This article appears in print in the April 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.

Seattle first fell in love with chef Mark Fuller over fried sweetbreads and duck egg raviolo when he opened Spring Hill in West Seattle. Now, he’s best known for crafting arguably the city’s best fried chicken at Ma‘ono (Spring Hill’s successor and Rachel’s Ginger Beer partner). He’s not the only chef who has traded a more buttoned-up approach to cooking for a style that’s more casual and approachable. (And in growing as a restaurateur, he’s had to back out of some kitchen duties, leaving that to Ma‘ono head chef Cameron Hanin.) But additions to Fuller’s growing restaurant empire—veggie burger restaurant ’Table and pizzeria Supreme—make the case that he may be the most successful, and most diverse, of those chefs. 

The chef and restaurateur’s sense of humor became evident at New Luck Toy, his West Seattle bar with a menu of tiki drinks and Americanized Chinese food, plus a million paper lanterns and Skee-Ball to boot. You’ll see much of the same at Supreme (like New Luck Toy, a 21-and-older establishment), just a block south of Ma‘ono. There, Fuller hired John Montenegro, a former sous chef at Dino’s Tomato Pie, to help create Neapolitan-meets-NYC pizza: thin crust, satisfying chew, sparse toppings. 

Supreme, with its loud music, low lighting and black-lighted, graffitied pinball room, reads more bar than restaurant. With that in mind, zero in first on the cocktails—try the frozen Kraken rum-laced root beer slushie ($9)—before continuing on to pies, which are available by the slice ($3–$4.50) or whole pizza ($18–$26). The menu is a mix of requisite choices such as extra pepperoni—recommended for those who like a classic—and inventions outside the pizza box, like the Reaper (on which both ghost chilies and Carolina reaper chilies play a role) and the Ono (a nod to Ma‘ono, with kimchi, fried chicken and slices of American cheese). 

Humor, too, shows up at ’Table (short for “vegetable”), a counter-service Denny Triangle spot decked in oversize white subway tiles and orange accents. Here, two meat lovers—Fuller and business partner Doug Kawasaki, whose background includes Canlis and John Howie—chose to go after something different: creating the ultimate veggie burger. “We decided [this burger] has to be the same sensation as eating a Dick’s cheeseburger,” Fuller says. He’s achieved a pretty great facsimile, thanks in no small part to his unabashed love of American cheese. “I’m not as ambitious with food as I once was,” Fuller says. “I just really want to have fun.” Fun, at all of these places, is evident—though I wouldn’t say ambition doesn’t play a major role as well.  

Supreme
West Seattle
4521 California Ave. SW.

’Table 
Denny Triangle
2305 Sixth Ave.; 206.693.3135.