10 Best Restaurants 2009
Crush
2319 E Madison St, Madison Valley, 206-302-7874; chefjasonwilson.com
THE VISION
“Our original vision was a neighborhood bistro with more modern design than you see in Seattle restaurants, to reflect the natural, farm-raised food that we saw as a more modern approach to cooking. Our interior designer thought the restaurant would be driven by the food experience, not the bar scene, so she persuaded us to go all white, thinking that the food and wine should provide the color—a tomato salad blossoming against a table. A couple years in, we realized that diners were treating Crush as more of a fine-dining restaurant than a neighborhood bistro—so, to respond to our customers, we changed. We concentrated on taking service to a higher level. We removed a few tables to give diners more space. I wouldn’t want Crush to be perceived as a special-occasion jewel box. But I don’t think Seattle would let me have something other than a fine-dining restaurant. That’s what I do well.” — Jason Wilson, owner and chef, Crush
THE VERDICT
When Crush opened in 2005, the stark setting confused everyone. Chic white Philippe Starck chairs and white leather banquettes in a refurbished Tudor? At the gritty inner-city corner of 23rd and Madison? The stylish little pocket of LA with its consequent otherworldliness drew Beautiful People in droves—even as Crush proved it was considerably more than just a pretty face.
Owner and chef Jason Wilson, who had opened the Pacific Place outpost of the glitzy California-based Stars in the bet-a-million ’90s, merged a down-to-earth delight in natural, farm-raised food with the kind of culinary refinement that longs to sous vide a short rib. It’s a killer combination. Dishes soar with both sophistication and earthiness, as when Wilson sears a lobe of foie gras and coats it with a glaze of huckleberries, or when he sautés a hunk of Alaskan halibut to serve with sea urchin mousseline over fresh, native fiddlehead ferns. It was the nonsurprise of the century when, just a year after Crush opened, Food and Wine pronounced Wilson one of the Top 10 New Chefs in America.
Best, Wilson’s plates nearly always offer “the yum factor”: that undefinable element that makes fine cuisine into good eatin’. Exhibit A: His buttermilk fried sweetbreads, with crisped potato, mustard coleslaw, and bourbon sauce.
Published: October 2009
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