Best Restaurants 2006
Best New Restaurants
Licorous
928 12th Ave, Capitol Hill | 206-325-6947 www.licorous.com
Never have Seattle foodies so eagerly awaited the opening of a bar. That’s because Licorous, which means “tempting the appetite,” is really a culinary destination in the guise of a snazzy cocktail salon. Owner–chef Johnathan Sundstrom launched the gauzy mauve–and–persimmon spot as a holding pen for the overflow from his perpetually slammed Lark two doors down, but his fastidious attention to the menu of small–plate noshes—bison tartine with huckleberries, Maine scallops over lemon cucumbers, richly nutty financier cakes lasciviously drenched in brown butter—vaults the food well out of the realm of cocktail ballast.
Order up! Though you can throw a cocktail onion in this town and hit a mixologist, the Licorous menu’s list of food–cocktail pairings is still a rare wonderment around here. In one seasonal pairing we savored the citrussy gin cocktail Langue du Chat along with Sundstrom’s signature rabbit leg confit and corona bean–lemon salad; a cocktail called the Lark (prosecco with grapefruit and Campari) arrived with a little dish of white Saturn peach slices. Perfect.
Prime time Seats are plentiful, tables fewer. If you’re coming for dinner best to arrive right at 6pm when it opens.
Pssssst Though two separate concerns, Lark and Licorous operate as a seamless entity when you’re waiting in one for dinner in the other. The kindly staff from either will fetch you personally off your barstool to escort you down the street to your table.
But… Platefuls may be considerably smaller than your appetite.
Crémant (closed)
1423 34th Ave, Madrona
| 206-322-14600 www.cremantseattle.com
Traditional as butter, classic to its roasted–marrow bones—Crémant has blessed Madrona with a neighborhood bistro worth moving to the neighborhood for. Paris–trained owner–chef Scott Emerick knows how to gild a roast chicken and compose a perfect moules frites, and he does so with admirable restraint, rigorous consistency, and—sacre bleu!—reasonable prices. All that, along with festive flutes of the sparkling wine they call crémant, rendered this one a classic from the instant it opened.
Order up! Now that it’s wintry out, Emerick’s cram–packed Toulousian cassoulet is back on the menu, presented à table in a Le Creuset casserole.
Prime time After 9pm, when the place fills up with off–duty restaurant folk, you can dessert on Emerick’s specially aged cheese or crispy crème brûlée—and enjoy the best spontaneous shot at a table.
Pssssst It’s not visible from the restaurant, but a private space in the garden out back houses 10 to 18 for private soirees.
But… The bare concrete walls, not exactly a cliché of French elegance, have inspired smart–alecks to lovingly dub the place Cémant.
