Nosh Pit

Beware Falling Prices!

Trend of the month: Restaurateurs across town are repositioning themselves a little lower on the food chain.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 13, 2012 at 09:00AM 2 Comments

Le Gourmand’s little downmarket sister Sambar.

Time was not so long ago when a restaurateur who wanted to up the popularity and lower the accessibility threshold of his or her restaurant would simply open a downmarket adjunct next door. Maestros like Bruce Naftaly at the (sob) soon-to-be-late Le Gourmand would open adjacent bars like the (sob) soon-to-be-late Sambar; the lesser then serving as a kind of literal and figurative anteroom to the greater.

Think Serafina and Cicchetti. Flying Fish and On the Fly. Elemental and Elemental Next Door.

These days the trend appears to have morphed into something else: upscale restaurants downscaling themselves.

Back in October the spendy French jewel in the heart of Pike Place Market, Campagne, became the more accessibly priced Marche Bistro and Wine Bar. (It already had a downmarket adjunct, Cafe Campagne.) Last week Spring Hill in West Seattle stunned the gastronomosphere by lowering price and concept to become Ma’ono Fried Chicken and Whisky, in response to a city’s rapturous embrace of Spring Hill’s weekly fried chicken nights.

Now this week, Restaurant Zoe plans to reopen in its new digs on Union, having fled Belltown and big prices to adopt at least three of the biggest trends currently dominating Seattle dining: kitchen garden, Capitol Hill address—and, yes, a “loosened-up” price point.

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Tags: Restaurant Zoe, Restaurant Marche, Serafina, Critic's Notebook, Spring Hill, Cafe Campagne, Flying Fish, Campagne, Sambar, Le Gourmand, Ma'Ono Fried Chicken and Whisky

Restaurant Shifts and Shakeups

This week: Regent Bakery and Café opens in Capitol Hill, West Seattle loses Avalon, and Branzino’s new chef has big plans.

Posted by: Anne Larkin on Feb 10, 2012 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

Brightly colored pastries keep company with savory hot pots at the new Capitol Hill Regent Bakery and Cafe. Photo courtesy of their website.

OPENINGS

Pomegranate Bistro
The sunny Redmond restaurant is adding a bar—Pombar —on Thursday, February 16. The Bistro website says that to celebrate the opening, happy hour will go on all night, from 3:30 till the bar closes at 10.

Ben and Jerry’s
The Greenlake ice cream shop re-opened Thursday after getting new owners and a remodel, says My Green Lake. Now we just need another sunny ice cream-worthy weekend.

Regent Bakery and Café
The new Pine Street outpost of the famed Redmond bakery opened Wednesday on the corner of 14th and Pine, reports Capitol Hill Seattle. The shop does, of course, have pretty Japanese-meets-French pastries, but to our happy surprise, also a full-on savory Chinese lunch and dinner menu with items like hot pots and fried rice. And booze! The new restaurant plans to capitalize on the neighborhoods nightlife, with hours from 11 to midnight and a full bar.

The Amber Den
After a softly-open first week, the laid-back Ballard spot is now officially open. Eater Seattle’s got photos, and it’s the sunniest wine bar we’ve ever seen.

Paseo
Fremont Universe brings the good news that Paseo reopens today, after a long, Cuban sandwich-less winter break.

COMING SOON

Hot Cakes
For the past 4 years, former Theo chocolatier Autumn Martin has been providing Seattle with decadent treats, first in the form of chocolatey bake-at-home jarred cakes, more recently with cookies, hand pies, and sauces. She’s been selling at farmers’ markets and in a few retail locations, but Rebekah Denn of the The Seattle Times says that Martin just signed a lease for her very own space on (where else) Ballard Ave and has plans to open in May.

Five Hooks Fish Grill
Recently shuttered Tenoch Mexican Grill atop Queen Anne will soon be replaced by a “renewable seafood” restaurant, according to Eater Seattle.

