Art of the Table Returns With Nine Courses of Gastro Grandeur
In its new location, the Wallingford favorite stays true to the food and character fans love.
By Chelsea Lin August 7, 2017
This article originally appeared in the August 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.
It’s a special kind of tasting menu that captivates from the first bite and suspends you through the last spoonful of dessert. It’s no easy feat; nine courses with optional wine pairings can be punishing when flavors are too bold or too bland, pacing is too fast or too slow. But even Goldilocks would love an Art of the Table tasting menu.
This second incarnation of chef Dustin Ronspies’ much loved Wallingford restaurant opened in April in a new location, on the south end of Stone Way in the buzzy strip that includes Joule, The Whale Wins and Manolin. It’s just blocks from the quirky former spot it inhabited for 10 years. The restaurant outgrew its original space some time ago, but how will it fare in this contemporary building with more than three times the number of seats?
In this new space, and the old one, Ronspies says, his goal is to offer the sort of refined cuisine you might find in a Michelin-starred restaurant—he names Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert, The French Laundry’s Thomas Keller and Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm as idols—with a come-as-you-are approachability. (The restaurant even has a couple of high chairs now, in honor of Ronspies’ young son.)
The hyper-seasonal, tasting menu sometimes changes daily ($125; wine pairings extra). It has always been offered and is still what most diners choose, the chef says, though there’s a nightly à la carte option now—in case you don’t have three hours to spend at dinner. Dine at the half-moon chef’s counter, below an angular wood installation, and you’ll have a front-row seat to watch the seemingly effortless dance in the kitchen. Plates are paraded out to diners, each dish a taste of the season containing ingredients from a who’s who of local farms, from Pleasant View Farm’s foie gras to Kurtwood Farms’ Camembert-like Dinah cheese.
Highlights of my springtime meal included pea vine vichyssoise, a single gin-cured scallop, ramp pesto and all kinds of pickles made with last summer’s bounty. Your meal likely will be entirely different, although just as memorable.
This dedication to seasonality, built on relationships cultivated with local farmers, isn’t a gimmick here. “That farmer-chef relationship is the best symbiotic relationship in the world,” Ronspies says. “It’s why I do what I do.”
Art of the Table
Wallingford/Fremont
3801-A Stone Way N; 206.282.0942
Must Try
Start your night with 50 Cent’s Epiphany ($12), a cocktail of gin, Giffard pamplemousse rose liqueur, Sauvignon Blanc, and an orange oil that’s carbonated and bottled in house.
Follow Us
Palace Kitchen Celebrates 30 Years
The Belltown staple still feeds the city after 10 p.m.
After the last tickets come off the rail, floor mats are hauled out to be hosed down, oven hoods are scrubbed, aprons come untied, and someone counts the drawer. It’s a familiar ritual in restaurant cities everywhere. When the shift ends, cooks and servers go looking for a drink and something to eat. For three…
Protein Without the Pressure
In her new cookbook, Seattle author and dietitian Rachael DeVaux keeps healthy eating grounded in real life.
Rachael DeVaux is not afraid of beef. That might sound obvious, but in a wellness culture still haunted by plain chicken breast and low-fat everything, her enthusiasm for grass-fed ground beef feels almost radical. The Seattle-based New York Times bestselling author, personal trainer, and founder of Rachael’s Good Eats has built a following of more than 3.5…
Restaurant Roundup: Nordic Cuisine and a Brazilian Brick-and-Mortar
Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.
Monday nights are worth celebrating—you made it through the first day of the week, so why not treat yourself to a delicious meal? Unfortunately, but understandably, plenty of restaurants are closed. But at these spots, not only are the kitchens still serving, the quality doesn’t drop off post-weekend, providing a perfect opportunity for a surprise…
Whisky in the Wild
Good spirits.
Over the summer, Westland Distillery announced a new offering, inspired by Washington State. Made in Seattle and taking cues from the Northwest outdoor lifestyle, Watchspot Whiskey blends eight-year-old Westland American Single Malt with grain whiskey from America’s heartland, resulting in a pour that has notes of toasted grain, milk chocolate, biscuit, apricot, and cherry pie….