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Seattle Restaurant Openings

Ship Canal Grill to Open in Former Kristos Eastlake Space

3218 Eastlake Avenue gets a nautical and historical makeover.

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Photo courtesy shipcanalgrill.com.

Kristos Eastlake is no longer, and in its place comes Ship Canal Grill. The bar and restaurant taking over 3218 Eastlake Avenue is shooting for a Friday open, says co-owner Dominic Wood. His partners in the venture are Wes Larson and Wes’s wife Daphne, who reside in Bremerton and own the building at the foot of the University Bridge.

The Grill takes its name from the waterway that’s a block north, so naturally nautical trimmings are in order. For example, an architect is building a model of the aforementioned bridge that will hang over the bar area. Wood and co. are (wisely) swapping the cobalt color scheme that defined Kristos in favor of a light blue palette. Wood, who managed Kristos, said they’re also outfitting the space with black-and-white images from the ’50s and ’60s that chronicle the development of the neighborhood. (Yup, there’s one of the bridge.)

Speaking of the bar, Wood says to expect eight draft beers, six of them local or Washington varieties. On the menu are burgers, sandwiches, pastas, and a bunch of “Pacific Northwest local flavors,” i.e. an assortment of seafood dishes.

The downstairs accommodates 100 diners. Upstairs is a space for groups of up to 40 as well as a pool and entertainment room and the “Dawg Den”—a dedicated spot for Husky fans to watch football (and take in more black-and-whites, these of the UW).

Ship Canal Grill will operate weekdays starting at 11 and will open at 10 on weekends for brunch. Wood says live music is planned for Friday nights, and probably most Saturdays too.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Eastlake

Last Days

Nettletown Is Closing

Via newsletter, the Eastlake eatery bids its customers adieu with a final event this Sunday.

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Nettletown, which came into existence in Spring 2010, shuts its doors this weekend.

Photo: Nettletown via Facebook

Yup, Nettletown is closing. Just like that.

Here’s the word from Christina Choi, owner:

This Sunday will be the last brunch service followed by this event for all of you, our great customers! We know you may be losing the cafe but another great neighborhood place is coming your way (we will tell you soon!)… Come celebrate with us! Buffet food only $15 and drink specials!!

Oh, Nettletown fried egg sandwich topped with delicious pickled whatnot. What, exactly, are we supposed to do without you?

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Tags: Eastlake, Seattle Restaurant Closings

Lunch Matters

Serafina Opens a Panini Window

The Eastlake Italian eatery is serving up takeout sandwiches Monday through Saturday.

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“The Ferrari of panini presses” toasts the sandwiches at Serafina.

Photo: Nuova Simonelli

This week marked the opening of a new takeout panini window at Serafina in Eastlake.

“We got the Ferrari of panini presses from Italy,” says general manager Rachel Aiken, referring to the restaurant’s new fancy Nuova Simonelli toasting machine.

The menu will change regularly and likely expand. For now, Serafina offers three ’wiches: a porchetta panini on Macrina ciabatta with pickled onion and salsa verde; a salami sandwich with fontina cheese and artichoke olivada on baguette; and a Caprese on housemade focaccia with basil pesto, heirloom tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella.

Paninis will be available from 11:30am to 2:30pm Monday through Saturday, and Serafina eventually plans to offer picnic lunches for lakeside dining, according to Aiken. The window is intended for takeout (Serafina offers a weekday sitdown lunch as well), but Aiken says customers are also welcome to eat the paninis in the sidewalk seating area, and can order beer, wine, and other beverages along with their lunch.

Also: Is this the dawn of a new bad economy-eating trend? With happy hour now saturating the city’s restaurants—from high-end eateries to dive bars—perhaps the sandwich stand is the new recession-busting move for local restaurants? We can list Dinette as an example, but it takes three to make a trend….

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Tags: Eastlake, Lunch, Sandwiches, Seattle Restaurants

Food News

Wonton Wednesdays, Extended Hours, and Other Nettletown News

Including a cheap eats afternoon menu.

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Nettletown, offering new hours and new menus February 23.

Changes are afoot over at Nettletown, which opened last year as a lunch/weekend brunch joint, then in July intro-ed Friday and Saturday dinner. Now Nettle is rolling out all-day hours and two more nights of evening eats.

Starting February 23, the Eastlake boite will stay open 11-9:30 Wednesday through Friday and 10-9:30 Saturday. For that couple hours of limbo between lunch and dinner, owner Christina Choi will serve what she calls a “happy afternoon” menu 2:30-5:30. (On Saturday, the menu is available starting at 3.) The offerings will be limited and consist of side-like items for under $10. Meaning “anything that doesn’t require the kitchen to cook” since toques will be prepping for dinner, Choi offered nebulously. Examples she did list include pickles, soups, rices, all of them likely novel and fresh, Choi being a doyenne of forest floor foods.

The chef is also introducing Wonton Wednesdays. On those nights a rotating selection of the dumplings will be on special. Diners can order them in a soup or spicy sauce and should expect fillings such as elk, mushroom, or the more traditional minced pork.

