Best of the City

Best Bars 2013

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:07:00 -0700

40 Seattle bars where the adventurous food is as sophisticated as the artisanal cocktails

Where to Eat Now: In a Bar!

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:00:00 -0700

Foie gras with Brussels sprouts

Boozestro?? Liquafe? Distillaurant?

Alas, the English language lacks just the right word for places that bill themselves primarily as cocktail bars but have real ambition in their food.

Sure, plenty of restaurants have adjoining bars; plenty of pubs offer, well, pub food. Those aren’t these. Gastropub? Not exactly. Pub doesn’t quite capture the 100-proof soul of these joints. No, we’re talking about an elevated hybrid of artisan bistro and craft liquor bar—sometimes a little more of one or the other, but always an artful cocktail of the two.

They usually purvey small plates. They often don’t pay much attention to the timing of food delivery, or bother with reservations. So many are thriving across the Seattle area it’s beginning to seem like a bona fide regional cuisine—with news of more landing on our desks daily, from the Old Sage (the guys behind Spur and the Coterie Room) to Radiator Whiskey (from the Matt’s in the Market folks). Even that old warhorse Von’s has recast itself as Von’s 1000 Spirits GustoBistro.

Gustobistro? Well, someone ought to give a name to these places! Until one sticks, we’ll just give you the best of them.

The Throwbacks

Cutting-edge and classic cocktails in an old-timey setting

Image: Kyle Johnson

Canon a Chet Baker cocktail

Canon
928 12th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-552-9755; canonseattle.com

Canon boasts craft cocktails for thinking drinkers, a startling captain’s list (the deepest bench of Bourbons and whiskeys around, 36 varieties of absinthe, more chartreuse than some bars have gin, you get the idea), novelties like spirit flights and “shrouded roulette” (you name the spirit, they mix the mystery), and some of biggest celeb barkeeps in the biz. All in a twinkling and sepia-lit room, with just enough tables or bar stools to accommodate demand. Sophisticated noshes tend toward the meaty and substantial—including a well-cooked petite tender over vegetables—but make no mistake: The finesse in this house
is liquid.

The edge goes to: The booze, of course

Who’s here:
20% Off-duty Seattle U law professors
30% Online daters (including a number from the “women seeking women” category)
50% Bartender geeks who just want a glimpse of the Great Ones

The Gerald
5210 Ballard Ave NW, Ballard, 206-432-9280; thegeraldseattle.com (all ages until 8pm)

The Gerald’s owners might weary of Mad Men comparisons, but the low-lit midcentury modern lounge injects retro elegance to the teeming scene on Ballard Ave. And one of the best drinks in the house is named the Draper Point, an old fashioned made new with black tea–apricot liqueur, sweet vermouth, and nutmeg. Seasoned meatloaf in entree and slider form also evokes serious midcentury Americana. And the fried cheese curds? Beecher’s, of course, with sriracha-infused ketchup and mustard aioli.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s here:
10% Guys with slightly shaggy beards
45% Young couples deep in conversation
10% First-timers wondering why it’s not more crowded
35% The type of sports fans who don’t own jerseys (the big screen comes out on game days)

Grim’s
1512 11th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-324-7467; grimseattle.com

An Edison-bulbed, reclaimed-wood prototype of a Capitol Hill bar (there’s a pulsating dance club upstairs), Grim’s surprises with a magnificent and deeply unironic tuna noodle casserole sparked with black pepper and fresh chives. It’s comfort food that doesn’t make a big deal about it. Imbibable highlights include the Root of All Evil, resembling a frosty Barq’s with the gentle bite of Bourbon.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
45% Guys in hoodies
45% Girls in hoodies
10% An older crowd than you would expect

Knee High Stocking Company
1356 E Olive Way, Capitol Hill, 206-979-7049 (text only); kneehighstocking.com

Knee High Stocking Company’s roster of regulations—“This is a small bar, we may ask for your table after you’ve finished… We don’t have Jagermeister, nor any drink that ends in ‘bomb’ ”—may send you fleeing for the wagon. Don’t be rash. Text for a table at this tiny Capitol Hill speakeasy, ring the bell, and you’ll be greeted by the bartender and servers in vintage-inspired attire. Nibble lamb sliders with fries and seriously poppable spicy tater tots; and savor the loveliness of cocktails seasonal and classic, including a blue-ribbon Moscow mule.

The edge goes to:The booze (in spite of the seriously compelling fact that there’s deep-fried pie from A La Mode for dessert)

Who’s here:
50% Rebels, zealots, activists, and tyrants—or those who fancy themselves such
50% Fourth dates initiated by someone bent on dazzling

Tavern Law / Needle and Thread
Tavern Law, 1406 12th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-322-9734; tavernlaw.com
Needle and Thread, 1406 12th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-325-0133

From the duo behind Spur Gastropub, the Coterie Room, and the soon-to-open haunt for booze and smoked meats the Old Sage, Tavern Law is Dana Tough and Brian McCracken’s period piece: a smoky speakeasy without the smoke, amber lit and ambience rich, down to long-stemmed red roses in the ladies room. Food is highbrow renditions of lowbrow crowd-pleasers—mac and cheese with duck-fat bread crumbs, honey-drizzled fried chicken over kale—and booze is an impressive lineup of Prohibition-era sours, flips, punches, fizzes, and housemade innovations. Upstairs, Needle and Thread functions as—shhhhhh!—an intimate speakeasylike business within a business. Simply find the door of the antique safe and use the phone adjacent to see if Needle can accommodate you and your moll.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s at Tavern Law:
10% Posers shopping screenplays
10% Comfort-foodies who tolerate the booze for the mac and cheese
20% Theater majors from Seattle U
20% Gay singles on the prowl
40% Distillery buffs

Who’s at needle and Thread:
50% Ambitious romantics impressing their dates
50% Booze geeks asking, “Is the gin infused with Earl Grey tea or just bergamot?”

The SPECIALISTS

One thing (rum, vodka, noodles, etc.) done very well

Image: Kyle Johnson

Rumba An impressive wall of spirits

The Augustus
3601 Fremont Ave N, Ste 207, Fremont, 206-547-5101; theaugustusseattle.com

Seattle is a magical place where unpretentious neighborhood watering holes just happen to serve scratch cocktails alongside gonzo housemade sausages stuffed with kalbi or brisket and pork belly. Or so it goes at the Augustus, a mellow spot in central Fremont. Owner and barkeep Robb Sheldon likes his drinks spirit forward and rooted in the classics, and those elaborate sausages come from the kitchen of sibling neighbor Hunger. So do all the house mustards, the sriracha mayo, and the habanero vinegar that perfectly dresses the pile of potato chips alongside the sausages.

The edge goes to: The food—unless you’re a vegetarian

Who’s here:
20% Couples sitting side by side in booths
25% Sausage-fueled bromances
55% Fremonsters playing board games or watching TV on the sofas

Bait Shop
606 Broadway E, Capitol Hill, 206-420-8742; baitshopseattle.com

Linda Derschang’s wood-paneled and nautically themed new joint on Broadway could have sprung from a Wes Anderson movie. At Bait Shop, fried chicken is coated with tiny shavings of frozen dough, dehydrated overnight until it has a “cornflake bread-crumb texture.” The batter for the true cod fish-and-chips is pressurized into a foam that delivers a whisper-thin, tempuralike crust. The drinks aren’t quite as technical, but few can resist the frozen Painkiller, a sunny blend of pineapple juice and rum that merrily churns away in a slushy machine behind the bar.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
5% Taxidermy fish
60% Hillebrities
35% Girlie-drink drunks

Bar Sajor
323 Occidental Ave S, Pioneer Square, 206-682-1117; barsajor.com (all ages)

Calling Matt Dillon’s new Bar Sajor a bar is like calling one of Matt Dillon’s meals a snack—but that’s how the lauded chef (Sitka and Spruce, the Corson Building) refers to the lineup of chickens roasted on a custom-built rotisserie, cured seafood, and vegetables (fermented, pickled, roasted). The corner space is Old World glorious—soaring ceilings, antiqued white brick, a blazing wood oven filled with roasting birds—and already, before we can fairly review the food, abubble with fans who don’t need to be told to love it. They are drinking a beautifully curated selection of Euro booze, ciders, aperitifs, and digestifs. They are eating those chickens in house or from a takeout window. They are reviving the pedestrian heart of Pioneer Square.

The edge goes to: Don’t you think we’re dying to find out?!

Who’s here on Opening Weekend:
50% Food writers, bloggers, and Twitterati
50% Their readers

Copper Gate
6301 24th Ave NW, Ballard, 206-706-3292; thecoppergate.com

The ghosts of a thousand hammered Vikings haunt Copper Gate, a refashioned dive, which tips its sailor hat to Ballard’s working-class Scandinavian roots with quirky decor (by which we mean pictures of women’s breasts) and a kickass selection of Danish and Norwegian aquavits. These, plus infused vodkas and flavor tweaks from lingonberry to fennel, lend the cocktail list refreshing novelty. The food completes the Scandinavian theme with distinction: pickled herring, aquavit-braised short ribs, dill-speckled crunchy fries, even the genuinely terrific house signature Swedish meatballs with celeriac mashed potatoes and lingonberry preserves.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
30% Young Ballard scenesters
20% Ballard geezers
30% Boozers in baseball caps
20% Prurient regulars

Liberty
517 15th Ave E, Capitol Hill, 206-323-9898; libertybars.com

As unpretentious a joint for craft cocktails as exists in this town, this frayed rec room of 15th boasts community esprit all around. The brown drinks and the sushi: strange bedfellows, but emblematic of the passions of owners who are kinda nerdy—in the best way—about both. This list has everything, but mostly Bourbons, ryes, and whiskeys—over 120 of them, including Japanese whiskeys—neat or in artful cocktail form. As for the sushi, it is very fresh and better and broader in scope than you were expecting from a bar.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s here:
50% Boys who didn’t comb their hair
50% Girls who didn’t put on makeup
100% People who walked (parking’s a pain)

Rumba
1112 Pike St, Capitol Hill, 206-583-7177; rumbaonpike.com (all ages until 8pm)

Tango’s rum-focused sibling bar exudes a languorous Havana vibe and fashions its signature spirit into a festive tiki drink, four perfectly balanced types of daiquiri on shaved ice, or something deep, dark, and moody as Papa Hemingway on a bad bender. Latin-tinged bar food includes spicy-sweet wings that are smoked, then fried, and tacos with sophisticated fillings like sauteed summer squash and pork dusted with peppery achiote. Save room for a sipping rum to finish off the night; a seat at the bar doubles as a fascinating seminar in the spirit’s regional nuances.

