Coastal Kitchen

Pisco eats at Coastal Kitchen every once in a while; usually for their brunches, which are hearty and accompanied by well-crafted espresso drinks.  Dinner is often hit or miss, perhaps because every few months they throw darts at a globe and feature that region’s cuisine.  [What was it this time?  Morocco?  Tunisia?  Pisco only recalls merguez on the menu.]  This often works well but it can be a little unpredictable.  This from some who loves unpredictability…

But tonight Pisco and K dropped by for dinner; a quiet night where sitting at the bar yielded a perfect view of the kitchen crew executing orders in a jovial yet professional fashion.  We had one burger and one breakfast.  For dinner.  Yes, breakfast.

The burger was excellent.  Rare, topped with bleu cheese and slices of avocado; this was a configuration previously unknown to my tastebuds.  How could this have been?  The creamy avocado was a lovely counterpoint to the salty bleu; the grass-fed beef was spot-on rare, and appropriately sized.  (Thank you, CK, for not subscribing to the “Too Big To Fail” burger philosophy.)  The fries were nothing to write home about, and so we shan’t.

The breakfast was equally enjoyable.  Three eggs over easy, three fatty sausage links, two grilled thick-cut slices of toast, and a lightly cheesed pile of hash browns (or was it mashed potatoes?  A mystery in the bar’s low lights) was enough for two diners, and we didn’t even make a dent in the potatoes.

Professional, low-key service was just right for this tranquil Thursday night.  Well done, Coastal Kitchen.  Pisco salutes you.

Coastal Kitchen [map]

Review: Barrio

Pisco and a friend drove by what looked like a new restaurant on Friday, and decided to stop by and check it out.  Turns out it was Barrio, a nuevo latino/small plates establishment.  We asked our server how long they had been open, and she replied, “Today’s the first official day!”

With that in mind, we ordered a small spread of food as a first round, and decided to eat a bit, and then order more as we saw fit.

First impressions of the decor: large space, high ceilings, a long and curvaceous bar, visible kitchen.  There is a large grid of oil lamps on one side (maybe a couple hundred?); Pisco wonders whose gets the job to light and extinguish them each night.  The entry doors are massive, but allow large drafts into the room, so bad that we had to change tables ten minutes after sitting down.

We perused the drink menu, and the folded paper food menu.  The drink menu fits into a neat slot built into underside of the table.  Handy for you thirsty folk!  It’s arranged by primary liquor: tequila, vodka, rum, etc.  Pisco ordered a Toronto (rye, Fernet Branca); Pisco’s friend D ordered some drink with a cucumber in it.  The Toronto was a hit – dry, tasty, and the right way to end a long work week; recommended.

We ordered four items off the menu: a pumpkinseed hummus, chorizo and egg taco (2), duck confit tamale, and churros with spicy chocolate.

The pumpkinseed hummus was bright orange, and had the texture of a dry (regular) hummus.  Served with one bowl of corn chips, and another bowl of yucca chips (on request), it was a good start to the meal.  Be warned that it packs a bit of heat on a long fuse; you won’t notice the warmth until you’re almost done with the bowl.

The chorizo and egg tacos arrived next, and they were the high point of the meal.  The chorizo is house made: succulent, spicy, and not overly oily; it was the best chorizo I’ve had in ages.  Accompanied by a gently fried egg, it was platonic ideal of  a breakfast sandwich.  Highly recommended.

The duck confit tamale came next, slathered in a dark, pasty sauce that looked like a mole.  Mole it was not!  The chef had charred a bunch of peppers, and then pureed the whole lot; it worked well with the duck, which was tender.  Pisco has recently eaten an awful lot of good duck (in Beijing), so it cannot be said that this duck was off the charts, but the dish worked well.

Surprisingly full after just these three dishes, we ordered churros with hot chocolate sauce to end the meal.  The chocolate was warm, rich, slightly spicy, and perfect.  The churros, unfortunately, had been taken out of the fryer 45 seconds too early and they were a soggy mess inside.  This did not stop us from devouring all 5 churros, mind you, but you could have dipped churro-shaped sawdust cakes into that chocolate and you’d still be delighted.

Service on the whole was quite good, considering it was their first day.  Our server was earnest and attentive and intent on ensuring we had a good experience.  We mentioned that the churros were a little undercooked (because I’d rather they find out from me than some more-widely-read reviewer), and they were taken off the bill.  Classy.

Overall it’s a very good experience.  We didn’t try too many of the dishes, so a trip back to sit at the long bar is definitely in the future.

