Nosh Pit

Dine Around Seattle…

…starts a week from today

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 22, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

The dining promotion formerly known as 25 for $25 went up a five-spot a few years back, changed its name to Dine Around Seattle, and firmly fixed itself upon the November and March calendars of Seattleites who wish their favorite restaurants weren’t so spendy.

It consists of three courses for $30, every Sunday-through-Thursday in March, at 28 joints across the region. Some do 15-buck lunches too. Great way to sample the places you’ve been hearing about but haven’t made it to yet.

Like Bastille, the gorgeous new Gallic sensation in Ballard. Or Artisanal Brassserie at the swanky Bravern in Bellevue.

It’s also a good way to stay current on the many joints enjoying new energy in their kitchens. That’s why I want to check out Ponti under the new leadership of returning superstar chef Alvin Binuya. I want to go back to creamy ART at downtown’s high-end Four Seasons Hotel and find out exactly chef Kerry Sear has tweaked the dining program.

If I feel like driving I’ll head east to Snoqualmie’s Salish Lodge & Spa Dining Room to see what the new team out there is cooking up. (That new team includes Matthew Mina, the hotshot who won the coveted top toque post at The Hunt Club only to leave about 15 minutes later.)

Or maybe I’ll stick closer to home, casting my gimlet eye upon joints whose owners are distracted at the moment building new projects. Tom Douglas is busy completing his ownership of downtown, with new restaurants to work on in Pike Place Market and South Lake Union, so I want to make sure Lola and Dahlia Lounge and Etta’s Seafood aren’t feeling the inattention.

Ditto Steelhead Diner, that local Northwest comfort-food spot in Pike Place Market, whose owners Kevin and Terresa Davis are currently morphing the burnished husk of Oceanaire into another seafood destination called Blueacre.

Where I’ll go the other 14 nights? Good thing I have another 19 spots to choose from.

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Tags: New Restaurants, Bargain Bites, Promotions, Dine Around Seattle

Cheap Date: Naam

Finally! An afforable Thai restaurant hired an interior designer.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Feb 11, 2010 at 09:00AM 2 Comments

Photo courtesy yelp.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Photo courtesy yelp.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Photo courtesy yelp.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

The kee mao noodles.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

God knows there’s no shortage of Thai restaurants in this city. But ones with character, sleek design, ambience—heck, any kind of design scheme? We’ll take more of those, please. Chalk one up to Naam, the newish joint tucked in Madrona’s darling strip of storefronts, for realizing interior can stimulate just as much as four-star-spicy som tam.

Here cushy beds with triangular lumbar pillows line the window wells and take the place of traditional tables. Don’t worry, they’re not of the we’re-in-the-club, Sex and the City–type, but rather cozily re-create the Thai way of eating. A narrow snack bar divides the drinkers from the diners—if the beds are occupied, this is where you want to sit. Though the table space is tight, so much so you bump ’bows with yours truly, it’s great for conversation. Not to mention the ideal spot to catch rousing whiffs from the nearby kitchen.

Slick wood paneling and plush oversized banquettes further the mod and clean styling. Taken as a whole it’s the perfect stage to showcase Naam’s vibrant food, which, given the swank surrounds, is surprisingly down-to-earth and cheap. About three-fourths of the menu is $9.95 or less, and you’re hard-pressed to find a dish costing more than $13. House cocktails are $7, glasses of wine average the same, and beer, $3.75. If you’re in the mood for noodles, try the kee mao, though it’s best with meat and not tofu. The yellow curry also comes highly recommended.

All this yet Naam never loses sight of the down-home charms—an all-too-hospitable (and adorable) wait staff, menus with a bagillion options—that make Thai restaurants so lovable. Looks like Naam has found a winning combo.

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Tags: New Restaurants, Bargain Bites, cheap eats, Thai, Cheap Date

Something Unexpected at the Hard Rock Cafe

There aren’t a lot of surprises at the new Seattle Hard Rock, until you get up to the roof.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 08, 2010 at 10:54AM 3 Comments

The new Hard Rock Cafe on Pike Street at First Avenue will have its soft opening on February 10; I went over this morning for a sneak peak.