CLOSINGS

Big news. Le Gourmand and Sambar
Bruce and Sarah Naftaly are are closing down their seminal Ballard restaurant and companion cocktail spot in June, after 27 wonderful years. Cookbooks, baking, and family time will replace the bustle of kitchen life for the Naftalys. More here.

Avalon
After just over a year, this fine-dining option in West Seattle is closing its doors. Owners told the West Seattle Herald that the rent was too high, the location was far from ideal, and that maybe there’s only room for one fancy restaurant in West Seattle. Or maybe not.

663 Bistro
One of Tom Douglas (and our) favorite I.D. BBQ spots was temporarily shut down by the Health Department, says The Stranger. …We did say “dodgy.”

SHIFT CHANGES

Branzino
After hopping around from Verve to Oddfellows to Terra Plata, Chef Garrett Michael Brown seems to have finally settled at Branzino, where he’s planning to revamp the menu and revivify the restaurant.

RN74
A new chef and perhaps some big menu changes for Michael Mina’s Downtown French restaurant. Seis Kamimura of Spago and Boka (among others) is taking the helm, and though he was trained at the French Culinary Institute, expect “bold interpretations” of the classics.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Shift Change, Pomegranate Bistro, Ice Cream, Sambar, Le Gourmand, Seattle Restaurant Closings, Bar Openings, Bar Openings, Closings, Branzino

Le Gourmand, Sambar to Close

A pioneering laboratory of Northwest cuisine says adieu June 2.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Feb 09, 2012 at 11:10AM 10 Comments

Bruce and Sara Naftaly at Le Gourmand. The restaurant will spend its final months regaling diners with a menu of greatest hits.

June 2 will be the last day of business for Le Gourmand, the pioneering restaurant that has stood on NW Market Street for 27 years, as well as its adjacent cocktail den Sambar.

Calling someone out of the blue and inquiring into various personal and business affairs is not my favorite part of this job. But when I reached chef-owner Bruce Naftaly this morning, he sounded downright excited. You see, Naftaly and his wife and business partner Sara are very hands-on. So much so that there’s no taking the night off and leaving the kitchen in the hands of a sous chef. Bruce Naftaly says he has cooked every dinner Le Gourmand has served, except for a few weeks eight years ago when he landed in the hospital. Dining at his restaurant “is like having people coming into your studio."

That pace, that schedule, get rather tiring.

“It’s wonderful and passionate and intense,” says Naftaly, “but you can’t do anything else.”

After Le Gourmand and Sambar bid Seattle farewell in June, the chef plans to finally write that cookbook he’s been planning for a decade or two, and continue teaching classes. Sara is interested in pursuing a bakery, and plans to work on a cocktail book with longtime Sambar barman Jay Kuehner. Also high on the couple’s to-do list: Spending more time with their son.

When Naftaly opened Le Gourmand back in 1985, his concept was a bold experiment for the time—classic French fare, made with seasonal, locally sourced Northwest ingredients. Today, the farm-to-table concepts he helped pioneer are practically gospel to the current generation of chefs, many of whom were born after the restaurant opened. When the Naftalys opened Sambar in 2003, no bars “were handling cocktails like you would an haute French sauce,” says Naftaly. Now the spirited experimentation espoused by Kuehner and other bartenders is all but expected when Seattleites go out for cocktails.

And while the economic downturn and the current trend toward casual dining have affected the Naftalys’ bottom line, Bruce says the decision was personal rather than financial.

So, Seattle, you have little more than three months to make a final visit to Le Gourmand. Starting in March the restaurant will offer a farewell menu featuring the greatest hits of nearly three decades. “I’m still extremely passionate about the whole thing, and I want to go out while I’m still feeling that way,” says Naftaly.

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Tags: Closings, Seattle Restaurant Closings, Le Gourmand, Sambar, Jay Kuehner, Bruce Naftaly, Sara Naftaly