Food: B+
Ambiance: B
Service: B+
Value: B+
Overall: B+

Pumpkinseed hummus

Chorizo and egg tacos

Duck confit tamale

Churros and chocolate

Barrio
1420 12th Avenue
Seattle, WA

Review: How To Cook A Wolf

Pisco dropped by Ethan Stowell’s newest venture, How To Cook A Wolf (awesomely useless site) for a late dinner and walked away with a good vibe. The venue is small (30 seats, perhaps?) and high-end cozy: perfectly dim lighting, ample use of warm tones in the copper wall accents and cork-lined bar, and a marvelous installation of light-toned bent-wood panels from mid-height to the ceiling, which immediately gave me the sense of sitting underneath a mutant Eames lounger. It felt rather thrilling.

The room was full when we arrived just before 10pm, but the hostess graciously offered to call us when a couple seats became available. We gave a mobile number, and then strolled over to Sorrentino, where Fabio poured a great Campari aperitivo at the bar. We chatted briefly about La Spiga, where he used to work, and commiserated about its decline into incredible snobbery popularity after its move to ritzy, high-ceilinged digs on 12th Ave. C’est la vie.

We return to Wolf after the call came that seats were available, and sat down at the bar, just a few feet from Ethan as he calmly threw some greens into a bowl. He has an air of comfort and competence around him; Pisco wishes that more people were that good at what they do. Competence is a truly beautiful trait to behold; it’s a shame that this world provides so few opportunities to see it.

The menu is midsize – perhaps twelve appetizers, six mains, and five desserts. We were informed that they had run out of the soft-boiled eggs with anchovy, which ruined my plan to get the eggs and another appetizer; nothing else sounded appealing at that hour. Luckily there was a tagliatelle bolognese on the mains list; my friend A opted for the frisée salad.

The pasta was a simple, lovely dish, not overly large, but certainly filling enough for most guests. The tagliatelle ribbons tasted fresh, were light on the palate, and perfectly al dente. The ragù was rich, moist, and much better than the last sample Pisco ordered (appropriately enough at La Spiga).

Pisco only had one taste of the salad, but it was remarkably flavorful – a tart, rich bite from just a couple leaves that will remind him to order it next time.

The bread that accompanied our entrées was fresh, having a crunchy crust and light, elastic crumb (center). The olive oil was refreshingly light; both were refilled as we practically inhaled the first plate.

The crowd was reasonably diverse, with upscale patrons ranging from older couples, young women at the bar, and an assortment of Upper Queen Anne hipsters passing through.

Overall, it’s a great new place – Pisco would return solely on the fact that they nailed the lighting, but the experience is overall quite pleasant. It’s appropriately priced too, with appetizers from $5-15, and mains from $12-20. Go there with your friends, lovers, family, or when jonesing for a fresh late-night pasta.

Food: A
Service: B
Ambiance: A
Value: B
Overall: B+

How To Cook A Wolf
2208 Queen Anne Ave. N. [map]
+1 206 838-8090

Review: Joule

A friend of Pisco’s recently went to Joule. Here’s her review:

Salut Pisco, yes we did visit Joule and enjoyed it enormously. It has more of a casual vibe (one big room with kitchen on a raised platform in the middle — weird but seems to work), but the food was exquisitely prepared and served. We special-requested a tasting menu ($75 for seven courses, $35 for wine pairing) which consisted of the following:

1. Savory egg custard served in an eggshell with a tiny sliver of shitake mushroom and dollop of caviar — most of us liked this one but C didn’t because he thought it was too “egg-y”. Served with a Cremant

2. grilled prawn salad with watermelon radish and sweet chili vinaigrette — awesome, the dressing was slightly spicy and complemented the giant poached prawn perfectly. Served with a (Oregon?) chardonnay

3. baby ravioli with ricotta in a light cream sauce (can’t recall the fancy name now) — this one was delightful and all of us scrapped the plate clean. We couldn’t really discern the “asian” element in this dish but they certainly do pasta very well! Served with an unfiltered sake

4. grilled octopus with braised fennel — this was the one dish three out of four of us did not like because the octopus was too chewy. The slice of braised ennel bulb though was delicious… Served with a funky green fennel cocktail — we had mixed reviews of this particular pairing.

5. Kobe beef with kalbi-styled sauce and pureed kambocha squash — all of our eyes rolled backwards in ecstasy over this one… served with a (Chilean?) Cab

6. Blue cheese “creme brulee” with quince jam — a very interesting and flavorful take on the cheese course, imagine something that looks like creme brulee with the burnt sugar topping but underneath a savory creamy Stilton-type of “creme”. Served with a Sautern-like sweet white Bordeaux

7. Espresso chocolate mouse with “ice cream”made with condensed milk — pleasant but not terribly special IMHO, served with a port.