Note Nettletown’s Tuesday and Sunday hours remain the same: 11-2:30 and 10-3, respectively.

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Tags: Eastlake, Cheap Eats, Food News, Nettletown

The Top 10 New Dishes of 2010

The #10 New Dish of 2010: Elk Meatball Sandwich at Nettletown

Christina Choi devotes her cozy Eastlake digs to wild edibles.

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Nettletown’s elk meatball sandwich.

2010 was a biggie for restaurant openings in Seattle. Nosh Pit looks back on the year with a survey of new standout foods we couldn’t stop talking about.

In a strip mall storefront that once housed Sitka and Spruce came Nettletown in March. Teensy in space but big in vision, the casual Eastlake boite would serve as chef and owner Christina Choi’s gastrolab of seasonal, foraged Northwest edibles. (In her review of the restaurant, Kathryn Robinson noted, “Nettletown’s menu reads a little like a botanical survey of the forest floor.”)

Star among the banh-mi–like baguettes and noodle bowls is the lemongrass elk meatball sandwich. The seasoning is just so, the game is tender and flattened to nicely fit into Le Fournil bread. Garnishing it is—what else?—a smattering of gathered vittles. As with all of Choi’s chow, the herbs and pickled vegetables bear delightful freshness. Kind of like Nettletown itself.

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Tags: Eastlake, Nettletown, Christina Choi, Top 10 Dishes of 2010, 2010 in Food

Beef Tasting and Dinner at Cicchetti

Steak tasting: Everybody’s doing it. You can do it on August 30.

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Photo: Jessica Voelker

A prepped hunk of beef from Rain Shadow Meats.

Steak tasting. Everybody’s doing it. They’ll be doing it at Cicchetti come August 30.

Carrie Oliver of The Artisan Beef Institute will be steering (ooh, unintentional pun) the event. This is the text of her bio, from the Artisan Beef Institute website. “I created the concept of Artisan Meat and evaluate, rate, and create professional tasting notes for individual farms, ranches, and butcher teams. Some call me the Robert Parker of Meat, others Beef Geek.”

I had to read that twice, at first I thought she was saying she created the concept of artisan beef, which is a bit like inventing the internet. What she means is she invented the concept of the Artisan Beef Institute which treats beef like wine—evaluating (and appreciating) it based on where it grew, how long it was aged, what the cow ate, etc.

So here’s what happens. You make a reservation with Cicchetti (206-323-0807), you show up on August 30 at 6pm, you blind-taste beef while listening to Oliver and a panel of experts (Tracey Baker of The Gleason Ranch; Tracy Smaciarz of Heritage Meats; Dylan Giordan, Executive Chef at Serafina and Cicchetti; Nicole Aloni, food writer) discuss the ins-and-outs of your meat, you eat a three-course dinner with wine, and then you go home. This evening costs you $85. Enjoy.

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Tags: Eastlake, Special Dinners, Beef

Openings

Now Open on Eastlake Ave: Tamura Sushi Kappo

Making it official: New sushi restaurants are taking over Seattle.

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The new restaurant Tamura Sushi Kappo is located in the Ruby Condominiums complex in Eastlake.

A couple of Tweets and a phone call in confirms it: Tamura Sushi Kappo is now dishing drool-worthy Japanese cuisine to the Eastlake Ave crowd.

When I last spoke with Steve Tamura about his new venture with Taichi Kitamura, he was hoping it would be opening July 2. He didn’t hit that goal—this past Sunday, July 18, was the restaurant’s first day.

If the name Taichi Kitamura sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the James Beard semi-finalist who cheffed former Fremont favorite Kappo, which was situated above his Chiso and featured an omakase-only menu. Seattle Met restaurant critic Kathryn Robinson said of the spendy, toque’s choice dinner: “Placing yourself in the hands of a chef like this is a dream.”

The open-kitchen Eastlake eatery is located in the Ruby condo complex and serves dinner daily 5-10pm.

On the other side of I-5, two other sushi restaurants, just blocks from each other, have made their debut on Capitol Hill: Broadway’s Genki Sushi and Octo Sushi, which takes over former home of Robin Leventhal’s Crave. This is the second Seattle storefront for conveyor-belt connoisseurs Genki (a third is located in Renton at Renton Village Shopping Center), which is reported to operate 150 outlets throughout Hawaii and Japan.

Finally, according to Capitol Hill Seattle, Pinto Thai Bistro and Sushi Bar, where Thai meets Japanese cuisine (yeah, I’m curious too), is expected to open sometime this month at 408 Broadway.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Eastlake

New Evening Eats in Eastlake: Nettletown Tackles Dinner

Reserve-only supper tonight, weekend dinners begin in two weeks.

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Nettletown sandwich

Tonight at Eastlake eatery Nettletown (read Kathyrn Robinson’s new review here): the First Week of Summer supper. Guests will gullet summery stuff like cherries and halibut and peas and asparagus. The dinner is $35 and reservations are required: nettletown@gmail.com or 206-588-3606.

Two weeks from today on July 9, Nettletown starts dinner service on Friday and Saturday only. The menu will include most of the lunch items, with a few additional entrees. Sorry, no reservations for those regular weekend dinners.

