Welcome to Opening Night, our new column about hot new restaurants around Seattle. For our debut edition, we went to a media preview at Doris, a teeny-tiny Pioneer Square spot that oozes style.

Longtime Seattleites may get a bit of a shock when they walk into Doris. The narrow, hallway-shaped space on the corner where Third Avenue meets the Second Avenue Extension used to be Salumi, Armandino Batali’s legendary salami and sandwich destination. “This was like the sacred place of Seattle in the early 2000s through 2020, when Salumi moved,” Doris owner Angela Dunleavy told guests at a media preview on July 13.

The sandwich counter and meats are gone, replaced by an elegant, Art Deco-inspired interior. Dunleavy says her goal was to create something that feels like Europe or New York. There are candles and fresh flowers along one wall, a dozen two-top tables along the other, high ceilings, and a splash of turquoise at the back. On summer evenings, the late-setting sun pours in through the big front windows. Emma Stimson, of Dunleavy’s hospitality and events company Rally, designed the space; she wonders if it’ll feel cozier once the big dark sets in and the natural light diminishes. 

The tiny new restaurant is in the historic Mottman Building near King Street Station.

Doris is not exactly a bar—there’s no bar where you can actually sit—but its menu leans into wine and cocktails, primarily classic cocktails with some fun twists, like citrus-spiced honey in the Old Fashioned and amaro in the House Black Manhattan. (There are also “mini” cocktails available.) It’s an ideal place to get a martini with some fresh, hot fries—the Infatuation has already dubbed it “Seattle’s drinks-and-snacks ‘it’ girl”—but you can also order larger plates, like the dry-aged smoked beef. That was the main course at the preview dinner; we were told to wrap the thinly sliced meat around some fries and parsley like a hand roll and dip it in horseradish sauce, which was delightful. (The chef, Neil Duncanson, has worked at notable Seattle restaurants Homer, Delancey, and Cafe Suliman.)

The spread at Doris gives familiar favorites a polished turn.

Courtesy of Doris

Doris is named after Dunleavy’s great-grandmother, who raised her until she was ten. Originally, Dunleavy wanted to honor her in part by making Doris “a restaurant that’s for the girls,” a space that was “all about being in friendship and being with your girls.” Some coverage of the restaurant has referred to it as a “women-centered social club.” But at the preview Dunleavy clarified that she was “quickly talked out of” the women-focused aspect of the business. Doris is for everyone, she says. Most of all, she wants it to be a space that cultivates friendships. “Maybe you are by yourself and you meet a new best friend, or you come in with your best friend and you leave with a new best friend, or you come in on a date night, as my husband and I often do, and leave with two new best friends.”

The layout definitely encourages socializing. Those two-top tables are close together, so if you see something your neighbor orders that you like, it’ll be pretty easy to lean over and ask, “Is that stuff in the silver cup pimento cheese?” (It is.) 

Doris doesn’t take reservations, which is great if you want to drop in but a downside if you’re on a big date and show up to find the 24 seats are already full. If you can’t get a seat (and I imagine Doris will be pretty crowded on Thursdays and Fridays), there’s a little counter running along the wall opposite the tables where you can stand to eat and drink. Maybe not the best setup if you want to have, say, a buttermilk-fried loin, but if you want to stand in one of Pioneer Square’s most stylish spaces, sipping a martini and noshing on some spicy snack mix, that sounds like a pretty good time.

Doris, at 309 Third Avenue South in Pioneer Square, is open from 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Friday from 4 to 10 p.m. It is closed on the weekends. No reservations.