2008 Best New Restaurants
Branzino
2429 Second Ave, Belltown, 206-728-5181; www.branzinoseattle.com
Think Il Bistro in the ’80s—the amber-lit romance, the tables, artfully arranged for intimacy, the sumptuous Italian food. Branzino springs from the same DNA—namely, Peter Lamb’s and Michael Don Rico’s, whose Il Bistro and, later, Queen City Grill now seem but prologue to their stunning latest. It’s a square room with high-backed booths and otherwise cozy spaces swathed in autumnal hues—a bona-fide warm restaurant in a city smitten with the stark and minimal—where the friendly welcome, rustic fare, and affordable price tags (just one entrée over $24, and most around $18) all communicate a decided lack of pretension. (Yes, that would be Belltown.) Chef Ashley Merriman (Brasa, Tilth) keeps her hand firmly on the Italian tiller, turning out a housemade pappardelle Bolognese, a halibut with fresh vegetables in parchment, and a perfect pizza crust, all of which she knocks clean out of the park.
BEST STAGE SET FOR Romance. Oh, the private tables accommodate business secrets, and the festive atmosphere is great for old friends. But let’s not kid ourselves: This is foreplay food, in a room suffused with mood.
DON’T MISS The stunning panzanella, in which Merriman uses her own housemade mozzarella.
Cascina Spinasse
1531 14th Ave, Capitol Hill, 206-251-7673; www.spinasse.com
Having cooked at Café Juanita, apprenticed with pastamakers in Italy, perfected his own pasta using artisan tools in a loft over Via Tribunali, then gained a cult following selling the pasta out of a booth at the Ballard Farmers Market, Justin Neidermeyer has glittered brightly in Seattle’s foodie firmament for years. With Cascina Spinasse he’s gone supernova. There in Pike/Pine’s rustic Piemontese farmstead (communal plank tables, wood beams, wrought-iron chandeliers, lace curtains) diners feast on robust platters of slow-roasted goat with chickpeas and savoy cabbage, or heirloom chicory salad with chunks of marinated rabbit and extraordinary aged balsamic vinegar—all lovingly oiled and seasoned. Neidermeyer’s pasta achieves density and delicacy at once, in ravioli with rapini and pine nuts or a hearty cavatelli lavished with chanterelles.
BEST STAGE SET FOR A group romp through a tasting menu. Bring the homeys, sit at one of the long tables, get consensus on two antipasti, one pasta, and one secondo—and for $47 a person (a bargain when you do the math), relish the family-style banquet. (Of course, multicourse prix fixe is a nice place to visit, but you might not want to live there. When the hotly awaited Spinasse opened with this as the only option, Neidermeyer—to his credit—heard the hue and cry, then worked up an à la carte menu.)
DON’T MISS The plainest primo on the menu: Neidermeyer’s ragú with the rich Piemontese egg-yolk noodles called tajarin. These noodles are rolled and hand-cut, not extruded, and they literally melt in your mouth.
Published: November 2008