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Tags: Eastlake, Special Dinners, Nettletown, Christina Choi, Food Foraging

Openings

A Sushi Restaurant We Can’t Wait to Try

Sushi Kappo Tamura is tentatively set to open July 2.

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The erstwhile Kappo in Fremont.

First Cicchetti, then Nettletown, and soon, Sushi Kappo Tamura. Eastlake is scoring major points as a dining destination.

Sushi Kappo Tamura is the new iteration of Kappo, that lauded, and since closed, Japanese hot spot situated above Fremont’s Chiso. Like Kappo, where the omakase (chef’s choice) menu fetched one C-note per person, Tamura will feature the sushi artistry of Taichi Kitamura.

Kitamura is opening the restaurant with Steve Tamura, who tells me the 50-seater will feature a full sushi bar. When the resto’s website first went up, it read: "Here I [Kitamura] will prepare everything in front of your eyes, and served[sic] the food directly to you over the counter…I will be serving you food that I want to eat myself in the way I would like to be served.”

When Seattle Met restaurant critic Kathryn Robinson sampled Kappo’s omakase menu, she reported, “Placing yourself in the hands of a chef like this is a dream.”

In other words, get excited, and expect big things from Kitamura’s new venture.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Eastlake

Bargain Bites

Cheap Date: Nettletown

At Christina Choi’s cozy Eastlake cafe, single digit price tags don’t come at the cost of quality.

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Nettletown is indeed a lunching spot, but not of the grab-and-go sort. The homey Eastlake nest is better suited for those catching-up occasions, for the noon-hour idler with a good book to read.

Likewise, the cafe—formerly home to Sitka and Spruce —is a stomping ground for the epicurious with more time to spare than money. Here, only two items exceed $10, which means leisurely sampling is a guilt-free privilege.

And sample you should. There are ginormous noodle bowls brimming with Swiss dumplings, spicy pork ribs, or poached eggs, and sandwiches, such as the lemongrass elk meatball or organic chicken salad, served on Le Fournil bread. Throw in leafy greens or a spicy rice soup for a few dollars more, or try smaller munchies such as sardines and one-dollar rosemary ginger shortbread.

The single digit price tags don’t come at the cost of quality—lauded chef Christina Choi, a madonna of the foraging world, prides herself on fresh and unique Northwest ingredients, and her efforts are evident in every bite.

For those who must rush, take-out is available, as is weekend brunch 10am-3pm. Same story here—breakfast bites are all under 10 bucks, with bacon and elk meatball add-ons costing $3 and $4, respectively. Options cover both savory (organic eggs and potato cakes, fried rice) and sweet, including a huckleberry cardamom bread pudding. Yum.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Eastlake, Brunch, Cheap Date, Lunch

Industry Insider

Where Do Restaurant Pros Go on Their Night Off?

To Louisa’s Cafe and Bakery for a heckuva deal.

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Certain places around town have long held appeal for restaurant industry folk. Tavolata. Palace Kitchen. Elemental @ Gasworks. The bar at Union.

Now an Eastlake bakery/cafe, Louisa’s, is making a direct play to join that list. Long a breakfast and takeout pastry joint—with really admirable housemade bagels—the sunny neighborhood cafe has under new ownership bolstered its dinner program, offering a menu of burgers, pastas, and globally influenced crowd pleasers.

Now Louisa’s has declared Mondays Industry Night, offering half-price bottles of wine and 10 percent off all menu items to restaurant workers.

Waiters…what are you waiting for?

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Tags: Eastlake, Deals

Openings

Nettletown Celebrates Official Opening on Tuesday, March 16

The foraging owner of the new Eastlake cafe says the food is “full-flavored, satisfying, and homey.”

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Nettletown, the new venture from local forager Christina Choi, will celebrate its official opening on Tuesday, March 16 at the Eastlake storefront that formerly housed Sitka and Spruce. (Owner Matt Dillon hopes to reopen Sitka this spring inside Capitol Hill’s Melrose Building.)

Jeremy Faber’s partner in Foraged and Found Edibles, Choi is committed to fresh Northwest ingredients. At Nettletown she has harnessed her knowledge of Swiss and Chinese culinary traditions to create a locally sourced menu that she describes as “full-flavored, satisfying, and homey.”

Options at weekend brunch (10am to 3pm) include a sweet-grain waffle with ginger butter and huckleberry sauce, and two eggs any style with chunky onion-potato cakes. For lunch (Tuesday through Friday, 11-3:30pm) there is a creamy organic chicken salad with celery, scallions, and jicama on French bread from nearby Le Fournil bakery.

Choi has also designed an “always available” menu with crab and fish cakes accompanied by seaweed celery salad and lemon aioli, and Nettletown knoepfli: swiss egg noodle dumplings with pan-fried cabbage, leeks, garlic, and herbs.

On March 29, Nettletown will host a Spring Foraging Dinner prepared in partnership with Matt Dillon. The dinner is $50 per person, call Nettletown for details.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Eastlake, Locavore News

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