The edge goes to: The booze…wow

Who’s here:
25% Theatergoers
25% Rum scholars
50% Grownups

The Saint
1416 E Olive Way, Capitol Hill, 206-323-9922; thesaintsocialclub.com (all ages until 10pm)

Most people arrive with the express purpose of drinking. But under the watchful gaze of all those black-and-white matador photos, imbibers consume tortillas stuffed with tender, slow-roasted lamb or chicken smothered in a 21-ingredient mole. The tequila list is vast, and cocktails thereof range from simply citric to face-fanning spicy.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s here:
30% Girls nights out—squeeee!!!!
20% Whiskey and gin lovers getting acquainted with tequila
50% After-work groups who will be really hung over tomorrow

Venik Lounge
227 Ninth Ave N, South Lake Union, 206-223-3734; veniklounge.com

Even the water is cucumber-infused at this quiet bar next to a Russian spa. It’s intimate with a mellow groove—but one sip of a dill- or kumquat- or dark chocolate–infused vodka and you start imagining the genius chemists who must be in back madly creating. A vodka infusion is de rigueur, either in a trio flight or as a swooner like the Checkmate: a brilliant red cocktail of beet vodka, fresh orange, honey, salt, and orange bitters. Appetizer plates provide more ballast than interest.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s here:
93.2% Off-duty Amazonians
6.8% Homesick Muscovites

The EuroZone

A boozier take on the Continent’s small-plate meals

Image: Kyle Johnson

Von Trapp’s Käsespätzle and an Alpine Fix cocktail

Artusi
1535 14th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-678-2516; artusibar.com

From a proprietor who regards the Negroni as “one of the perfect achievements of mankind,” the minimalist Artusi is Jason Stratton’s corner aperitif bar next to his Cascina Spinasse. Deeply reflective of the way Italians drink—lots of gin, simple Campari numbers, amari aplenty, a long list of substantive food—Artusi mixes complex and flawless cocktails; the smoothly bitter Miller’s Crossing, a masterpiece of gin and amaro with fruit and herb notes, is a standard-bearer. The careful dinner menu includes fine pastas and tripe stew and antipasti reflecting a regionally broad take on Italian food.

The edge goes to: The booze—barely

Who’s here:
20% Cascina Spinasse guests waiting for tables
30% Visitors from Manhattan, LA, Milan—any urban area that’s cooler than Seattle
10% Trophy couples
40% Young epicures Instagramming their food

Bar Cotto
1546 15th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-838-9091; ethanstowellrestaurants.com (all ages)

Ethan Stowell’s newest bills itself as a salumeria and bar. But most people crowding into the 28 seats also make a meal out of salads of corona beans and romanesco, lamb’s tongue bruschetta, and crisp-crusted pizzas fired in two wood ovens in the back of the room. Bar Cotto shares a wall, a chef (Zach Chambers), and an Italian sensibility with Anchovies and Olives next door. The cocktail list follows suit; a sojourn in a barrel mellows out a classic Negroni, and white Lambrusco and Montenegro amaro make for a most grownup take on a Champagne cocktail.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
10% Families excited about the pizza
50% Gleeful carnivores
40% Buzz followers

Cicchetti
121 E Boston St, Eastlake, 206-859-4155; cicchettiseattle.com (all ages)

At Cicchetti Kitchen and Bar, the small plate sidekick across the courtyard from Serafina, cocktails are all about tinctures with flavors—caraway, saffron, date, fenugreek—that mirror the food menu. Dishes sail around the Mediterranean, and nearly half of them come in the form of titular cicchetti, smaller bites that are $5 each and quickly stack up to a (light) meal.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s here:
40% People who can’t spell (or pronounce) “Cicchetti”
30% Convivial Eastlakers
30% Happy-hourers ogling the view upstairs

List
2226 First Ave, Belltown, 206-441-1000

Barolo Ristorante built a beloved happy hour out of swanky Euro scene and Italian noshes, then used the same winning formula at List, a dark Belltown slot with lipstick-red chandeliers and clusters of fashionistas waiting for a seat. Good luck: This food gets lingered over. Off a long menu of small plates, diners savor gnocchi with black truffle cream, grilled sea bass on a bed of kale—and a full complement of cocktails (lots of vodka and Champagne numbers) that trend toward the girlie and, especially at happy hour, the weak.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
30% Yelp fundamentalists
70% Couples in which one party’s trying to close the deal
100% People who can’t quite believe this is Seattle

Oliver’s Twist
6822 Greenwood Ave N, Phinney Ridge, 206-706-6673; oliverstwistseattle.com (all ages)

Find the neighborhood’s best libations in candlelit digs fragrant with truffled popcorn. Devoted regulars order expertly made classics; happy hour crowds (and we do mean crowds) sip Old Sallys, a mix of Bourbon and huckleberry-sage shrub that satisfies dueling desires for brown liquor and tart fruity flavors. Plates are small and thoughtful, like the dates stuffed with bacon and blue cheese.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s here:
25% Drinkers angling for a berth on the regulars board
30% Girlfriends sharing popcorn
45% Thirty- and fortysomethings who will be in bed by 10

Pintxo
2207 Second Ave, Belltown, 206-441-4042; pintxoseattle.com (all ages until 10pm)

Txori’s tapas successor makes Spanish flavors accessible, but not oversimplified. Pintxo’s quail egg “toasts” are like tiny bites of breakfast with runny, nickel-size yolks and crispy chorizo confetti; blood sausage is laced with rice to gentle the funk. The kalimotxo—a blend of red wine and Mexican Coke—can and should be consumed for hours. There’s a sibling cocktail bar upstairs called…the Upstairs.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
50% Happy-hour sangria guzzlers
35% People fighting over the last bacon-wrapped date
15% Groups on their way to the Crocodile

Von Trapp’s
912 12th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-325-5409; vontrapps.com (all ages until 10pm)

A bar? More like a supersize, opulent playground of beer and bocce and enough housemade sausages to require a glossary. Cocktails make liberal use of lager and IPA, layering subtle flavor without overshadowing the base spirits. Most tables order the Wendel, a whole potato cut into a single spiral that’s part parlor trick, part French fry.

The edge goes to: Food wins for sheer scope.

Who’s here:
15% Bocce fiends
15% Students with better taste than we had at that age
70% Elbow-to-elbow crowds

The Laboratories

These cocktail virtuosos can’t stop experimenting.

Image: Kyle Johnson

Essex Bar manager Gary Abts makes a maple pisco sour

Essex
1421 NW 70th St, Ballard, 206-724-0471; essexbarseattle.com

Vintage-inspired wallpaper, bare-filament bulbs, marble two-tops lined up like good soldiers across from the bar: What Essex lacks in romantic seating it makes up for in Romantic attitude. It’s all about the chemistry, as devoted barkeeps innovate intelligent drinkables according to some higher law of herbal harmony, extreme freshness, and fizz (in an uncommon number of carbonated cocktails). Among the enchantingly quirky nibbles—no pizza from partner biz Delancey next door, alas—are deeply flavorful misshapen pretzels out of its pizza oven, toast topped with roasted cauliflower and pine nuts and harissa, maple-roasted stem-on carrots in a smear of fine ricotta. Order a lot: This food is tasty, soulful, and minimalist.

Which is why The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s here:
50% Poor hungry saps waiting for a table at Delancey
50% Neighborhood dwellers who walked over for a unique drink

Spur
113 Blanchard St, Belltown, 206-728-6706; spurseattle.com

True, most bars don’t have $28 entrees and a $100 eight-course tasting menu. But cocktails get equal billing at Spur, chefs Dana Tough and Brian McCracken’s original spot in Belltown. It’s been around long enough to establish its own house classics, aka the citrusy Broken Spur #2, one of several cocktails on the menu attributed to departed bar managers—a cocktail riff on retiring someone’s jersey. Cool kids drink the Industry Punch, Fernet mingled with lime and soda. Technique-heavy fare includes the famed tagliatelle, tossed with Parmesan foam and sous vide duck egg, and a delicate hamachi that’s smoked and strong enough to stand up to the cocktails. Spur also nails the quintessential bar benchmark—a killer burger and fries.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
45% Perfectly coiffed couples
30% Belltown loyalists
25% People who intend to try something new, but can’t help ordering the burger

Vessel
624 Olive Way, Downtown, 206-623-3325; vesselseattle.com

If the cocktail list and the iron-and-leather-clad room at Vessel are acid jazz, the food menu is a catchy song by the band Fun. In its new downtown location, the revered cocktail bar serves dual masters of spirits geeks and the downtown office set seeking a good happy hour and a place to grab a nice salad. The menu’s biggest hits include the sunchoke hummus and a memorable braised lamb French dip. The cocktail menu changes depending on the day (and who’s behind the bar), but Kevin Langmack’s “root-Byrrh” float is topped with Angostura gelato and well on its way to becoming a house favorite.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s Here:
20% Ice snobs taking pictures of their crystal-clear cubes
40% After-work Nordstrom types
40% Bartenders on their night off

Kind of a Big Meal

It looks like a bar, but the dinner menu is huge.

Image: Kyle Johnson

Smith A charcuterie plate and a Retired Gun cocktail

Brass Tacks
6031 Airport Way S, Georgetown, 206-397-3821; georgetownbrass.com (all ages)

The raw, arty aesthetic of the sprawling warehouselike space that houses Brass Tacks captures the inimitable chi of Georgetown. (Why yes, that is a one-legged baby pole dancing in a cage.) The bar wraps around to an adjoining sandwich shop, Ground Control, but here the menu boasts grilled rapini with a duck egg, porchetta spirals over mustard, house-smoked brisket mac and cheese, the obligatory short rib sliders brightened with shiso and ginger aioli. The kitchen’s reach sometimes exceeds its grasp, but cocktails are sure (try the spicy rye concoction the Georgetown), and the deep sense of place feeds the soul.

The edge goes to: The booze

Who’s here:
80% Georgetownies (required by neighborhood ordinance to have pierced tongues, vertical hair, and body ink)
20% Empty space where the rest of the patrons should be. (It’s new.)

The Innkeeper
2510 First Ave, Belltown, 206-441-7817; innkeeperseattle.com

For folks who want a belt in Belltown but want it with grownups, the Innkeeper is a dark, decoratively underwhelming haunt fusing the warm welcome and breezy courtyard of Marco’s Supperclub (its former inhabitant) to the food-for-drinkers savvy of Black Bottle (its owner). The no-nonsense, beautifully poured drinks focus on tequilas and rums—including a mighty Dark and Stormy. The long menu likewise roams the tequila and rum latitudes, offering big, smoky, impressive pulled pork tacos, chicken drumettes with fiery salsa, and a slow-roasted chicken quarter over pigeon peas and rice with fried plantains.

The edge goes to: Both food and drink in this Belltown find

Who’s here:
50% Large groups of officemate creatives
30% Small groups of officemate lawyers
20% Genuine crusty barflies
100% More mellow, mature crowds than at Belltown’s more southerly bars

Lot No. 3
460 106th Ave NE, Bellevue, 425-440-0025; lotno3.com (all ages)

This gathering spot adjoining its sibling Purple pins downtown Bellevue down to earth with a clear respect for the stiff cocktail. Clad in urban brick and red-draped windows, the manly haunt is sophisticozy from the wraparound bar to the (perfect for an assignation) loft, with a long comfort food menu (chopped salads, hot melty sandwiches, mac and cheese). Chicken and waffles is the winner, with an herby crust and malted, salted waffles that harmonize brilliantly beneath a drizzle of bourbon-maple syrup. A serious list of beers, brown spirits, aperitifs, and digestifs make this Bellevue’s best for booze.

