IT’S JUST ANOTHER SEATTLE SEAFOOD PLACE
As the rumor had it, Stowell indeed includes fish in every cooked preparation, which explains the sea urchin in the tagliarini and the cured tuna with the soft-cooked eggs and aioli. (The other early rumor, that A & O would offer only white wines, is false. The wine guru at both A & O and Wolf is Stowell’s wife and business partner Angela, who wrote a terrific list that’s heavy on whites, all Italian, and refreshingly affordable.)
On our first visit to Anchovies and Olives we got fluke, a succulent flatfish I rarely see locally, with English peas and controne beans in a lemony, essence-of-springtime dish. Across the table was a plate of Arctic char in a lively production including fregola (the nutty Sardinian beads of semolina pasta that are making their first inroads into the American market) and nettles, currants, and speck. Props to chef Charles Walpole on this canny romp, where our forks dueled over sweets and meaties and savories deep in conversation, in lightly Middle Eastern accents.
The crudo menu offers the coolest seafood of all, brisk from local waters. Swimming-that-day shellfish from Shelton’s Taylor farms arrives in the Walpole kitchen every other day, which on our visits included the new “It” oyster, the shigoku, whose crisp intensity was shrewdly encouraged with marinated horseradish.
Call Anchovies and Olives just another source-obsessed, fanatical-about-freshness seafood place if you must. I’ll just call it thrilling.
IT’S AN ETHAN STOWELL PLACE, SO IT MUST BE FLAWLESS
Alas…no. Chef Walpole, who hails from the late Mistral, displays obvious chops, literally, from the most visible open kitchen in Stowell’s empire. But on my visits he faltered more than he should have, both in conception (a too-rich brown butter sauce walloping a fine piece of skate) and execution (a hunk of smoky octopus, lyrically offset with bitter endive and tart gremolata, toughened on the grill). It ain’t there yet.
ANCHOVIES AND OLIVES BREAKS NEW GROUND FOR STOWELL
It really doesn’t. Sure it’s his first fish house, but the menu traffics in the same acerbic, briny, and tangy flavor families that dominate dinner at his other joints. Of course there’s lots of spicy tomato and big steaky chunks of tuna in the conchiglie pasta; plenty of anchovies and garlic and chilies and nettles in the spaghetti. Both are very good; both we’ve had countless beta versions of at Tavolàta and, even more, Wolf.
All this we considered as we settled into a particularly lush cheese plate and a tart little dish of orange-fennel sorbet, made in-house, for dessert. How many lush cheeses and tart sorbets had we now enjoyed in Stowell restaurants? How many more could we enjoy before we tired of them?
A whole lot more.
Published: June 2009
We were visiting Seattle for 2 weeks and ate at A & O 4 times. It’s delicious and we had terrific service and ambiance! We live in New York City and eat out every night and this ranks up there with the best of them. We’re looking forward to our next visit in November.