West Seattle’s recent streak of promising new restaurants continues this week, when four alums of Radiator Whiskey open Lady Jaye in the former Pecado Bueno space at 4523 California Avenue Southwest.
Sara Rosales will fashion cocktails and oversee the bar, where roughly 80 percent of the spirits selection will involve agave. The custom-built nine-and-a-half foot smoker named Cletus on the back patio? That’s the purview of Charlie Garrison and Tyler Palagi. As co-chefs back at the meaty tavern on the second floor of Pike Place Market, the two smoked pig heads and prepared surprisingly polished seasonal salads. Here, they will smoke whole chickens, enormous turkey drumsticks, and “porkstrami” (to use in a reuben variation) and prepare similarly polished vegetable dishes, like a wedge salad, or squash with manchego and lemon labneh.
The group bills Lady Jaye as a “smokehouse,” lest anyone mistake its particular brand of low and slow meat concoctions for traditional barbecue. The snacky lineup of pimento cheese puffs, nuggets of fried pork cheek, and oysters on the half shell—not to mention the twice-fried chicken wings—reinforce that this isn’t the sort of spot that serves its food on metal trays.
Evan Carter, the fourth partner in the business, reminded me that Lady Jaye is a character from G.I. Joe, which does explain some of the cocktail names. Though it definitely has a bar vibe, Lady Jaye will be kid-friendly until 9pm, because West Seattle.
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