The edge goes to: Booze (and chicken and waffles)

Who’s here:
40% After-work tie looseners
30% Trawling singles
30% Unrepentant aging frat boys who regard shot glasses as perfectly reasonable beverage containers

Miyabi 45th
2208 N 45th St, Wallingford, 206-632-4545; miyabi45th.com (all ages)

Wallingford’s new arrival: a Japanese-born chef with mad soba-making skills and a passion for French and Spanish techniques matched only by her love of drinking. Mutsuko Soma’s artful soba noodles (made by hand from Washington buckwheat) are the star at her new Japanese gastropub, Miyabi 45th. They’re served hot in broth, or cold with hot dipping sauces of mushroom and black truffle oil or pork belly and egg. The composed small plates are too intricate (and pricey) to be called bar food but beg to be paired with cocktails, namely ones made from the house-infused liquors.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
25% Curious neighbors
70% Japanese Americans consuming noodles with loud, appreciative slurps
5% Aspiring soba geeks

Quinn’s
1001 E Pike St, Capitol Hill, 206-325-7711; quinnspubseattle.com (all ages)

Quinn’s, a raw-timbered warehouse in the heart of the Pike/Pine district, is the winning gastropub with the killer bacon cheeseburger. But we prefer the arugula salad with beets and crisped lamb breast, pan-roasted trout on braised greens, and other entries further up the food chain. To drink: a full complement of cocktails, wines, Trappist beers, and cult microbrews. It’s a good place to try cocktails made with suds, like the Gentleman’s Gentleman, Campari bitter and Calvados fruity, with a stiff head of creamy Guinness foam.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
80% Quasi hipsters with platinum credit
20% Scene-seeking establishmentarians
100% Ahead of you in line

The Sexton
5327 Ballard Ave NW, Ballard, 206-829-8645; sextonseattle.com

The folksiest joint on Ballard Avenue, the Sexton wears an alt-funky-Southern aesthetic from the narrow entry to charming back patio, from wood-sided walls to Mason-jar chandeliers. The deal is small plates of Southern food and spirits aplenty, emphasis Bourbon—in cocktails like the alluringly spicy ginger beer blend the Double Bind; in flights like the $24 tour of four distilleries. Food is a major part of this operation, fat a major part of this food: crispy yam fries with chili aioli, mac and cheese with bacon roux. Even the Brussels sprouts are fried, and thus delish.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
40% Ballard hipsters
30% Expats from Athens, Georgia
30% Comfort foodies over 50

Smith
332 15th Ave E, Capitol Hill, 206-709-1900; smithseattle.com (all ages)

The most sure-handed link in Linda Derschang’s boozy chain, Smith brings a rough-hewn elegance—raw-wood tables, gilt-framed oils, only the classiest taxidermy—to the business of strong drink and hearty sustenance. The former has always been commendable—take the stunning Blacktail, mingling Bourbon with a spicy-smooth amaro, Benedictine, and old-fashioned bitters to taste like a Manhattan poured through a mince pie—but the latter is enjoying a renaissance, from a rich three-cheese mac and cheese to flavorful crab fritters and an astonishing bacon cheeseburger, suffused with wood smoke and served with exceptional yam fries. Brunches, too.

The edge goes to: Both, in a triumphant tie

Who’s here:
10% Solo drinkers, journaling
20% Group Health employees, happy-houring
30% Capitol Hill usual suspects
40% Hill sophisticates who are considerably more buzzed than people who told themselves they were “just going out to dinner” should probably be

The Walrus and the Carpenter
4743 Ballard Ave NW, Ballard, 206-395-9227; thewalrusbar.com (all ages)

Given the Walrus’s acclaim, parties sometimes arrive expecting a Canlis-level night of fine dining. But underneath all those layers of accolades beats the heart of an oyster bar. One that also just happens to serve plates like fried mackerel tails, shaved celeriac salads, or pork belly of Yarmuth Farms pigs fattened up with cheese. Savvy creations like the Mustache Ride, a gentle wash of Bourbon, lemon, Cynar, allspice dram, and maple—are surprisingly perfect oyster companions.

The edge goes to: The food

Who’s here:
80% Parties that waited at least an hour
20% Dazzled food writers from New York

Better Together

The chef and bar manager at Smith explain how they make food and cocktails play nice.

Image: Kyle Johnson

I try to make my food super approachable, like somebody would make at home, but kind of dress it up. Marley makes my job super easy because her cocktails are really well balanced and she uses a lot of savory mixers, like Fernet and Campari and stuff that’s not super sweet. It’s difficult to pair sweeter drinks. —Dave Lamping, chef at Smith

With all the amazing liqueurs and bitters, more bartenders are making great drinks that really pair with food. I start by looking at the whole dish, then breaking it down to its flavoring agents. I think about the base spirit and supportive in-gre-dients to achieve the flavor profile and mouthfeel I want. Then I experiment.... —Marley Tomic-Beard, bar manager at Smith

Published: April 2013

Seattle’s Best Seafood

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:00:00 -0800

Image: Kyle Johnson

Lark Glazed baked eel on aioli potato salad

We live in the land of seafood aplenty (oysters! salmon!). Yet, when we want to go to a seafood restaurant, few choices come to mind. What are Seattle’s versions of the great fish houses of Boston or San Francisco?

More to the point—what can we eat in them? Increasingly informed diners want to know the sources of our food but find ourselves adrift on a troubling sea of reports about overfished waters, mislabeled seafood, and environmental threats. It’s enough to make a hungry seafoodie throw up her hands and order a grass-fed burger.

Read on. Seattle is a working port, encircled by water and loaded with fishermen—but it isn’t a fish-house town. Our best seafood dishes live in our high-end destinations, our ethnic joints, our holes-in-the-wall. Thanks to careful sourcing, well-managed stock, and conscientious chefs, there’s plenty of guilt-free seafood that tastes terrific. How to find it? We’ve found it for you.

Mashiko
4725 California Ave SW, West Seattle, 206-935-4339; sushiwhore.com

Hajime Sato is steaming. “You can’t believe how many chefs I talk to who don’t know anything about the fish they’re serving!” he roars. “They order from the distributor and believe whatever the distributor tells them!” So distributors…lie? Sato laughs wildly. “Just last week I asked a distributor where his sea bass came from—actually first I asked him what’s sea bass anyway, there’s so much that gets sold under that name—and he just said, ‘South.’ I said, ‘South of where? Florida? Chile?’ And he said, ‘South means south, okay?’ and hung up.”

Before Sato turned his cozy and well-regarded West Seattle sushi bar into a 100 percent sustainable sushi bar, he didn’t know much more than anyone else about fish sourcing or endangered stocks. The more he learned, the more inspired he became to make a change. So four years ago he ditched the hamachi, the bluefin, the farm-raised salmon, the shrimp; he even began to serve a pretty decent freshwater eel substitute, namagi, made of catfish—beautifully cut and quite tasty, like all of his sushi. “Some people tell me I’m destroying sushi culture by saying you shouldn’t eat certain things,” he says. “I say if there are no fish left, we’ll have no sushi culture at all.”

So what rules does the sushi chef who calls himself “too hardcore for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch” propose for conscientious seafoodies? In general, he declares, local fish are best. Smaller, faster-growing fish (sardines, anchovies, mackerel) are better than big fish. Shellfish is generally great, assuming Dungeness crab over imported varieties. Seasonal fish is usually one’s best bet.

Image: Kyle Johnson

Etta’s
2020 Western Ave, Belltown, 206-443-6000; tomdouglas.com

Somewhere along the way “Etta’s Seafood” became simply “Etta’s,” a decision Tom Douglas made to broaden the appeal of his most touristy property at the periphery of Pike Place Market. Still, that’s a whole lot of fish you’re seeing on Etta’s menus—making the festive cafe a particularly good find for lunch, when fewer fish houses are open—and Douglas’s Dungeness crab cakes are worthy of their hype, crisply fried with a high crab-to-fixings ratio. No breading, no heavy sauce. “What I preach to my chefs is that we have the most beautiful fish there is,” Douglas declares. “And somehow me or some other chef is gonna make that fish better? Our job is to get the fuck out of the way and let that thing shine.”

These days Douglas has a more pressing priority: keeping the fish around to begin with. He’s joined the crusade against the Pebble Mine in Alaska, the enormous proposed open-pit copper and gold mine at the watershed of Bristol Bay, where many of Seattle’s salmon fishermen earn a living and most of the salmon we eat originates. “It’ll poison the headwaters of the largest sustainable salmon run in the world,” Douglas warns. “It’s a travesty.

Lark
926 12th Ave, Central District, 206-323-5275; larkseattle.com

Johnathan Sundstrom offers a whole page of seafood choices at his elegant small-plate dinner house near Seattle U and has become known for his expert hand in cooking it. His baked eel, for instance—one of the few non--Japanese versions of the fish in Seattle—is sumptuous, glazed sweetly with saba, and perched atop a mound of aioli potato salad.

Like most Seattle chefs, Sundstrom keeps an eye on the shifting tides of eco-consciousness, and like many chefs he tries to find responsible sources, including one mom-and-pop operation on Lopez Island for oysters, another in Alaska for spot prawns. Still the eel issue remains tricky for him, since it is also on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch “avoid” list. Some customers chide him for carrying it; others beg him to never take it off his menu. “Eel doesn’t feel open and shut to me,” Sundstrom says. “If there were a coalition here that could make a dent in slowing the bigger tide of demand, most of which comes from Japan, yeah, I’d be a part of that.”

Image: Kyle Johnson

Grilled albacore crudo with frisee, beets, and toasted hazelnuts

Tanglewood Supreme
3216 W Wheeler St, Magnolia, 206-708-6235; tanglewoodsupreme.com

Before Kent Chappelle was a restaurateur, when he was simply a Seattle native who relished a good plate of seafood, visiting friends would ask him to recommend a solid neighborhood fish house. He couldn’t. It perplexed him; this was Seattle for goodness’ sake. So he opened one.

Off an alley in Magnolia, Tanglewood Supreme is tiny and tasked with the impossible: feeding the
demographic cioppino of old-timers and young families and professional sophisticates who live side by side in this peninsula neighborhood. He secured a liquor license. He installed an open kitchen. And he hired chef Jeffrey Kessenich, once Tamara Murphy’s top man at Brasa, who wrote a rotating menu of Northwest seafood—a recent one included several fresh oysters, Alaskan weathervane scallops, and three salmon dishes—in inventive New American platings.

A hunk of wild Alaskan king salmon—rod-and-reel caught in Alaska by Rick Oltman of Port Townsend’s Cape Cleare Fishery, then delivered locally—was lacquered delectably in a light glaze of tamarind and soy and served with a chunk of pork belly over carrot salad. A clutch of Hawaiian blue prawns arrived bright with cumin and citrus over turnip greens and grilled polenta. This Kessenich can cook—realizing Chappelle’s dream of great fish in the neighborhood, and all within a lively atmosphere that bubbles like a tide pool, lunch and dinner.

Tilth
1411 N 45th St, Wallingford, 206-633-0801; tilthrestaurant.com

Ten years ago when chef Maria Hines got wind that Alaska fishermen were selling fish right off their boats, she ran down to Fishermen’s Terminal. There she met Pete Knutson, the Seattle anthropology professor–slash–Alaska gillnet fisherman who had commissioned nets sized to the heads of sufficiently mature sockeye, thus reducing the yields of immature fish and unwanted species, called bycatch. Knutson’s fish blew her away. “It wasn’t battered up,” she marveled. “When you use one of those god-awful gigantic nets, crammed full of bycatch, you bruise the fish. You stress them. You can taste stress in an animal: It’s always tougher.”

