Nosh Pit

Nook Opens on the Ave

It’s a breakfast, lunch, and late-night spot big on comfort food.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Apr 01, 2011 at 12:48PM 1 Comments

Nook in the University District starts serving comfort food April 2.

UPDATED Nook will open on Sunday, April 3 because of “a few last minute things” that have come up.

The Ave is great and all, but ethnic joints aside it’s no culinary calling card. So yay that the newest addition to the U District boulevard looks to be a thoughtful one.

The aptly named Nook (a wee spot, it’ll seat 13–15 patrons and is tucked on the corner of University Way and NE 50th Street) opens its doors April 2. Operators and owners Alex Green and Aki Woodward aim to bring to the table “something a little nicer than what’s on the Ave, but not upscale.” Said goal translates into a menu heavy on comfort foods infused with signature touches (house-made pickles, chiles, citruses).

The prices certainly are Ave-friendly: fresh buttermilk biscuits start at $2, with a $5 bacon-egg-cheddar variety topping out the breakfast list; the sandwich menu doesn’t exceed $7. With that “I love all my children equally” hesitation, Green offered the ‘wiches he’s keen on at the moment: the meatloaf, a mash-up of pork, chicken, beef, and chipotle ketchup, and the braised buffalo chicken leg served with blue-cheese slaw. (A biscuit-topped chicken potpie with root vegetable puree caught this guy’s eye.)

The duo considered opening a biscuit shop or launching a food truck before stumbling upon the cozy space that’d become pastel-trimmed Nook. Green was most recently in the kitchen at South Lake Union’s Re:Public. Before that it was Earth and Ocean and Juno downtown and the erstwhile Madoka on Bainbridge Island. His first cooking gig found him in Atlanta alongside this week’s Top Chef All-Stars victor Richard Blais.

Hours may change, but for now Green says they’re set for 8–4 weekdays and 8–2 weekends. A late-night weekend menu of grilled cheeses will debut April 8.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Breakfast, University District, Lunch, Late Night, Nook

What Eateries Opened While You Were Out? Let’s Look

A burger shack, two pie shops, and a Vashon Island restaurateur turn on the lights.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jan 04, 2011 at 10:31AM 0 Comments

New and waiting for you: Uneeda Burger, 50 North, High 5 Pie, and Pie.

Indeed, trimming the tree was magical, but time to snap out of the holidaze, Noshers, and get back to it. Here, notable nosheries that opened while you were out.

Scott and Heather Staples, the duo who brought us Quinn’s and Restaurant Zoe, look to chalk up another winner with Uneeda Burger, a casual patty shack in Fremont. Besides wallet-friendly sandwiches, you’ll find beer (bottled and on tap), wine by the glass, and Empire ice cream milkshakes.

Over in the University District, Melinda Sontgerath, owner of the much-loved Hardware Store on Vashon Island, debuted the 3,200 square-foot 50 North. The menu, amply stocked for gluten-free folk, takes direction from the aforementioned Hardware Store. Read more about the food here, and deal diners, note the happy hour looks promising.

Capitol Hill’s High 5 Pie fired up the ovens just before the New Year, with Pie in Fremont following shortly thereafter. (The “pie is the new cupcake” buzz you’ve read about? It’s happening.) The latter rang in the nascent hours of 2011 with a soft open, serving mini pastries from its late-night takeaway window. Pie officially opens Wednesday, January 5 at 7am.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Capitol Hill, University District, Fremont, Desserts, Burgers

New Restaurant 50 North Opens This December Near U Village

From the owner of Vashon Island’s The Hardware Store, a gluten-free-friendly restaurant that stays open all day.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 28, 2010 at 03:09PM 2 Comments

Fish and chips from The Hardware Store.

50 North is the new mainland project from Melinda Sontgerath, owner of The Hardware Store. That Vashon Island eatery employs Daniel Ahern—he’s the former head chef at Madison Park’s Impromptu (now a pizzeria) and he’s also married to Gluten-Free Girl Shauna Ahern. (They recently wrote a book together.)

I called Sontgerath and asked her a few questions about the new venture, questions which she kindly answered.

Why open another restaurant?

Sontgerath says she hadn’t planned to open a second restaurant, but she was lured in by the space at 5001 25th Ave NE, near University Village. The 3,200 square-foot restaurant has an additional room upstairs with a grand piano—Sontgerath plans on holding private, catered events up there.

50 North will have a “totally different look” than The Hardware Store, says Sontgerath, but she plans to replicate the island restaurant’s cozy booths because “they feel good around your shoulders, you know what I mean?”

Can we eat the stuff we like from the Hardware Store menu at the new place?

Sontgerath is still working on the menu, but she promises 50 North will be making Hardware Store oldies like skillet-seared scallops with bacon and Granny Smith Apples, Crab cakes, Mahi Mahi fish tacos, buttermilk fried chicken, and fish and chips.