Downstairs, the place looks exactly like what you’d expect from a Hard Rock Cafe: there is a gift shop, and booths with individual TV screens—diners vote on what song they hope to hear next over the sound system. Seattle rock paraphernalia lines the walls. There’s an acoustic guitar along the body of which Eddie Vedder taped notes on the lyrics to “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” to help him remember; an incoherent ramble of a letter sent by Courtney Love to Spin Magazine; a totally 80s jagged white electric guitar that once belonged to Heart.

Inside a drinks menu are bright images of cobranded cocktails like the Blue Devil: Captain Morgan, Curacao, margarita mix, and Monin wildberry syrup. Yowsa.

I asked director of operations Kelly Marshall what differentiated the Seattle restaurant from the 161 other Hard Rocks around the globe and she pointed to the beer taps—the Hard Rock here pours Northwest brews like Deschutes Black Butte and Mac and Jacks. She talked about the “Java Lava” burger: an espresso-rubbed patty covered in some kind of tangy coffee sauce, and the philanthropic partnership the Hard Rock has brokered with nearby Pike Place Market. She also mentioned that the Hard Rock Seattle is working towards a gold-level LEEDS certification, the first in the company.

One level up is the stage area: capacity 400, according to press materials. The Hard Rock has started booking local bands and shows will begin in early March. The memorabilia continues on the walls upstairs, so you can engage in the incongruous activity of watching some struggling band while standing next to a framed man purse once toted by Jimi Hendrix.

Go up one more level and you’re on the Hard Rock’s surprising rooftop deck: a very beautiful, understated lounge with gas firepits and its own small bar, not to mention an addictive view of the market and sound beyond. It was really quite something to walk around this virgin space this morning, before one Blue Devil has been poured in the face of one distressed jeans-wearing douchebag, before one Black Eyed Peas song has defiled the state-of-the-art sound system.

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Tags: New Restaurants, Downtown, Openings

Lusty!

The critic holds forth on the perfect restaurants for Valentine’s Day.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jan 25, 2010 at 09:00AM 9 Comments

I’ll have seconds, please!

Being a restaurant critic, I can sometimes get a little overheated about restaurant food. Imagine. But for occasions like Valentine’s Day, who’s kidding who. It’s all about the atmo, cowboys.

For instance, there are restaurants I wouldn’t necessarily make a beeline for on a regular night; places like that lush nightspot Ibiza in Pioneer Square or the perfectly serviceable new Thai storefront in Madrona, Naam.

But for Valentine’s Day? (It’s on a Sunday this year, so the following recommendations might as well pertain to Saturday…or—who cares?—another random night.) Seeing as how both joints have beds for tables…I might make an exception. At Ibiza, where the fare is Mediterranean, it’s more like chaises…but at Naam a few of the tables rise shallowly from a sea of cushions, with triangular pillows for a little lumbar uplift.

Throw in some Champagne or a couple of sparkly cocktails and things could get festive.

Serafina of course gets my vote for sexiest restaurant in Seattle, with its candlelit Italian soul. Lesser known but every bit as romantic is its foxy little sister just across the courtyard, Cicchetti, where the Venetian tapas (try the pizzas from the wood-fired oven) always hit the spot. The G-spot.

Ha!

Other little cocktaily small plate joints good for canoodling include the ever-Parisian Sambar and the late-night Licorous.

If a very private table is your dream, how about one of the high-high-high-backed booths at Belltown’s lush Queen City Grill? They’re like studio apartments.

Or that one table, the curtained one near the door, at the winsome little Capitol Hill secret spot Chez Gaudy?

Or Table #19 at Fremont’s bizarro Bizzarro, a terribly intimate little deuce behind a framing post? I can’t imagine a hotter place to twirl pasta and whisper sweet nothings.

Unless it’s home. But there you have to do the dishes.

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Tags: New Restaurants, Cocktails, Restaurants, critic's picks, romance, Valentine's Day