Thus began a partnership that helped establish Hines’s first restaurant, Tilth, and continues to this day. (She laments that Fishermen’s Terminal regulations prohibit such sales from the docks—allowing sales only from boats tied up to the West Wall.) Many of Seattle’s most rarefied chefs bring the same finesse to seafood that they bring to everything they touch; especially good at fish are Jason Franey (Canlis), Jason Wilson (Crush), and Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita). But Hines, about a quarter of whose menu on a given night is seafood, was one of the first to credit fishermen on her menu.

She’ll take a piece of Knutson’s wild-caught sockeye that’s been flash frozen—the f-word chefs are no longer ashamed of, if frozen carefully in protective saline solution—then slow-cook it to retain moisture. Seafood plays to her strengths as a chef: a penchant for clean and delicate flavors and vegetal accompaniments. In August she might serve sockeye with corn and peppers and corn veloute; in spring with asparagus and morels. It makes for some beautiful dinner; a credit Hines throws back to Knutson. “It’s not from one of those giant fish companies that buy fish by the ton to have it sit at an airport or a holding tank,” she says. “I mean, Pete is family! He comes to our Christmas parties!”

Image: Kyle Johnson

Pike Street Fish Fry
925 E Pike St, Capitol Hill, 206-329-7453; pikestreetfishfry.net

You might see a chef boning a halibut or a salmon at this hipster hole on Capitol Hill—something you don’t see every day at a fish-and-chips dive. It was opened by a team that included Mike McConnell (Caffe Vita, Via Tribunali) and Michael Hebb (the Ripe empire in Portland), so quality fish is prized—local cod, oysters, and calamari; Southern catfish; smelt and salmon in summer. Order cod and chips and the fish will be cloaked in golden batter, then beautifully fried in clean oil—oil you can hear bubbling over the ironic ’70s music—and served with not-entirely-greaseless (read: beloved) fries. Some five dipping sauces complete the experience lusciously.

Shiro’s Sushi
2401 Second Ave, Belltown, 206-443-9844; shiros.com

Four decades ago he was the first sushi chef in Seattle and he remains, by nearly every appraisal, the best. And though he’s down to working three days a week behind the bar at the minimalist little Belltown restaurant that bears his name (that’s Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays), Shiro Kashiba still does every bit of the fish shopping those days. Delivery? Please. This is Shiro, and Shiro needs to look every geoduck in the, er…eye.

Indeed, pristine product is the better part of why he’s considered the best. Kashiba trolls the wholesalers—Ocean Beauty for Alaskan and local fish, True World for Japanese fish like yellowtail and sea bream—where he’s given appropriate leeway. “I’m kind of like an employee,” he shrugs impishly. He pops by Wong Tung, a mom-and-pop at the edge of the International District, for Manila clams and, in summer, what he considers the best spot prawns in Seattle. He visits Uwajimaya every day. And though he still holds Mutual Fish in the highest regard as one of the first suppliers to bring the freshest fish to the people, it’s just not the same for him anymore since the death of the founder at age 98 in the summer of 2012. “After Dick Yoshimura passed away…I don’t know…” he says, trailing off.

Kashiba spent his apprenticeship shopping the biggest fish market in the world, the teeming Tsukiji in Tokyo, where he learned the critical importance of eyes that are bright and gills that are red and watery. Issues like sustainability and overfishing are newfangled distractions for this old-school maestro; he just wants you to settle in at the bar and let him set you up with simple and beautifully cut omakase—chef’s choice—of whatever’s freshest that day. (Watch him cut—not for nothing does this old pro still win medals for speed.)

Restaurant Marché
150 Madrone Ln N, Bainbridge Island, 206-842-1633; restaurantmarchebainbridge.com

One of Seattle’s venerable culinary leaders, Greg Atkinson, presents a mussels and fries for the ages at his Bainbridge Island Restaurant Marché. He starts with faultless sourcing—mussels from the folks at Taylor Shellfish Farms—then gives them a classic French treatment: a little Pernod, some heavy cream, a reduction with fresh fennel and plenty of mussel brine. The mussels arrive steaming in their shells, half submerged in their licoricey cream, and accompanied by a cone of crunchy twice-fried Kennebec frites sprinkled over with sea salt and fines herbes. Best mussels in the region.

Catfish Corner
2726 E Cherry St, Central District, 206-323-4330; mo-catfish.com

They do one thing at this Central District takeout institution, and they do it consistently well. If it weren’t for Catfish Corner’s near-three-decade record in Seattle, the fish would be a lot rarer around here; some 26 other restaurants piggyback on its standing order to get delivery at all. Here is why they want it: catfish is flaky and sweet and weirdly nonfishy tasting. Plus, it rates high on the sustainability index; these ones come from an aquaculture outfit that maintains ponds of the whiskered bottom-feeders across the Deep South. At Catfish Corner it’s cut into strips, tossed in cornmeal and Cajun seasonings, then fried lightly without a trace of grease. Skip the frozen fries; choose hushpuppies and the house signature spicy tartar sauce.

Anchovies and Olives
1550 15th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-838-8080; ethanstowellrestaurants.com

Four years ago prolific restaurateur Ethan Stowell opened his sleek seafood spot, Anchovies and Olives, to showcase exotics from faraway waters—but overfishing and quotas have diminished supply and jacked up prices, and some of his original menu offerings—East Coast skate wing, monkfish—had to go.

Today his menu still holds rarely seen imports—John Dory, orata—along with unusual natives like geoduck crudo, and some half-dozen fish and shellfish pastas, uncommonly full-throated in flavor. The housemade bigoli pasta with anchovies, chili, and mint—Stowell’s very favorite dish in his empire—takes no prisoners. Indeed, Stowell’s impressive selection of seafood pastas offers the most affordable way to eat here.

But raising prices doesn’t have to be a restaurateur’s first response to the soaring cost of seafood, Stowell believes. In March he’ll open a charcuterie next door to Anchovies—a separate business with lower food costs, which will share enough efficiencies with its neighbor to function budgetwise as one. “Sharing efficiencies is the wave of the future in restaurants,” says the proprietor, who has done a version of this now with both Staple and Fancy (which he shares with Renee Erickson’s the Walrus and the Carpenter) and Rione XIII (which he shares with Heather Earnhardt’s the Wandering Goose). “It’s my way of making sure my seafood restaurant is sustainable.”

Seastar
205 108th Ave NE, Bellevue, 425-456-0010. 2121 Terry Ave, South Lake Union,
206-462-4364; seastarrestaurant.com

When he opened the first Seastar restaurant in Bellevue in 2002, former Palisade chef John Howie’s goal was to build the best seafood destination in the region. At the very least, the creamy sprawler at the foot of a Bellevue high-rise may be the biggest. (Another opened in Seattle’s Pan Pacific Hotel
in 2009.) Business diners crowd the huge Bellevue branch, tourists the Seattle one—many of them clamoring for the two house signatures: the cedar-plank-roasted salmon, and the sesame--peppercorn--crusted ahi. The cooked and, effectively, the raw.

In general at Seastar, we favor the raw: overcooking and big sauces mask flavor on some of the cooked items, whereas Seastar’s crudo bar offers an -uncommonly thorough array of sushi, ceviche, oysters, and pokes. The other thing Seastar does well is influence sourcing. Consider the freshwater coho salmon Seastar just began offering from SweetSpring near Olympia, an eco-farming operation with such pristine ways of eliminating contaminants and disease it’s earned the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch “Super Green” seal of approval. Operations like Seastar are big enough to meaningfully support operations like SweetSpring (see box below)—and thus the promising new quest to recast fish farming from the bogeyman of sustainability to its biggest potential boon.

Sushi Kappo Tamura
2968 Eastlake Ave E, Eastlake, 206-547-0937; sushikappotamura.com

Sushi chef Taichi Kitamura gets most of his fish from daily pilgrimages to Wong Tung Seafood and Uwajimaya, whose fishmongers save him San Juan sea urchin and an ugly little red fish from Alaska, longspine thornyhead, or idiot fish. Idiot fish is currently on watch lists, but Uwajimaya’s seafood manager, Ken Hewitt, insists that every product in his fish market is monitored for sustainability.

What does Kitamura do with the little idiots? He serves them whole (their boniness makes them more popular for home than restaurant cooks), then braises them with soy and ginger and burdock root.
Kitamura is revered as a sushi chef, but the buttery white flesh of this fella is one reason so many regulars prize the quietly elegant Sushi Kappo Tamura for its cooked fish.

Branzino
2429 Second Ave, Belltown, 206-728-5181; branzinoseattle.com

This sexy, amber-drenched beauty in Belltown has achieved a quiet record of consistency with Italian seafood preparations—notably the eponymous branzino (Mediterranean sea bass), and perhaps the city’s best grilled octopus. Co-owner and veteran Seattle restaurateur Peter Lamb (Il Bistro, Queen City Grill) admits that he’s always wanted to open a simple, “butcher-paper” fish house—would it help if we beg?—but Branzino’s more intricate compositions are no booby prize. Tender octopus tentacles thick with char curl across a chunky, sure-handed puttanesca, bright with olives—a fine “starter octopus” for the squeamish. The branzino, presented as a whole fish then definned and filleted tableside, is all fluffy whitefish within a seasoned skin crackling from the Wood Stone oven, served on salsa verde, then topped with arugula and ribbons of fennel freshened with a light vinaigrette.

Ray’s Boathouse
6049 Seaview Ave NW, Ballard, 206-789-3770; rays.com

It’s Seattle’s essential fish house—our vote for the best in town to bring a visitor—and not just for that astonishing wide-angle view over Shilshole Bay. In the ’80s, chef Wayne Ludvigsen launched a legacy of pristine sourcing that opened our eyes and wowed elites, including New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl, who confessed to local seafood aficionado Jon Rowley that New York didn’t have anything approaching it.

Now about to reopen after a thorough remodel and menu revamp—we can’t say for sure how the new, more globally influenced seafood list from Mediterranean-loving chef Wayne Johnson will eat. (He does promise a version of the lobster paella he made famous at Andaluca.) There is one fish preparation Johnson knows he’d be nuts to remove, however: Chatham Strait sablefish in sake kasu. It’s been on Ray’s menu since Ludvigsen cheerfully stole the preparation from sushi master Shiro Kashiba (now of Shiro’s Sushi). Johnson has played with the plating, but the dish still bears its original hallmarks: the jasmine rice, the choy sum, and the marinated and broiled black cod, oozing its buttery oils.

Toulouse Petit
601 Queen Anne Ave N, Queen Anne, 206-432-9069; toulousepetit.com

Eric Donnelly loves to catch fish, and he loves to cook fish—so much that he recently left his post as head chef of the pulsing New Orleans bar and restaurant Toulouse Petit to open a sustainable fish house of his own in Fremont, to be called RockCreek. (It’s expected later this spring; aka not soon enough.) As for the joint he’s leaving—that -perpetually slammed, breakfast-to-wee-hours bar scene continues to dazzle us with its encyclopedic selection of seafood—the surprise being that it’s consistently carefully cooked. The huge menu still holds the same crudo and oysters, salmon and scallops, gumbos and jambalayas as ever. And if the owners continue to get the big things right as they improbably have till now—they especially won’t mess with the shrimp, cooked succulently every time, bursting with juice, and complemented with the fiery Creole sauces and cheesy grits
of the South.

