February 2008
Inside the Issue: Best New Restaurants
November’s Best New Restaurants issue (co-written by Eater’s Allecia Vermillion, it hits newstands this week) was a pure pleasure to work on because of the spirit of looking ahead, of seeing what (and who!) is on the verge of making it big in Seattle food. You’ll notice Hayley Young’s stunning portraits of the nine emerging food people whose names you…
Best New Restaurants 2011
Just when you think you’ve got Seattle restaurants all figured out, a new batch opens.
We’re all about noise, fun and affordability, if you take the crowds packing the Brave Horse Tavern and Revel as evidence. But then the Madison Park Conservatory and the elegant Book Bindery come onto the scene to up the sophistication quotient. And don’t forget our never-ending love affair with pizza and burgers, food trucks and…
6 Food Trends We Love
From cocktails to pickles: the sharp, unabashed flavors Seattleites want now - and where to get them
Booze of the Moment: Tequila Don’t be like me. It took me years to recover from cheap-tequila-drenched trips to Mexico in college. And so I came late to the nuanced aromas of reposado, and I’m slowly exploring the smoky flavors of good anejo (they are pricey, after all). All over town, bartenders are harnessing the…
7 Restaurants to Watch
We have high hopes for these just-opened (and yet-to-open) eateries.
>>Modern comfort food (with menu consultation by Poppy’s Jerry Traunfeld!) makes Grace Kitchen at the U Village intriguing. Great food at the mall? Here’s hoping. >>Former Canlis chef and cookbook author Greg Atkinson will take the plunge later this year and open his first restaurant, Marché, on Bainbridge Island. Northwest bistro is the genre; seafood,…
Best New Restaurant Decor
Our new crop of restaurants is reversing the overdone Ikea-meets-thrift-store trend with eye-catchin
Staple & Fancy’s wall with an old cigar advertisement (see photo above): When crews were renovating Ballard’s historic Kolstrand Building, they unearthed a painted sign proclaiming a former tenant as a “dealer in Staple & Fancy.” Though those words are on the second floor of the building, Ethan Stowell named his newest restaurant after the…
The Next Wave of Tastemakers, 2011
A roster of men and women who are poised to become the Seattle dining scene’s next notable names.
Neil Robertsonpastry chef The man whose subtlety with flavor and illustrious stints at both Canlis and Mistral Kitchen made him Seattle’s biggest name in pastry, left his post at Mistral Kitchen earlier this year to go out on his own. But he’ll be back soon: Robertson (here, munching on one of his specialties, the French…
Who’s Serving Who? The State of Service in Seattle
The customer may not always be right, but don't we have any rights?
There’s an American Express poll that repeats like a broken record inside my brain. It’s dated by now—a restaurant critic mentor quoted it to me a decade ago—but the gist is that the majority of people make the decision of whether to return to a restaurant based on the service. Not on the food. Not…
Book Bindery: Best New Restaurant 2011
A Queen Anne spot where environs are just as elegant as the food coming out of the kitchen.
True, chef Shaun McCrain has an impressive background that includes Thomas Keller’s fine-dining beacon Per Se in New York City. And his signature dishes, such as the pork belly and melon appetizer ($14) and caramelized scallops ($25), are unapologetically focused on technique and composition. But that doesn’t impress as much as the fact that the…
Revel
Fun, accessible, spicy Korean dishes in a supremely likable, upbeat space
We’re admittedly a bit of a broken record when it comes to chefs Seif Chirchi and Rachel Yang: The couple’s first restaurant, Joule, serves some of the best and most original globe-trotting cuisine going in Seattle. Now at Revel, the casual “street food”–inspired Korean spot they opened in Fremont last winter, they’ve done it again:…
Sushi Kappo Tamura
We named this Eastlake sushi spot the Best New Restaurant of 2011.
What it brings to the table: Spine-tinglingly fresh fish shimmering from the sea, with a focus on sustainability and seasonality. Move over, Shiro’s and Nishino: This is the best sushi in Seattle—and it’s also the most consistently stellar restaurant to open this year. After decades of deserved praise, the two sushi powerhouses—Shiro’s and Nishino—have been…
Seattle’s Most Influential People of 2011
Love them or hate them, there’s no denying theimpact these major players have had on our city.
[person of the year]Dan SavageThe It Gets Better ProjectSometimes life’s most fleeting moments are the ones that have the greatest impact. Take, for example a distinct memory Dan Savage recalls from his Chicago childhood: “I was 8 or 9, and my family was in line for a movie, and we saw two gay people holding…
Soldiering On: New Methods for Battling PTSD
From mobile apps to meditation, local practitioners are pioneering fresh ways to fight back against
Beyond two locked security doors on the seventh floor of Seattle’s Veterans Affairs hospital (VA) on Beacon Hill, patients are treated for some of the more severe cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a web of other issues. Some of them are depressed, some are suicidal, and some are simply not functioning because of…