I’m going by memory right now (we’d saved the menu but I’m at my parents’…) but I hope this helps! The neighboring table ordered some sort of potsticker thing that looked good, also a whole grilled fish that i’d get when I go again.

Sounds like a great experience – Pisco looks forward to a Joule visit soon.

Joule [map]
1913 N 45th St, Seattle, WA
(206) 632-1913
www.joulerestaurant.com/

Review: Seven Stars Pepper

There are many places on the “to visit” list, and given the limited opportunities to dine out, it’s always a toss-up between exploring new places and returning to old favorites. Pisco has known about Seven Stars Pepper for quite some time, but never had the chance to experience it. What a mistake to wait so long!

Four of us made our way to the second floor of the commercial center on 12th and Jackson – a nondescript building save for the ramp that descends sharply to an underground parking garage. The restaurant was busy, but service was swift – a scallion pancake was on the table almost instantly, as were three bottles of Tsingtao. Overcome by the delicious smells in the air, we promptly overordered: hand-shaven noodles, Szechuan crab, deep-fried chicken, pea sprouts, and yes, even a whole deep-fried tilapia. For those keeping score, that’s five entrees and one appetizer for four peckish friends.

The noodles were delicious, though Pisco is not an expert on this dish. They were markedly better than the hand-shaven noodles at Shanghai Cafe in Factoria, which are supposedly quite good.

The Szechuan crab is said to be their best dish, and it’s a winner. Hot, covered in spice, and extremely large, we could not help ripping off the legs and sucking off every last bit of meat. It was messy, and copious amounts of beer were consumed as we reveled in the spice. This is a must-order dish.

The fried chicken was competent; slightly reminiscent of karaage chicken but spicier. The pea sprouts were crisp and brightly colored; they tasted much as they looked.

The whole fried fish was nearly perfect; had it not been just barely overcooked it would have been heavenly. But with fried fish, those last 10 seconds make all the difference.

Total bill was around $120 including tip and tax for 4.

Pisco can’t wait to go back again soon.

Service: A (friendly and fast)
Food: A
Value: B

Seven Stars Pepper

1207 S Jackson St
Seattle, WA 98144

Get Directions(206) 568-6446
[map]

Palace Kitchen

Pisco has visited Palace Kitchen numerous times, and it’s a reliable, solid experience. It’s especially good late at night, when the bar is packed with people and you can feel the energy buzzing in the air. Say what you want about the food, but there are precious few places in the Emerald City where you can find a broad range of folks eating and drinking with gusto past midnight.

Today was a friend’s birthday so three of us headed out for an early dinner after roaming around downtown. Pisco can’t remember the last time he ate before dark (last spring?) but given the menacing cloud cover, wind, and intermittent rain, it might as well have been night.

The menu looked good and we ordered a few small plates to start. The goat cheese fondue was a winner, though it’s hard to imagine anything that would not taste insanely delicious after being dredged though melted goat cheese. The cheese plate was excellent too, with the schloss cheese going quite well with the accompanying oatmeal crackers.

I remember seeing the description for the Carbonara dish – something about fresh homemade noodles, chanterelle mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, and an olive oil-based sauce. I asked our server if there was any pancetta in it, and he said no – it was essentially a vegetarian version. “You could, of course, order some bacon on the side, and many of our customers do that,” he added. Pisco makes a quite decent carbonara at home, so in the interest of exploring another version, he took leave of his senses and ordered the dish.

Let’s review the essential components of a carbonara dish: pasta, eggs, cheese, cured meat (guanciale or pancetta), and black pepper. Its likely origin (rather, the story I like best) is that it was eaten by the “carbonari” (coal miners) in Italy who could only take long-lasting supplies with them to the mines. It’s a hearty dish, and when its powerful flavors come together in the right combination, it is heavenly. Unfortunately, what came out was so far from what I expected that I immediately disliked it. Vegetarian carbonara? An oxymoron. There were no cured meats on the plate, and if they had used black pepper it could not be detected. Instead, there were a handful of chanterelles scattered around the plate, and leaves of escarole mixed with the fresh pasta. In retrospect I can’t imagine a more effete version of this classic. Escarole? Please.

It was not completely without merit – the house-made noodles were delicious. Light and fresh, cooked al dente, they were the only redeeming feature.

I think if this dish was marketed as something other than pasta carbonara, it would be quite good. I can imagine quite a large number of people who would like something similar to this. But for the love of all things Italian, please don’t call it carbonara! Somewhere in Emilia-Romagna, an old cook named Luigi is turning over in his grave.