Flying Fish
300 Westlake Ave N, South Lake Union, 206-728-8595; flyingfishrestaurant.com

The busy Belltown fish joint that deserved its fame in the ’90s for admirable preparations of unusual seafood has drifted downstream since moving to a lively corner of South Lake Union. There, owner and chef Christine Keff hews to a familiar menu of old reliables, offering some 15-plus preparations of fish nightly—grilled swordfish in an olive tomato sauce, sharable platters of salt-and-pepper Dungeness crab with sesame noodles—making the F’ing Fish an obvious choice for groups with disparate cravings.

And an obvious choice for those who prize sustainability, a priority Keff pioneered around here. To wit: Much of the tuna (the current menu has three preparations) comes from a Hawaiian supplier who works with a fleet using deep-water nets, which target the deep-swimming adult tuna better than the long lines, which catch shallower-swimming younger fish. Once caught, the adult tuna are tagged so they can be followed all the way to market. It’s the only way to combat the rising problem of seafood fraud—the sort of fraud that sold 40,000 fish as “Copper River Salmon” last year, when only 12,000 had been caught.

Wild Ginger
1401 Third Ave, Downtown, 206-623-4450. The Bravern, 11020 NE Sixth St, Bellevue, 425-495-8889; wildginger.net

Rick Yoder’s first restaurant job was shucking oysters at the pioneering seafood chain McCormick and Schmick’s, where he was trained by Mr. Oyster himself, seafood consultant Jon Rowley. From there he went on to launch the sprawling pan-Asian restaurants that would become tourist crowd-pleasers—the Seattle and Bellevue Wild Gingers—but he wouldn’t forget his original seaward leanings nor the essential role seafood plays across the cuisines of Southeast Asia.

As Asian restaurants go, Wild Ginger has typically appealed to conservative palates. But regard it as an Asian fish house, and suddenly it’s terrific. Suddenly it’s a restaurant, uncommonly swanky compared with the fish house dives of the International District, with one of the widest selections of carefully sourced fin- and shellfish in town—including crab and lobster in live tanks—prepared with fish-based components (fish sauce, shrimp paste—some of it housemade) that give Asian food its distinctive complexity.

Take the panfried sea bass, a dish Yoder abandoned for years when Chilean sea bass became the poster fish for unregulated harvesting. That fish has been a success story, now safely available from boats guaranteed by the Chilean and Argentine governments. His kitchen panfries the lush white fish with restraint, then lavishes it with fistfuls of fragrant Thai basil, dill, ngo gai, ngo om, and crushed peanuts. The result is one of the cleanest, most simply exotic fish plates in town.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
4743 Ballard Ave NW, Ballard, 206-395-9227; thewalrusbar.com

The outsize, New York Times–blessed popularity of the wee, whitewashed oyster bar in Ballard shocked no one more than its owner, chef Renee Erickson. “We get 200 people a night through 700 square feet,” she marvels. “I would’ve made it bigger if I’d have predicted it!”

We could’ve told you, Renee. For inside the elegantly quirky spot with the throbbing music and the hipster vibe, she forefronts some six to 12 oyster varieties a night—teensy Olympias; beloved Totten Virginicas; the latest find, Treasure Coves, with their wild texture and heavy liquor—alongside bare accompaniments and crisp libations. Chef Eli Dahlin crafts rarities like butter clam tartare with olive oil and lemon peel, or grilled sardines with walnut oil and shallots, or octopus with paprika and potato; that octopus might’ve arrived as the 40-pound bycatch from an order of halibut or spot prawns.

Erickson buys fish from all sorts of sources, including fishermen who roll up to her door from Salmon Bay across the street, but most distinguishing are the items she can score thanks to Walrus’s prodigious appetite. Herring typically gets sold almost immediately to Asia, but because of her relationships with suppliers she can take advantage of herring’s short season and snap up 1,000 pounds of the stuff. She’ll take it out of the commercial freezer in 50-pound lumps for Dahlin to make into herring rillettes or smoked herring tarts or herring grilled with potatoes and salsa verde—a blessed novelty in a neighborhood where most of the herring comes pickled.

Published: February 2013

Best Places to Work

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:00:00 -0800

Image: Michael Clinard

Hardly Working? Employees at Zillow relax under a whiteboard illustration by Jason Thompson.

What makes a kickass workplace? Is it perks? Pay? Paid time off? It’s all of the above on our Best Places to Work list. The HR departments and employees of Seattle-area offices completed in-depth surveys of every aspect of their workplace, and the experts at Best Companies Group tallied the responses. The result: the region’s 34 best places to pull a paycheck. (See the full list here.)

Simply having a Ping-Pong table in the break room wasn’t enough—the top 25 companies have Call of Duty tournaments, paid sabbaticals, on-the-job mentoring, and funded volunteer vacations. And they all offer a fabulous place to spend a workday.

How We Did It

The Best Places to Work in Seattle is a joint effort of Seattle Met magazine, Lake Washington Human Resource Association, Seattle Society for Human Resource Management, Downtown Seattle Association, and Best Companies Group. The survey was open to all publicly and privately held companies with at least 15 employees in the Seattle area. Best Companies Group, an independent research firm, managed the registration process, conducted the surveys, evaluated the data, and ultimately chose the firms good enough to make the list. BCG manages 41 other regional, state, and industry programs across the country and internationally.

Three-quarters of each company’s score was based on a confidential 76-question Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey, which was used to evaluate employees’ workplace experience and company culture. One-quarter of each company’s score was based on the employer questionnaire, which queried HR managers on company benefits, policies, and practices. BCG analyzed the two combined sets of data to determine which qualifying companies best demonstrate workplace excellence.

1 SEOmoz
The Work SEO—or search engine optimization—hardly existed a decade ago, but now it makes the web, and therefore the world, go ’round. SEOmoz has become a software manufacturer and educational clearinghouse for anyone looking to control the all-important web search. Mozers split work time with poker tournaments, a Ping-Pong table, scavenger hunts, and Wii dance competitions—that is, when they’re not off using their 21 days of annual paid time off. From 401(k) contributions to stock options to a subsidized gym membership, the company delivers virtually every employee perk possible. To put it in SEO terms, they’re the very first result in a Google search for “Seriously Awesome Seattle Workplace.” The Team More than 95 staffers work from the Pike Place office, where the fit flock to an in-office rock climbing wall, and the lazier lounge on beanbag chairs. The Way In seomoz.org/about/jobs

2 PeopleFirm
The Work When your whole mission is to consult at other companies, showing them how to run a tight ship, then you’d better be on the ball yourself. PeopleFirm models a happy workplace with team meals and awards for standout work—plus every staffer got a free iPad when the group scored a “Best of” ranking from Consulting magazine in 2011. The Team The consultants at PeopleFirm can spend 12 weeks or even 12 months on a job site working on a client organization, but most migrate back to the Belltown home base on Fridays. The Way In jobs@peoplefirm.com

+PeopleFirm Perk Unlimited PTO: PeopleFirm really and truly gives its workers as many days off as they want? No limit? No lie? Yep, it’s the truth, and it requires a lot of trust. The idea is that if they treat their workers like grown-ups, they’ll make grown-up decisions. PeopleFirm consultants take an average of three or four weeks off every year, even given the free rein. The entire staff has resisted the urge to milk the policy for, say, an eight-week jaunt to Thailand. So far, that is.

3 MetLife—Financial Planning Division
The Work The planners at MetLife assess a family’s entire financial situation (and they do it without making jealous or horrified faces), then go to work on risk management, retirement planning, and insurance juggling. Their workplace is fun, but it also respects wisdom: The average age for advisors is 55. A Working on Wellness program rewards physically active employees with a dividend payment, but the planners don’t ignore the financial health they preach: 401(k) matching is available from an employee’s first day. The Team The 85 local staff members work out of Bellevue and Tacoma, where they oversee territory in Washington and Oregon. The Way In mcowman@metlife.com

4 CRG Events
The Work The all-female executive team leads a fleet of corporate party planners, each of whom is always in a good mood. Okay, maybe they’re not all chipper, but twice-monthly Morale Committee meetings organize employee outings and awards. And why not be upbeat? When workers aren’t throwing giant conferences, business summits, and awards banquets—Microsoft is a big client—they’re taking 24 hours of paid leave to volunteer or raking in a profit-sharing bonus. The Team All 50 event planners work out of a waterfront office, and 92 percent of the staff is female. The Way In crgevents.com/who-we-are/careers-crg

+CRG Events Perk Sabbatical: After just four years on the job, CRGers score a three-week vacation, which is loaded on top of their existing vacation time. Past sabbaticals involved home-building charity work in Guatema la, getting married, moving into a new house, and taking a vacation to Vietnam.

5 Brightlight Consulting
The Work Where do you keep your data? In a data warehouse, of course. Well, the tech practice of data warehousing is a little more complicated than that, but the technology and business intelligence consultants at Brightlight are experts. A special committee in the office oversees the publishing and educational outreach that the company does in its field, keeping everyone at the cutting edge. The bosses hand out sizable bonuses when underlings bring in clients, and IRA matching starts with the first paycheck. The Team All 47 employees work from an office in Redmond that’s within walking distance of shops and restaurants. The Way In brightlightconsulting.com/careers

6 The Mosaic Company
The Work There’s energy everywhere you look in Washington, what with our electric dams, nuclear power plants, and wind turbines, but these energy consultants don’t restrict their expertise to the Northwest—they’ve increased productivity on far-off oil rigs and organized natural gas public utilities in Michigan. And they don’t consider fossil fuel plants a masculine domain; the company is women owned and operated. Mosaic supports charitable works, even sponsoring two employees who built a school in Ghana. The Team While 41 people are based in the Renton corporate headquarters, there’s a huge amount of remote and flex work done by the consultants—and they’re rewarded with luxury hotel stays on work trips and a whopping 26 days of paid time off per year. The Way In jobs@themosaiccompany.com

7 World Famous
The Work The good news is that you don’t have to be an expert at Call of Duty to get a job at Seattle’s funky film company. The bad news is that if you do suck, you’ll be subject to your coworkers’ friendly trash talk on a near-daily basis. When they’re not blowing off steam, the team creates video special effects, movie title sequences, and memorable Washington Lottery commercials. The company is supportive of its creative types, many of whom are members of rock bands or independent filmmakers; the staff gets 21 days of vacation a year for their own pursuits. The Team The lunch table at World Famous’s Capitol Hill office holds all 15 staff members, which is key for their daily lunches. The Way In info@worldfamousinc.com

8 Zipcar
The Work Not a single staffer at the Seattle Zipcar outlet drives a personal car to work. Why would they? They run the popular car-sharing service, and they know that hourly rentals are parked all over the city. Employee appreciation is all over the place: Weekly breakfasts are for everyone, but the hardest workers can snag Caught in the Act quarterly awards or be named Zipster of the Year. The Team The 21 staffers in the downtown Seattle office know where all the Zipcars are parked downtown (and they especially love the Audi A3s), but don’t worry—they’re careful not to book them all at the same time. The Way In zipcar.com/about/jobs

9 Substantial
The Work When this software company constructs programs, they’re not necessarily for the small screen—one recent project involved making 10-by-12-foot interactive walls for Citibank branches. The group also manages digital strategies and builds smaller applications, like the traditional mobile and web types. The front door to the office is a giant sheet of metal, embodying the Substantial name, but not everything is heavy: A DJ station made of reclaimed Oregon fir is suspended from the ceiling inside. The Team In the office overlooking Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill, there are 50 workers to dance to what the DJ is spinning; they can head to the roof deck if they aren’t feeling the tunes. The Way In substantial.com/company/jobs

Image: Andrew Waits

Signal the Frog GPS technology meets the outdoors at Groundspeak.