Will Ahern be the chef at 50 North?

Doesn’t sounds like it, however, “we definitely want him to have a presence,” says Sontgerath. “He’ll be involved. He’ll definitely have a say in the menu, especially as it relates to gluten-free items.”

Will it be open all day and all evening like the Hardware Store?

Yes. 50 North will open for breakfast and keep its door open through dinner service.

When can we come get some of that chicken?

Sontgerath aims to open in early December.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, University District, Gluten Free

Mamma Melina Goes Upscale

But are the new digs an improvement?

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Oct 20, 2010 at 09:00AM 3 Comments

Awwww—remember the original?

Remember Mamma Melina’s former space beneath the Seven Gables on Roosevelt?

It was homey, candlelit, a little ragged around the edges. Come-as-you-are for a plate of housemade pasta and a glass of chianti. And if the pasta wasn’t the best you’d ever tasted, that was okay…it was simple food in simple surrroundings, and the experience added up to something cozy and Old World.

Well Mamma Melina traded up, for a space roughly across from U Village on 25th, in keeping with the trend around these parts of late to transplant going concerns into hot new spaces.

And what a space it is! Floor-to-ceiling windows. Shiny metallic accents. White tablecloths. Swanky low lighting. Curtain’d private rooms. Dripping chandeliers. Soaring ceilings. Techno soundtrack. Paintings on the ceiling! (Seriously.) Heated toilet seats in the bathrooms!

Uh…wow. Whole lotta Barolo (the family owns that glittering downtown ristorante too) where the Mamma used to be. The old “come-as-you-are” now feels more like “better-try-a-little-harder.”

And the food? Well that’s the thing…because against these highbrow surroundings, Mamma’s homely food now feels underachieving. What was forgivable, even charming, in that comfy old room—the bland but addictive calamari, the studiously plain Bolognese—is now several notches below the standards raised by the decor.

Lesson for restaurants? Be careful what you wish for.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, University District, Mamma Melina, Restaurant Review

Just Eat It: Chile Green Onion Ramen at Samurai Noodle

The tonkotsu may be the star, but this spicy bowl isn’t bad either.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Oct 19, 2010 at 12:39PM 0 Comments

Chile green onion ramen at Samurai Noodle.

When people talk about Samurai Noodle, they talk about the tonkotsu. A teeming bowl of long-simmered pork broth, tonkotsu is Japanese ramen cooked the way you want it—soft, medium, al dente. Nestled among the noodles is ultra-tender pork, green onion, and black mushrooms. You can get it out of two storefronts: one next to Uwajimaya, and the other on the Ave, the newer of the pair. Dine in and it’s $6.75; grab-and-go and it’s $4.95.

But enough about the tonk. Let’s talk up another item of note: the chile green onion bowl. This one’s made with a chicken broth, and like almost all Samurai servings is laden with pork. Bamboo supplants mushrooms, and a generous helping of onion wedges freshens up the mix. That blood-red broth is a good indicator of the kick that’s to come with each spoonful, but if the spicy sesame oil isn’t doing the job, red chile flakes await at the end of the table. (Note: water pitchers do not.) Either way, prudent taste bud softies will steer clear of this $8 dish.

Oh, and don’t forget to get sloppy—slurping the noodles is Japanese custom.

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Tags: University District, Cheap Eats, Food Finds, International District

Full Tilt Rocks

Ice cream, beer, pinball, and utter happiness…now in three locations!

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 10, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Full Tilt Ice Cream: Happiest Place on Earth

Popped into the Columbia City Full Tilt Ice Cream the other night and had a hard time popping back out.

First: The arcade games, great ones, a quarter apiece, which instantly addicted the 11-year-old and her roving posse to pursuits like Ms. PacMan and, yes, pinball.

Second: The fact that everyone was here. Everyone. Full Tilt opened in the southern fringe of downtown Columbia City right before the Big Heatwave of Summer ‘09, cultivating a devoted neighborhood following just as it had done before in downtown White Center. Then just last month a new outpost brought the same love to the *UW’s 50th and Brooklyn* corner. Every one of ’em attracts the kind of fizzy, alt-flavored family energy that builds community and makes Friday nights out in the ’hood really, really fun.

Third: BEER!!! The coolest thing about this ice cream parlor is that it embraces a grown-up’s need to bring the kids out for ice cream and enjoy a little naughtiness of her own.

Fourth: Astonishingly enough… there is ice cream. Really fine, creamy, and affordable ice cream in flavors like Mexican chocolate and a superlative salted caramel. I tried the newer salted caramel variant, enhanced with a fair amount of Sailor Jerry spiced rum, and found it every bit as compelling as the pinball machine.

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Tags: Bargain Bites, reviews, University District, Beer, Desserts, kids stuff, Columbia City, White Center