And while I’m ranting about authenticity – please serve the limoncello ice cold. It’s quite good, a bit less potent than other versions I’ve had lately, but it needs to be chilled to get the right effect.

I love the Palace Kitchen, and I’ll be back soon, but I won’t be ordering the carbonara.

Review: Maekawa

Pisco stumbled across Maekawa online somewhere in the past few days and immediately resolved to pay a visit. An open-late, second-floor, somewhat-hidden, izakaya-serving resto in the ID? Sign me up.

The ambiance is thoroughly Japanese and somewhat timeless. The bar and restaurant feature plenty of light wood, as so many Japanese places do, and lots of handwritten signs with menu specials tacked to the wall. Add the diverse mixture of suited businessmen, hipster students, and a few bar personalities, and it could have been Tokyo in 1985 or 2015. Quite special, that timeless feeling, and I wish more places had it. I also wish more places played loud, sugary, energetic J-pop. Redundant? I don’t care. Pisco hearts J-pop.

We ordered four items: grilled beef tongue, takoyaki, gyoza, and onigiri. The beef tongue came first, and the four large slices were good, though not as tender as I would have liked (Tsukushinbo, by contrast, serves a stupendously tasty and tender version). The takoyaki was tender and flavorful, as was the gyoza. The onigiri came last and was a nice finish to the meal; munching on the crispy rice left me with a peaceful, satisfied feeling.

Four small dishes came to $19 before tip. The kitchen is open relatively late (closed around 11p on a Tuesday, they might be open later on weekends), and Maekawa will certainly become one of Pisco’s new regular haunts. Finally, a small Japanese bistro with good food that doesn’t abuse its customers (yes, I’m looking at you, Maneki, and I don’t know why you mistreat me so, and I especially don’t understand why all my Asian friends seem to get such good service in comparison… yes your food is good but I don’t think I’ll ever go back).

Maekawa
601 S. King St. [map]
Suite 206
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: 206-622-0634

Black cod

Pisco has a couple friends visiting from out of town, so he decided to throw an impromptu dinner party in their honor. One of the guests didn’t like seafood (!), but luckily she was off at some wedding event and only returned for the dessert course. Last week’s eating trip to Vancouver led to a couple tasty plates of black cod (sablefish), so he decided to try his hand at it for the main course.

Starters were simple enough – chèvre on sliced baguette, with a drop of honey, run briefly under the broiler. I need to find a way of getting this toasted more evenly, since the broiler tends to char the edges before the cheese is completely melted. It’s a great dish, and would be even better with a pinch of chopped basil on top, as it was originally served to me some years ago.

While shopping at Uwajimaya, Pisco came across fresh clams and bought a couple pounds on a whim. Mark Bittman just wrote a great column in the NY Times (”101 Simple Meals“), and one of the dishes is steamed mussels. Mussels, clams, what’s the difference? I bought the clams before noticing where the mussels were kept, that’s all. Throw a cup of white wine, some chopped garlic, chopped tomatoes, olive oil, and butter into a large pot. Boil, drop in the clams, and wait five minutes. Out comes a ridiculously good dish, with plenty of rich liquid. Make sure you get some good bread – you’ll be glad you did, as the broth is heavenly.

On to the black cod. I got mine at Waji’s for $9/lb – four fillets running around a 1/3 lb each would be enough to serve four people, if these mains follow appetizers. The recipe was quite simple – marinate the fillets in a mixture of sake, mirin, miso paste, and sugar, and then broil. Epicurious has a good recipe, and there are lots of others on the web. The recipe recommends letting the fish steep for a two or three days, but we only had two hours and that seemed to give it a good flavor. I followed the instructions pretty closely and would only change the broiling instructions; I would skip the baking part and just broil on each side – this leads to a crunchy skin, which adds a wonderful texture to the dish. This is an incredibly easy dish to make, and we agreed it turned out to be spectacular. Pretty rare, considering it was the first time we made it, but it’s just that easy.

We accompanied the fish with steamed asparagus, sprinkled with sea salt and lemon juice. Delicious!

Dessert was quite simple – a dish of lemon sorbet, followed by a chocolate cake from Le Panier, courtesy of the guests.

For refreshments, we had white port and tonic for starters, Lagar de Castelo albariño for the clams, ice cold extra dry “Katana” Hananomai sake with the sablefish, and limoncello with the sweets.

This menu worked so well, I can’t wait to do it all over again.