10 Groundspeak
The Work If you’re ever lost, hope you have a Groundspeak staffer in your car. As overseers of the geocaching community, they’re quick with a GPS. The recreational treasure hunting permeates the Fremont offices, where workers work off their daily catered lunches by climbing, skiing, hiking, and geocaching in their spare time. Every employee has received a bonus in the past five Decembers. The Team There are 70 in the Seattle office just off the Burke-Gilman trail, but they’re not always there: The Lackey Evolution program sends employees to U.S. and international geocaching events for free. The Way In groundspeak.com/jobs.aspx

+Groundspeak Perk Unlimited Free Ski Lift Tickets: Go skiing, buy a ticket, bring back your receipt, and get reimbursed: It’s no wonder there are a lot of prayers for snow at Groundspeak. Even trips as far afield as Whistler or Europe are covered, along with cross-country trail passes for the fearful of heights.

11 Sila Solutions Group
The Work The business and technology consultants at Sila love their gigs so much that they rush to refer their friends for open positions. Of course, that might also be because referring staffers and the new hires are treated with a trip to Las Vegas, Hawaii, or Mexico. When they’re not wading through the intricacies of aircraft network security or reorganizing a Fortune 500 company, they’re kicking the ball around on the company team, Sila Soccer FC. But it’s not all sports and travel: The furiously philanthropic company partners with Special Olympics Washington, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and Seattle Works. The Team The Tukwila office is one of three national locations and houses 62. The Way In silasg.com/careers

12 Impinj
The Work Imagine you’re Walmart (just roll with it). Do you know where your millions of pieces of clothing inventory are? You would, actually, because many are tagged with tiny chips made by this Seattle company. The chips allow each Big Bird T-shirt and pink fuzzy slipper to be tracked through radio frequency identification (RFID). It’s like a GPS system on a very small scale. Impinj also uses its chips on the shoes of marathon runners and on Coke freestyle machines, which automatically measure syrup levels. Employee perks include on-the-spot monetary rewards and personalized Jones Sodas for work well done, but in the middle of the office is something even better: a company nap room. The Team Tucked next to the Fremont bridge, the Seattle headquarters holds just over 100 workers. The Way In impinj.com/careers

13 Evergreen Home Loans
The Work The CEO of this Bellevue company has been at the helm for a quarter century, meaning he’s handled home loans at times when they were considered a godsend, a necessity, and even a curse. The company has weathered every mortgage storm by emphasizing education and ethics, but the team itself stays chill with monthly visits from a masseuse. The Team Evergreen has 225 employees in 19 branch offices from Kahului, Hawaii, to Clatskanie, Oregon, but there are 150 workers in King County. The Way In evergreenhomeloans.com

14 Zillow
The Work Everything you wanted to know about your neighbor’s house is on Zillow, a website that will offer an estimated market value for any abode on the block. Turns out a lot of people are house shopping, or morbidly curious about foreclosure listings—the web company recently added a fourth floor of offices. Staffers are fed with treats of varying healthiness: There is free espresso, a game room, and organic M&Ms. Discussion of Zillow’s stock price isn’t allowed in the open office, even though employees get stock options, so November’s precipitous drop did little to temper morale. The Team There’s an expansive waterfront view from the Second Avenue office, where all 370 workers sit in an open floor plan. The Way In zillow.com/jobs

+ Zillow Perk Hack Week: Twice a year, Zillow workers put away their assignments and go to town on whatever they like for a full five days. Since the company started giving employees free rein in May 2011, several of the informal “hack” projects have turned into real products, like the iPad app and Zillow’s Draw Your Own Search feature. But not every Hack Week endeavor is quite so serious: Last year an enterprising staffer used his time to mount a video camera above the office Starbucks espresso machine, so everyone could monitor the lines from his or her own desk.

15 Novinium
The Work Our city’s power cables aren’t getting any younger, but this Seattle start-up can perform a nip-and-tuck procedure that takes years off—or rather extends their life by up to 40 years. The workforce is diverse in age and background, made up of journeymen line workers, technicians, managers, and directors. Stock options and spot awards are available to every employee, and the group recognizes silly holidays like Pi day and International Star Wars Day. The Team Only 27 of the staff work from the Federal Way headquarters; about 100 more work around North America on cable jobs. The Way In novinium.com/employment.aspx

Image: Andrew Waits

Best-Laid Travel Plans A coffee conference at Expedia headquarters

16 206
The Work There are many levels to the “creative development” offered by 206. It ranges from traditional PR and web design to qualitative analysis of a company’s social media (they’ll tell you when you’re tweeting well) and event production. During the 2012 election, the company turned NYC’s Rockefeller Plaza into a carnival of patriotic games, where visitors could follow electoral counts on the skating rink map and get a picture with a President Obama cutout. The Team There are about 40 humans and a few dogs in the downtown Seattle offices, and both species call it a week around 4pm on Friday for a full-office happy hour. The Way In 206inc.com/careers

+ 206 Perk 206 Gives 40: Employees can use 40 hours a year on any kind of philanthropic endeavor. Last year some of the web designers made a website for the Music for Marriage Equality campaign, and others took a service trip to South Africa.

17 Cypress
The Work The boutique firm designs mobile apps and websites, and the group built the platform that allowed Xbox Live users to stream Fox TV shows. When the company behind Jameson whiskey came knocking, Cypress set up an event management system for shindigs like their Bartenders Ball. In the office bar, however, the drink of choice is beer—the Kegerator holds a different brand of beer every month. The Team There are 60 employees working and drinking out of the Pioneer Square office. The Way In cypressconsulting.net/pages/careers/index

18 Queen Anne Healthcare
The Work The staff of this rehab center says this workplace is more like a cruise ship than a health center; the housekeepers, nurses, doctors, and chefs all manage the recovering patients staying there. The women-led staff has such varied backgrounds that Queen Anne’s diversity day meal has grown into Diversity Month, where each continent gets a week of themed potluck meals. For the rest of the year, cultural calories come through weekly Waffle Wednesdays. In an industry known for its high turnover, less than 10 percent of the workforce chooses to leave Queen Anne every year. The Team At full capacity, 120 patients are treated by 88 Queen Anne staff members. The Way In queenannehealthcare.com/careers

19 University of Phoenix, Western Washington Campus
The Work The nationwide university has more locations (115) than degree programs (though it has more than 50 of those), but the Tukwila campus offers in-person teaching to make the experience more personal. The administrators enjoy regular Wii game breaks, access to bike trails, and, naturally, tuition assistance. The Team Though the university employs 12,500 nationwide, the Tukwila area is home to a cozy 37 staffers. The Way In phoenix.edu/about_us/employment

20 Data I/O Corporation
The Work The Redmond company has been making the machines that program computer chips since before many of us had even heard of computers or chips (or were born); founded in 1972, they now program microcontrollers in cars, make software for semiconductors, and do technology consulting. The Team Many of the 53 staff members telecommute or work unusual hours. The Way In dataio.com/company/careeropportunities.aspx

+ Data I/O Corporation Perk ”Biggest Loser” Competition: Staffers compete several times a year in a weight-loss contest, likely necessary given the company’s quarterly pub events and monthly BBQs.

21 Projectline
The Work Projectline’s three founders met while consulting for Microsoft, then joined forces to create a boutique destination for their marketing and business savvy. That small company has since gone global, and the firm has opened offices in Philadelphia, Toronto, and London. Back at home base, employees are allowed $1,500 per year for professional development. The money doesn’t stop flowing: Workers can apply for two $3,500 grants to fund a volunteer vacation. The Team The 127 Seattle employees are relocating to a Smith Tower office in January. The Way In projectlineinc.com/home/about/careers

22 Guidant Financial
The Work Thinking about cashing in your 401(k) to fund a business start-up? The financial advisors at Guidant don’t think that’s so crazy; they’ve managed the processes for individuals in all 50 states, helping retirement funds turn into shops like Dogtopia Pet Care in Nashville, Coastal Coffee Roasters in South Carolina, and Urban Yoga Spa in downtown Seattle. When they’re not carefully extricating cash from the death grip of IRAs and 401(k)s, Guidant staffers rev up in their Xbox room, chill down in the office Zen room, or just kick back to enjoy 100 percent–funded medical, dental, and vision benefits. The Team The Bellevue office houses all 70 employees, but clients are countrywide. The Way In guidantfinancial.com/about/jobs

+ Guidant Financial Perk Guidant Olympics: Yes, just like that episode of The Office. Every summer for an entire week, the first hour of the workday is taken over with events that don’t quite make the regular Olympics: Real Angry Birds (catapulting kickballs into shipping boxes) and Stick the Velcro Balls to the CEO. Trash talk, a team draft, and a medal ceremony round out the bonding experience.

Image: Andrew Waits

Almost Vacation A break room at Expedia might as well be the lido deck.

23 Expedia
The Work Though the group of travel websites began as a wing of Microsoft, it was sold and then spun off and is now a thriving business of its own, employing almost 5,000 across the U.S. Headquarters holds almost half of them, where they run expedia.com and hotwire.com, as well as other booking and travel sites. Employees stay tied to home base with stock options and bonus incentives, but it is a travel company, after all: Everyone gets hotel discounts for their own vacations. The Team When they’re not dreaming of faraway travel, staff at the downtown Bellevue office can take laptops to the Wi-Fi enabled patio. The Way In expediajobs.com

+ Expedia Perk Leisure Travel Reimbursement: From year one on the job at Expedia, employees get extra cash for their own trips: $250 annually until they’ve been around three years, and then it bumps up to $500, and eventually $750. The benefit is extremely popular, but any staff member who fails to use it will get a friendly reminder from HR.

24 Bridge Partners
The Work Anything middle management needs—a product launched, a revenue stream created—can be done by this virtual organization of consultants. Coworkers are linked more through technology than by physical workspace, but when consultants are in the office, massages are sometimes offered before meetings. The Team Few of the 83 staff work from the Eastlake office; most toil from home or a client site. The Way In bridgepartnersconsulting.com/careers

25 Sleep Country USA
The Work Employees own this mattress emporium, whose success is due to the universal need for a good night’s sleep. The local staff is made up of sales reps who help differentiate between all those plain white rectangles, drivers who deliver stock, warehouse workers, and corporate administrators. Everyone gets two days off for community service, and they can all attend concerts sponsored by the company at White River Amphitheatre; recent trips were for performances by Toby Keith, Blink-182, and Weezer. The Team The corporate office is in Kent, but the area’s 194 employees work in more than 40 local stores and a regional warehouse. The Way In sleepcountry.com/careers-openings.aspx

Published: January 2013

Pet Star Search 2012

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:18:00 -0700

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Best Restaurants 2012

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:20:00 -0700

Image: Olivia Brent

Brave Horse Tavern
Cheesehead burger with fried curds and cheddar

Restaurants that capture the soul of Seattle.

