direction; Flying Fish is moving to South Lake Union; vegan favorite Hillside Quickies on Capitol Hill has changed its name to Sage Cafe; Sorrentino on Queen Anne has changed its name to Enza; and Vita cafes will soon be selling beer and wine (as will, FYI, local Walgreens)

COMING SOON: Sullivan's Steakhouse—a big chain for "Steaks, Martinis & Jazz"—downtown, on the site of the Union Square Grill (and the extremely short-lived Lost Lady Cantina); Luc in Madison Valley, from the Chef in the Hat of Rover's; Blueacre Seafood downtown in the vast Oceanaire space, by Kevin Davis of Steelhead Diner; Auto Battery, a sports-ish bar that'll be next to Po Dog on Capitol Hill; Marjorie, reopening on Capitol Hill

Good lord. Time for lunch.

Comments (21) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I LOVE it when you do the bar and/or restaurant roundups! Please keep them coming. I always read about new places and mean to try them eventually, but promptly forget about them.
PS My dining experience at Table 35 a few weeks ago was pretty terrible. I should probably be writing a review instead of typing about it here, though.

Posted by Callie

on February 4, 2010 at 12:06 PM

Christina Choi will be opening Nettletown in the old Sitka & Spruce spot in Eastlake later this month: http://www.eastlakeave.com/2010/02/03/ch…

Posted by Prospero on February 4, 2010 at 12:29 PM

This is fantastic! So helpful, thank you!!

Posted by meggers on February 4, 2010 at 12:56 PM

Great round up, thank you, do more of them...AND SOMEBODY PLEASE GOD OPEN UP A DECENT RESTAURANT IN THE U-DISTRICT!

Posted by stuffandthings on February 4, 2010 at 1:12 PM

Yes, please do this every week.

Also, fuck Trattoria Mitchelli. Assholes.

Posted by chrisrnps

on February 4, 2010 at 1:24 PM

Changing their name to Sage doesn't change the salt level of the food, does it?

Posted by j.lee on February 4, 2010 at 1:38 PM

Just be glad they didn't change the name to Salt.

Posted by chrisrnps

on February 4, 2010 at 1:40 PM

Avoid Five Guys Burger - their burgers are not special just a lot of grease. I had it twice and almost made me throw up afterward. Their fries the portion is huge but again not great - I'd rather have McDonald's fries.

Posted by huhututu on February 4, 2010 at 1:43 PM

What about El Mestizo- the new Mexican place on First Hill/Central District. The best authentic Mexican food to hit Seattle in a long time.

Posted by stevenc on February 4, 2010 at 2:34 PM

Well, perhaps 8, you are correct, and the burgers are all grease, but dear god, they're delicious. And the fries, oh the fries! I am from Virginia, and have desperately missed 5 Guys, and am so happy to help spread the fatty, greasy, feel-bad-later-but-love-it-now happiness. :)

Posted by crystabrittany on February 4, 2010 at 3:15 PM

@1: Yes, please, get in there and write a review—the people need to know (and we might not get out there for a while).

@2/@9: INTERESTING! Thank you.

@others: I always let these stack up too long—will try to be more frequent. Thanks and you're welcome!

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on February 4, 2010 at 3:25 PM

dear seattle, NO MORE THAI RESTURANTS! geez. psyched about trying emmer and rye and mistral kitchen. @9 thanks for the mexican tip, sounds interesting!

Posted by birdy num num on February 4, 2010 at 5:11 PM

In the Red Wind Bar on Phinney:
http://www.seattlemet.com/blogs/sauced/i…

Posted by bella

on February 4, 2010 at 5:47 PM

In the Red Wine Bar on Phinney:
http://www.seattlemet.com/blogs/sauced/i…

Posted by bella

on February 4, 2010 at 5:48 PM

D'oh!

Posted by bella

on February 4, 2010 at 5:48 PM

hailing from nova, i've been to the original 5 guys (arlington), as well as the first expansions (springfield).

they were great. we used to skip lunch in high school for delicious burgers.

so i was pleasantly surprised on my last trip to portland, or so i thought, to see one in beaverton...

the burger was awful. the portions somehow seemed larger. the freshness seemed to be lacking, and the locals, oblivious to the peanuts, were scowling at me for tossing my shells on the floor.

i was also horrendously disgusted by the massive quanitities of morbidly obese folks eating not one, but two of these ginormous greaseballs.

i would actually say dicks is better, and red mill is overwhelmingly better, than five guys.

Posted by mikee on February 4, 2010 at 10:14 PM

Posted by mikee on February 4, 2010 at 10:16 PM

MMM...salt....

Lampreia was always one of those places that I thought I'd eventually get to. I know it was fancypants but I like those place for the experience every decade or so. I had a celebration dinner at Canlis that was worth the price for the waitstaff alone. I'm sorry that Imissed Lampreia, it seemed kind of like a Seattle legend. Anyone eat there?

Posted by Michael Wells on February 5, 2010 at 12:05 AM

@18: I Dined (it demands a capital D) at Lampreia once. The food was intense: each plate a marvel, beautiful and balanced and unusual and excellent, like eating food-jewels. The atmosphere completely blew: It looked like an '80s sitcom Fancy Restaurant, or the idea of an elegant place they'd have in Idaho (with apologies to Idaho: great lakes, excellent trout and huckleberries). I couldn't believe it hadn't been updated; actual dried flowers and mauve (I think, or at least the impression of mauve) walls. Service was all pomp, to an almost ridiculous degree, but I kind of like that when you're paying a million dollars. Hi!

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on February 5, 2010 at 11:33 AM

The amazing thing about the food at Lampreia was that the food was at once simple and complex. That the decor was austere didn't really matter. What Seattlites seem to forget is that it is not about the decor or even the so-called "mercurial" chef but the food. Carsberg is a blue collar kid from West Seattle and his cooking is elegant but not pretentious. i don't know why so many people were intimidated by the service either. It was totally professional and was always all about diners having a good experience. The chef is intense to be sure. But most creative geniuses are. I thought it was kind of surly the first few times I was in there. But then I talked to him and discovered that the guy is super cool. The man's a panda if you can speak his language and be real. Bisato is the same kind of artistry, same high-quality ingredients, in a less formal room with lower price points. If you never had a chance to check out Lampreia I highly recommend going to Bisato when you can. You won't be sorry.

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