Scoop: Morphing Menus
How have Seattle
By Seattle Mag December 31, 1969
This article originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Seattle magazine.
Category: Eat + Drink Articles
How have Seattle’s longstanding restaurants survived? Perpetually popular menu items. While a “tantalizing butter sauce” from the 1950s may have been replaced by today’s “spiced mango coulis” (likewise, a mysterious “dressing” was booted by a “sherry glace”), the core entrées haven’t changed—and Dick’s is still a deal.
Canlis
| 1950s |
2009 |
| $5.50 Hawaiian mahi mahi
“We charcoal-broil them to your taste with a tantalizing butter sauce.” |
$36 Mahi mahi
Sesame crusted with spiced mango coulis and smoked shiitake mushrooms |
| $6.75 Filet mignon
“Specify your wish—from raw-rare to well-done—and we’ll time it to the minute.” |
$44 Filet mignon
Aged, naturally raised Midwest beef with market vegetables and fingerling potatoes. |
(Fairmont) Olympic Hotel — The Georgian
| 1950s |
2009 |
| 70¢ Fried scallops
|
$39 Seared scallops
With crisp potatoes, melted leeks, bacon butter sauce |
| 70¢ Broiled salmon
Maître d’Hôtel
|
$39 Cedar plank smoked salmon
With sweet corn and prawn cake, baby vegetables, Parmesan foam |
| 35¢ Spinach with egg
|
$13 Arrowhead spinach salad
Dressed in truffles, shaved sottocenere |
Ivar’s Acres of Clams
| 1950s |
2009 |
| 90¢ Creamed crab on toast
|
$11 Crab and chèvre dip
Creamy melted chèvre and Parmesan cheeses, French bread toast points |
| $1 Acre of steamed clams With butter, cup of nectar
|
$13 Acre of clams
One pound of tender local Manila clams simmered with red potatoes in garlic-white wine butter sauce |
| $1.25 Baked salmon fillet
With “Ivar’s dressing” |