Seattle is a city whose story can be told through its restaurants. From their banquettes to their timber ceilings, their fresh-that-day oysters to their inspired microseasonal innovations, these 25 restaurants etch a portrait of Pacific Northwest values, passions, and quirky idiosyncrasies. Without them, Seattle just wouldn’t be Seattle.

Sitka and Spruce
1531 Melrose Ave E, Capitol Hill, 206-324-0662; sitkaandspruce.com

Within the breezy urban farmhouse space in Melrose Market breathes a culinary artistry as unbound by convention as any fine-dining room in Seattle. Thank Matt Dillon (who also brings us the Corson Building) for revering the purest seasonal ingredients, then composing them according to the spare dictates of his higher vision: perhaps pristine albacore with cherry tomatoes, purslane, sumac, Winthrop rye berries, a kale-yogurt salad, and—credit his ongoing Middle Eastern fascination—the Persian crisp nan-e lavash. This rarefied, minimalist food won’t be for everyone, but no chef showcases the perfect Northwest ingredient better than Dillon.

Revel
403 N 36th St, Fremont, 206-547-2040; revelseattle.com

At their noisy, breezy food lab in Fremont, chefs (and spouses) Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi pour their years of formal training into the most thrilling, unrestrained cuisine in Seattle—the Asian-fusion street eats we call sophisti-comfort food. Korean is the primary dialect, but the menu roams the Orient: corned lamb–mizuna salad with spicy nuoc cham; rice bowls with short ribs, mustard greens, sambal daikon, and a rich, velvety egg yolk; the famous pork belly–kimchi pancakes—done with exacting exuberance, a rare combo. It’s loud, frequently pokey, beautifully lubed (their very good cocktail bar, Quoin, adjoins), and best in summer (on the big patio). Where to show off the Seattle palate to out of towners.

Canlis
2576 Aurora Ave N, Queen Anne, 206-283-3313; canlis.com

The Legend, in its third generation of family ownership, is about as Seattle as it gets—from architect Roland Terry’s angular midcentury masterpiece to its sweeping view over Lake Union; from its singular reputation as the big night out in this town to the kitchen’s consistent fulfillment of that promise. Canlis is the rare spot where the genuine care in the front of the house matches the quality of the product coming out of the back; where enduring favorites like Peter Canlis’s vermouth-lime prawns vie winningly with chef Jason Franey’s dazzling innovations, like a foie gras terrine with blackberries and chamomile on a recent starter menu. Psst: Reservations are essential everywhere but the super suave piano bar, where drop-ins can savor perfect cocktails and order off either the dinner menu or the (more affordable) bar menu.

Spur Gastropub
113 Blanchard St, Belltown, 206-728-6706; spurseattle.com

Before Nathan Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine put Seattle on the molecular gastronomy map and every bar went all craft-cocktails-with-effete-noshes—there was Spur, pioneering both trends in Seattle and daily perfecting them. Draped in classy grays and wood tones to soothe a Seattleite’s winter soul, Spur is comfortable in its skin; a thinking drinker’s bar conveying stylish intelligence through frank and personable servers, Sam Cooke on the sound system, original house cocktails (like the boldly refreshing West Coast Pimm’s), and a genuinely dazzling menu. The famous bar eats include shoestring fries suffused in smoky oil, and pork belly sliders with sweet onions and peach mostarda—perhaps the best of that happy hour warhorse in town. Dinner plates are full of supremely thoughtful modernist compositions like slow-cooked pork cheeks over spaetzle and mustard seeds in beery puree. Desserts, fantastical melanges of foams and meringues and flavor-rich sorbets, simply rock.

Skillet Diner
1400 E Union St, Capitol Hill, 206-512-2000; skilletstreetfood.com/diner.php

Want your lemonade in a mason jar? Your waiter in a plaid shirt? A side of fennel tater tots or caramelized grapefruit? Then pop over to Skillet Diner, the breakfast nook of Pike/Pine that grew out of an Airstream trailer (the original mobile dining operation in Seattle) to become the sunny chrome-and-lime love child of an old-school soda fountain and a microseasonal culinary innovator. Here, after waiting in line at least 30 minutes—amid every conceivable style of Capitol Hill facial hair—you choose among comfort carbs like burgers with bacon jam, garam masala–spiced lamb sloppy joes, fried chicken with beguiling honeyed crusts, and all-day breakfasts like griddle cakes with lemon butter. Don’t expect exacting execution, perfect experimentation, or swift service. Between the crowds, the coffee (Fonté), and the cocktails—do expect a buzz.

Image: Olivia Brent

Madison Park Conservatory
Arctic char gravlax with cucumber salad, yogurt, spruce tips, and rusks

Madison Park Conservatory
1927 43rd Ave E, Madison Park, 206-324-9701; madisonparkconservatory.com

The classy sophisticate at the viewy lake end of Madison Street has found its footing, with a youthful kitchen that’s slyly broadening the palates of the Madison Park establishmentarians that use the place like a private club. The menu, once impetuously novel, now has its old reliables—the crab deviled eggs, the impossibly tender grilled beef tongue. Even the novelties shine more dependably than they once did, as in a recent wood-roasted quail wickedly confited in foie gras butter, lavished with huckleberry sauce, and complemented by sweet corn pudding. Both the twinkling twilit main room and the cozy upstairs bar make swell date spots.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
4743 Ballard Ave NW, Ballard, 206-395-9227; thewalrusbar.com

Can we just declare Renee Erickson a civic treasure? No chef in town spins a more storybook ambience or crafts a more charming menu—at Boat Street Cafe with Provençale-kissed meats and seafoods; at the forthcoming Whale Wins with innovations from her wood-fired oven. But only her Walrus and the Carpenter, the Ballard oyster bar from whose patio you can smell the tide, embodies Seattle’s soul. The quirky assemblage of not-quite dinners in the magical whitewashed room features pristine crudo, house-smoked seafood, fruit--garnished cheeses, and artisan cocktails; the crowd (and I do mean crowd) is all hipster locavores and tourist pilgrims, for whom W&C just nails Seattle’s je ne sais quoi.

Blind Pig Bistro
2238 Eastlake Ave E, Eastlake, 206-329-2744; blindpigbistro.com

Here in this closet-size nook in an Eastlake strip mall with a blackboard menu and an ’80s pop soundtrack, chef Charles Walpole (former chef at Anchovies and Olives) lets his freak flag fly
on whatever’s freshest that day: perhaps a lemony salad of tender baby turnips with mizuna, pine nuts, and mint over chickpea puree; perhaps crackling pork belly with anchovy aioli, corn puree, and chorizo hash. Sometimes experiments don’t work—a price food sophisticates willingly pay for the kind of low--overhead, high-innovation food labs one finds all over Portland. What always works is the chocolate crémeux for dessert: dense mousse sprinkled with sea salt and Turkish pepper and served in a puddle of olive oil.

Tamarind Tree
1036 S Jackson St, Ste A, International District, 206-860-1404; tamarindtreerestaurant.com

Seattle does a better job with Vietnamese food than any other ethnic cuisine, and you can’t do much better than here in the geode of Jackson Street. Expectations are low from the sloping and potholed parking lot, but once through the bamboo entry you’re in a sleek, sophisticated room, in shades of dark wood and mango, with a patio for sunnier months complete with burbling fountain. The menu surveys the rolls and rice balls, the phos and salads, the rice dishes and curries of Vietnamese cuisine. Go with the crispy Tamarind Tree salad rolls, the char-grilled la lot–lemongrass chicken, any of the bountiful salads, or the beef seven ways—seven courses for a ridiculously cheap $33. Perky cocktails complete the experience.

Image: Olivia Brent

Dick’s Drive-In
115 Broadway E, Capitol Hill, 206-323-1300. 500 Queen Anne Ave N, Lower Queen Anne, 206-285-5155. 9208 Holman Rd NW, Broadview, 206-783-5233. 12325 30th Ave NE, Lake City, 206-363-7777. 111 NE 45th St, Wallingford, 206-632-5125. 21910 Hwy 99, Edmonds, 425-775-4243; ddir.com

It opened in 1954, all windows and stainless and acreage of Wallingford asphalt, with milkshakes made of ice cream, fries cut from potatoes, and ketchup-and-mustard-topped burgers for 19 cents. The ensuing six decades has seen Dick’s colonize five other neighborhoods and raise the price of its ridiculously craveable burger to a whopping buck-twenty-five—but the ice cream and the potatoes are still in the house, and so is a cityful of rabid faithful from across the tax brackets. Sure, you see plenty of change scroungers at the most democratic restaurant in town—but legend has it Bill Gates once tried to pay for his burger here with a thousand-dollar bill.

Delancey / Essex Bar / Pantry
Delancey, 1415 NW 70th St, Ballard, 206-838-1960; delanceyseattle.com. Essex Bar, 1421 NW 70th St, Ballard, 206-724-0471; essexbarseattle.com. Pantry, 1417 NW 70th St, Ballard, 206-436-1064; thepantryatdelancey.com

Image: Olivia Brent

Essex Bar
Urbane sips and snacks

Three enterprises—pizzeria, artisan bar, and family-style dinner venue—share a single kitchen, just one of the trendy bona fides that makes this Ballard triumvirate the poster restaurant for Seattle gastronauts. At the popular Delancey it’s not unusual to find among the hordes young tourists photographing their flavorful crackling-crusted-and-sparsely-topped pizzas, a function of co-owner Molly Wizenburg’s fame as author of the food blog Orangette. Even better is the urbane wallpapered Essex Bar next door, where modern-day apothecaries wielding house-aged spruce bitters spritz ice cubes with just that much smoky Scotch, then pull soft beer-boiled pretzels out of the pizza oven to serve with artisanal accents like sweet red onion–currant chutney. A lineup of cooking classes and dinner parties are served at Pantry in back, the endeavor of Wizenburg’s husband and partner, Brandon Pettit, and two associates, melding a gently educational tone with gusts of joie de vivre and simply exuberant food.

Homegrown
3416 Fremont Ave N, Fremont, 206-453-5232. 1531 Melrose Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-682-0935. 2201 Queen Anne Ave N, Queen Anne, 206-217-4745; eathomegrown.com

Yes, the Portlandia quotient is high in a lunch bar where you ponder long over the waste bins determining which of your throwaways is bioplastic and whether those chip pouches qualify as paper. Still, what the earnest young Homegrown guys call “sandwich environmentalism” rides Seattle’s favorite wave—not just in environmental sustainability but in breakfasts, sandwiches, and salads made from real food for vivid flavor. Big love to the pork sandwich with apple butter and sage aioli, housemade breads, and genuinely inventive seasonal sandwiches: zucchini, sweet corn, green bean, tamari onion, and sweet pea pesto being one recent home run. Adding a lineup of home-baked desserts to the three locations was sweet.

Tilth
1411 N 45th St, Wallingford, 206-633-0801; tilthrestaurant.com

Maria Hines was a culinary force even before she handed Iron Chef’s smoked Pacific cod to him on a platter. This humble Wallingford house restaurant is why. By prioritizing perfect ingredients—sometimes listing their provenance on her menu—Hines maintains Oregon Tilth’s supremely high-standard organic certification. (Only eight other restaurants in the country have attained it, one of which is her Ballard Middle Eastern restaurant, Golden Beetle.) None of which would be enough if not for Hines’s flawless ability to conceive a dish. She’ll intelligently partner a beautiful hunk of Skagit River Ranch pork belly with salted peach, black garlic, and farro, for example, to add up to a rounded whole of keen, balanced flavors. This place just keeps getting better.