Cafe Presse

After months of waiting, Cafe Presse finally opened in its South Capitol Hill location.  I stopped by today, being the rabid francophile that I am, with my high expectations tempered only by tepid feelings for Le Pichet, the proprietors’ other downtown establishment.   Twenty minutes later, I was pretty confident that this smart bar will be my new haunt for the summer and beyond.

I can’t comment too much on the decor; I met a friend who I hadn’t seen in ages, and we got down to catching up.  I noticed pretty quickly that the tables are much closer together than most Seattle establishments – instantly calling to mind the countless times I’ve snaked my way past lunchtime business dealings and afternoon romantic couplings over coffee in New York and Paris.  Minus the cigarette smoke, of course.  If the front room with its bar and tables is full, stroll to the back room, where the high ceilings lend a sense of space to the tables sitting under large, plate-glass windows.

The menu is divided into small bites, salads, and entrees.  Small bites included lots of baguette-based options (one was simply chocolate and baguette… do want…), sandwiches (croque madame and croque monsieur!), and other small French appetizers.  They are mostly priced around $4, making quick stops for snacks, coffee, and wine as easy on the wallet as stopping by the market.  Three visits per week should let me sample all of the appetizers by mid-July or so.

By all means order yourself some wine – with good options by the glass, half-pichet (1/4 bottle), pichet (1/2 bottle), and bottle, you can drink exactly the amount you want at rather reasonable prices.  We split a pichet of competent Cotes du Rhone ($16) which slaked my thirst just fine.

Salads appeared, with my friend’s tomato/tapenade plate far outrunning my arugula greens in taste and color.  The tomatoes were tasty, the tapenade rich.  Highly recommended.

Of course all of this was just a prelude to the mains.  You’ll not be surprised I had the hanger steak ($16), which came out gloriously rare, just the way I like it, surrounded by sauteed onions and a pile of crisp, hand-cut fries.  After one bite, I knew this would be my new hanger steak standard, dethroning Cremant’s excellent dish.  My friend’s steak tartare was equally tasty – with complex taste from the steak mixed with red onion, capers, fresh pepper, and a couple mystery herbs (tarragon?).  I demolished the steak, the fries, and the wine, and could easily have ordered another course (or two) – it was that good.

Service was unobtrusive and perfectly adequate considering their just-opened status.

I stopped at the small newspaper rack at the front and was pleased to see a copy of Le Monde on the wall.  I can see myself sitting at the bar, eating a baguette, drinking coffee, and reading the paper.  Life won’t be too bad.

The next day I have free is Thursday so perhaps I’ll return then.

Lola

Today was an epic day from start to finish. Exciting, thrilling, at times trying, it’s one of those days I hope to remember for a very long time.

Highlights of the day included pastries and coffee at Essential Baking Company, cramming a record five people into a Mini Cooper, jaywalking in front of a police officer (as if he would have arrested me at a parade), and getting a table for 10 at Lola.

I’ve eaten at Lola several times, but always for lunch and dinner. Today they were serving brunch when we walked in (shortly after 1.30p) and I knew I would have my chance to taste the much-touted Tom’s Big Breakfast. From their menu:

Tom’s big breakfast: grilled pacific octopus, pork belly hash, bloomsdale spinach, feta, olive oil fried egg

I can tell you that the dish lives up to the hype. The octopus was fleshy and tasty, grilled perhaps 2 seconds beyond my preference, but quite a minor quibble. The pork belly hash was chunky and rich – less a classic hash than a small handful of cubed delight. Eating a piece of octopus, a small pork belly piece, and a mouthful of egg with its blissfully orange/yellow yolk… paradise.

Let me also sing the praises of the bloody mary; it was the best bloody mary I’ve had in Seattle, hands down. Hallelujah! What was it around the rim? Sea salt, to be sure, and something that added a smoky flavor to the drink. Smoked paprika? No idea. We’ll have to go back and check; we were all laughing too hard by the end of the meal to suss out the ingredients.

Of course I couldn’t stop there. The woman sitting next to me ordered pork kebabs with harissa and honey. Can we talk about the pork for a minute? Grilled to perfection, tender, bursting with smoky, piggy flavor. A slightly spicy sauce (the harissa) had been added, balanced with a brush of honey. How do I know this dish so well? After finishing Tom’s Big Breakfast, I ordered a plate of the pork kebabs. And another bloody mary. Yes, an entire second meal. People were staring, perhaps appalled by my gluttony, but I didn’t care. This was a meal that deserved to be consumed with gusto, and I did my level best.

This hedonistic brunch for 9 came to around $210, tip included, although one person (I won’t say who), with his voracious appetite for food and drink, probably accounted for much more than his share. I’ll be returning as soon as I possibly can.