10 Best Restaurants 2009
Serious Pie
316 Virginia St, Downtown, 206-838-7388; tomdouglas.com
THE VISION
“I sat down with our cooks and bakers to drill down on a simple idea: how to make a better pizza. Not better than anyone else—better to our taste. For me, I like something other than Neapolitan style, which is the trend now. I was looking for a firmer crust. A slower heat, a longer bake. The best cheeses in the world. I think people recognize that no matter what you’re making—whether it be a taco or mac and cheese or a pizza—you can make something really low end and awful, or you can make it to that high end of imagination and thoughtfulness and care. I personally love cooking at the big stone hearth oven at Serious Pie. It’s cooking like the cavemen. Just you and the fire.” — Tom Douglas, owner, Serious Pie
THE VERDICT
In the last two decades, Tom Douglas has become such an industry it can be hard to remember why we fell so hard for him. Serious Pie reminds us that he is the culinary maverick who freed fruit from the garnish ghetto and made upscale restaurants safe for burgers.
In this warm, little 48-seat ski-cabin of a room, Douglas distills his signature playfulness. A salad consists of red and golden beets, whole pistachios, shreds of mint, and anchovies. Shockingly, naturally, it’s a stunner. A peach from the Pence family orchard in Wapato (meaningful to food nerds and, it turns out, anyone with taste buds) arrives sliced and strewn with basil and pine nuts, alongside a schmear of the sweet creamed mozzarella, burrata. It’s perfect. Fruit still looms large in Douglas’s universe.
And when your pizza emerges from inside the big wood-fired oven—all funny-shaped and topped with Penn Cove clams, housemade pancetta, and lemon thyme; or Spanish truffle cheese with roasted chanterelles—it’s the finest pie you’ve ever tasted, and you can’t decide if that’s because of the blue-ribbon toppings or the chewy, golden, melt-in-mouth crust. Suddenly you’ll recall that this man also owns the Dahlia Bakery.
The mastery extends through dessert, where potent Italianate fruit-and-pastry masterpieces come with a side of raw guilt when you see the knot of hungry diners at the door. Yes, there’s always a wait. Yes, tables are communal. Nowhere in the Douglas empire are his graceful, good-humored servers more vital to the operation. Serious Pie is not a place to linger over fine Italian wine or boutique beer, though seriously comfy stools (this restaurateur thinks of everything) invite it.
It’s a joint to enjoy some of Seattle’s giddiest yet most exacting cuisine, performed with the kind of focus and immediacy that Douglas’s big corporate outfits don’t allow.
Published: October 2009
Serious pie is amazing! We try to treat ourselves every month.
Fairly new to the Seattle area, and this list was great. I am excited to knock out all 1-10!
We are from Wisconsin. While visiting our son in Seattle this summer, we celebrated my wife’s birthday at the Boat Street Cafe. A nice ambience. A varied menu. Fabulous food. The service was excellent.
I love this list! We’ve enjoyed a few of the Top 10 before, and look forward to going to the rest. Good to see Seattle classics on here like Canlis and Rovers, as well as some of the newer places like Spring Hill.
I agree with Jefferson…great list. Classics deserve to stay on the list if they continue to innovate and impress! Can’t wait for the parentals to come to town…going to Boat Street and Crush for sure!
I went through the whole list wrote them down and I want to try them all. Your reviews were great. My birthday is in feb and we are going to try one of these fabulous sounding restaurants. Thankyou Sherry in south king county.
Hey,
how are you?
i’m coming into seattle and was wandering if a pro like this blog could help me out in terms of…
1. best breakfast – i’m coming in on thurs, so cant do the corson building- so depressed
2. best lunch/dinner place to eat good seattle grub fare.
thanks so much!!! anything else i must eat etc like donuts just let me know too – yum yum.. i’m so jealous you have it all at your fingertips!
michelle
Serious Pie is great but for 2010?
Is there any list of top restaurants for 2010?
Mike,auto insurance quotes
Serious Pie is pretty damned good, but it says a lot about Seattle that one of it’s best restaurants is a pizza joint.
If Rovers can nail it’s consistency problem down, it would probably be a strong candidate for top spot in WA, maybe even contend for a michelin star.
For serious foodies, hop a ferry to Bainbridge (half an hour, great for visiting relatives) and walk to “The Harbourside Pub.” Looks like a fun, happy Pub joint with lots of micro-beers. What it really is that’s different is locally grown foods, highly creative seasonal choices of organic and grass-fed beef. The foodies will be happy and so will the whole family (no kids). There’s even a sunny deck. The owners have made this possible by working directly with local farmers—you can really taste the difference in the food. Best list for 2011?
Serious Pie is seriously UN-amazing. None of Tom Douglas’s restaurants are at all impressive compared to chef owned restaurants in Seattle including most that are on this top ten list. Tom knows how to market himself and make money. Cooking great food with authenticity and sustainability? He doesn’t have it. Serious Pie is a step up from Pagliachi, but not anything I would write home about. I miss Brasa’s fig pizza…. that is worth writing home about.