Paseo
4225 Fremont Ave N, Fremont, 206-545-7440. 6226 Seaview Ave NW, Ballard, 206-789-3100; paseoseattle.com

Recipe for a cult favorite: Divide one underrepresented cuisine (Cuban) between two mostly takeout huts in very residential neighborhoods (Fremont and Ballard). Add a menu of meats and shellfish in exotically fruit-kissed sauces, and feisty Caribbean sandwiches like the Caribbean roast: hunks of tender pork shoulder in a crispy baguette with aioli, cilantro, pickled jalapenos, and big chunks of caramelized onion. Season with a few Annoyances Fans Willingly Overlook—line ever present, cash required, sandwich goo ridiculous, stains inevitable—and one Insider Tip guaranteed to make those fans feel part of the club: The Paseo Press sandwiches always sell out. Serves several zip codes full of slavering, in-the-know foodies.

Image: Olivia Brent

The Herbfarm
Duck breast with pumpkin-seed granola, squash, and matsutake mushrooms

The Herbfarm
14590 NE 145th St, Woodinville, 425-485-5300; theherbfarm.com

Twenty-six years and there’s still nothing like the Woodinville tour de force that invented farm-to-table dining. Yes, the themed nine-course meal is an outlay (around $200 per person, including matched wines) that takes a while (plan on five hours), in a room too floridly overwrought. Thankfully the food is another story—the quintessential seasonal, sustainable Northwest story—brought to us by owners Ron Zimmerman and Carrie Van Dyck, who decided that their perfectionist oversight was a better bet than a name chef. They’re right. As ever, expect a guided garden tour, a speech about the meal, the most fascinating salad of your life, a couple of breathtaking marvels, some creative flights of fancy relating to the theme of the dinner, and the most awe-inspiring wine list in the region. All brought off with the same down-to-earth integrity that has distinguished the Herbfarm since a gardener named Lola Zimmerman found herself with a few extra herbs and an empty garage.

Image: Olivia Brent

Sutra
Vegan magic

Sutra
1605 N 45th St, Wallingford, 206-547-1348; sutraseattle.com

Underpriced, underheralded, and cozily undersized—the homespun house restaurant of yoga master Colin Patterson goes toe to toe with the best in town…and it’s vegan. The setup is that Seattle darling—the prix fixe, chef’s choice, communal table, set-time four courser—with dinner preceded by a gentle gong to signal a moment of gratitude. Grateful you shall be when Patterson’s clever, sometimes stunning, always wordy dishes begin to issue from his open kitchen: perhaps mung bean crepes stuffed with shiso, cashew cheese, and smoked broccoli, or red quinoa and -elderberry-chili mole. The counter, where you can watch Patterson work his transfixing magic, remains the best seat in the house.

Image: Olivia Brent

Bravehorse Tavern
High-tech energy

Brave Horse Tavern
310 Terry Ave N, South Lake Union, 206-971-0717; bravehorsetavern.com

Packed, youthful, and deafening—like, hearing-loss deafening—the brick-and-timber Brave Horse in the Amazon complex embodies all the buzzing, caffeinated, high-tech energy that created South Lake Union and defines Seattle for the world. Culinarily it’s Tom Douglas’s most down-market project—think impeccably sourced Super Bowl party food—but conceived to his culinary standards: sliderlike burgers with smoky sauce on Dahlia Bakery’s sensational buns; chewy-yeasty housemade pretzels in burly dipping sauces like smoked peanut butter with bacon; deviled eggs; brats; fried cheese curds; and an encyclopedic array of boutique brews. Where frat partiers segue into their shuffleboard years.

Rione XIII
401 15th Ave E, Capitol Hill, 206-838-2878; ethanstowellrestaurants.com/rionexiii

Yeah, it’s early yet. But this new tribute to the singular delights of Roman cuisine from Seattle restaurant machine Ethan Stowell hit the Capitol Hill corner of 15th and Harrison so old-souled and vibrant it already feels essential. It’s urban cozy, with medieval notes—stone walls, clerestory windows, warm wood-burning hearth—that strike a winning contrast with the mod mix of Hillsters who pop in for lunch and dinner. They’re chewing golden pizza crusts topped with housemade ricotta, roasted tomatoes, charry padron peppers, and pickled red onions; they’re spreading terrific salted housemade mozzarella and peach mostarda onto crusty toasted baguettes; they’re swooning over toothsome bucatini pasta with smoky guanciale and not just a little chili pepper. Also on the card are big meat plates, terrific Roman-style (made with semolina not potato) gnocchi, and a fried artichoke appetizer that’s already sparked a fan club.

Bar del Corso
3057 Beacon Ave S, Beacon Hill, 206-395-2069; bardelcorso.com

Sure, Seattle is known for its seafood and coffeehouses. But its soul resides in the mom-and-pop neighborhood restaurants that dot the city like a starry constellation. Jerry Corso’s Beacon Hill pizzeria provides the blueprint for how it’s done. The sleek storefront has terrific food—its blistered, pillow-crusted pizzas topped with combos like chanterelles, caramelized onions, cherry tomatoes, and crisped coppa; its Italian side dishes like ripe, barely dressed panzanella salads, or the fried risotto balls called supplì. But what fills it with soul is the happy burble of neighborhood esprit: the invariable wait for a table, the family-friendly demographic, the affable service, and the chatting-across-tables vibe that turns a restaurant into something so much more.

Image: Olivia Brent

Shiro’s Sushi
2401 Second Ave, Belltown, 206-443-9844; shiros.com

Long before everyone saw last year’s documentary film Jiro Dreams of Sushi, over four decades’ worth of Seattle cognoscenti already revered Shiro Kashiba, who apprenticed with Jiro in Tokyo before opening the first full-service sushi bar in Seattle. At Maneki, then Nikko, and now Shiro’s, he consistently presents immaculate cuts of the freshest fish—Hokkaido scallops to Hood Canal geoduck and every edible stop along the way. His tidy little Belltown box is understatedly elegant, but to score the sublime immersion that is the omakase experience you’ll want a seat at the bar—for which you’ll have to wait on the sidewalk at least a half hour before opening. Shiro-san works Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays but every chef behind the bar (including another Jiro alum, Daisuke Nakazawa) is a maestro—and a far sight more twinkly, it must be said, than a certain taciturn octogenarian in a Tokyo subway.

Full Tilt Ice Cream
9629 16th Ave SW, White Center, 206-767-4811. 5041 Rainier Ave S, Columbia City, 206-226-2740. 4759 Brooklyn Ave NE, University District, 206-524-4406. 5453 Leary Ave N, Ballard, 206-297-3000; fulltilticecream.com

If there were a dive bar for kids, it’d be Full Tilt. These scoop shops are a bit dingy around the edges, buoyant with neighborhood energy (in the White Center, Columbia City, and Ballard locations; less in the teensy U District location), loud with occasional live music, and chock full of the two things children love most: ice cream and pinball machines. For the soccer parents there’s beer, really great beer, like Maui Brewing Coconut Porter, Stone IPA, and Pike Kilt Lifter; it’s what you drink between licks of Full Tilt’s sensational ice cream, with its luscious, almost fondue-pot consistency and all-natural ingredients, many of them organic. Flavors (some vegan!) are vivid and ethnically inspired; two greatest hits are the butterscotchy ube, a purple yam popular in the Philippines, and horchata, Mexican cinnamony rice milk. Prices are too low for ice cream this good; lower still since its richness means one scoop may just do you.

Cascina Spinasse / Artusi
Cascina Spinasse, 1531 14th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-251-7673; spinasse.com. Artusi, 1535 14th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-678-2516; artusibar.com

Piedmontese rusticity and European sophistication wow side by side at Seattle’s two essential Italian restaurants. At his swank and minimalist Artusi, chef Jason Stratton delivers
a lineup of amari and grappas and brilliant bitter cocktails to complement vivid Euro nibbles like tripe with corona beans or velvet tuna mayonnaise over new potatoes; next door at the twinkling farmstead Spinasse, the dewy rabbit chicory salads and braised duck legs with plums and olives and—swoon—otherworldly rich and reliably stunning tajarin pasta, with ragù or butter and sage, that comprise dinner for people who really know how to eat dinner.

Image: Olivia Brent

Ray’s Boathouse
6049 Seaview Ave NW, Ballard, 206-789-3770; rays.com

The classic Seattle fish house that food snobs long since relinquished to anniversary celebrators and visiting Kansans is smooth and masterful—the main downstairs restaurant, that is—and newly energized under the helm of chef Wayne Johnson (late of Andaluca). If the decor feels a little stodgy, no one’s looking at it anyway, what with the whole pewter panorama of sea and sky just outside the glass. No one’s saying these Mediterranean- and Asian-influenced fish preparations (Dungeness crab cakes with coriander cream, mussels in Thai red curry) break new ground. But the kitchen’s careful execution and avid commitment to sourcing more than compen---sates, delivering the rarest quality there is: consistency. The Chatham Strait sablefish in sake kasu remains one of the finest plates of fish in the Northwest.

Matt’s in the Market
94 Pike St, Ste 32, Pike Place Market, 206-467-7909; mattsinthemarket.com

Image: Olivia Brent

Fixed in the heart of Pike Place Market and lined with demi-lune windows framing quintessential Seattle eyefuls—the market sign, the fish flingers, a ferry on the bay, the craggy horizon, and now that skyline hogger of a Ferris wheel—Matt’s ranks as Seattle’s iconic restaurant. The view’s not bad on the plate either, where fiercely local meats and fish get vivid, global treatments, like gorgeous purple grilled octopus and pork belly over eye-popping kimchi. Prices that sting at night ease up by day for crowd-pleasing sandwiches like a terrific crusted catfish. Beneath timber rafters, upon checkerboard floors, the place crackles with urban energy.

Restaurant Zoë
1318 E Union St, Capitol Hill, 206-256-2060; restaurantzoe.com

With its crowded urban fizz, Pike/Pine location, smart seasonal menu, and something-for-everyone versatility, Scott Staples’s second iteration of Zoë makes Seattle’s all-around best night out right now. Wherever you wander in the menu—a nectarine prosciutto salad, a chicken breast with pancetta and medjool date puree, a grass-fed and wood-fired cheeseburger, a killer steak tartare—you will be dazzled with both the gorgeous compositions and the fact that all this modern and all this Euro still add up to food this delish. Different sections provide nice atmospheric variety: Napalike at the entry, Boho-farmhouse in the sunroom, neo-industrial stylish in the main room. Service is careful and terrific.

Seattle’s Best Food Trucks 2012

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:00:00 -0700

The mobile revolution has begun. We’ve tracked the big hitters, scouted the best bites, and corralled some 45 curbside cooks to bring you a road map to the street food explosion.

Best Asian Restaurants: Northwest By Far East

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:00:00 -0700

The Insider’s Guide to Asian Food in Seattle

Best Breakfast Spots

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:00:00 -0700

We still love waffles, omelets, and pancakes. But at Seattle’s best breakfast spots, just look at what’s joining the classic canon.

Seattle’s Best Restaurants for Cheap Eats

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:00:00 -0700

Dives, diners, delis, pop-ups, greasy spoons, holes-in-the-wall—and a few thrilling finds we guarantee you’ve never heard of.