Now Open: Ballard's Hotel Albatross (2319 NW Market St) is a collaboration between Zach Harjo (Ocho), Keith Bartoloni, and Andrew Church (both of Hazlewood). Located in the building that housed an Azteca Mexican restaurant, Albatross serves classic tiki cocktails and street-food-style dishes. It also houses a late-night walk-up window called—wait for it—Sexy Alley Puffy Tacos, which sells things like deep-fried puffy tacos, beef bulgogi skewers, and tater tot nachos to hungry, drunken people.
Thomas Soukakos, owner of Capitol Hill's Vios Cafe & Marketplace (as well as Vios Cafe at Third Place in Ravenna), has opened Omega Ouzeri (1529 14th Ave), also on Capitol Hill, serving small plates of Greek meze such as grilled octopus with chili vinaigrette. There's a full selection of Greek wine and a drink list heavy on the anise-flavored apertif ouzo. Ouzeri is located in the REO Flats building, next to newly opened Nue.
Capitol Hill now has another beer hall. Stout, located in the Sunset Electric apartment building, is "a casual pub designed for beer enthusiasts who appreciate 'craft everything,' from beer to cocktails to well-prepared food." Stout's opening menu has 20 beers on tap and 65 available in bottles, ranging in price from $3.50 (Rainier) to $58 (North Coast's Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout XVII, aged in bourbon barrels).
Edouardo Jordan to Open Salare in Ravenna
Exciting news: Chef Edouardo Jordan, most recently chef de cuisine at Bar Sajor, announced he will open his own restaurant, Salare, at 2404 Northeast 65th Street in Ravenna. Jordan, who says he is "passionate about traditional cooking" and "primal techniques" (I don't know exactly what that means but I really like the sound of it), is planning a menu of diverse flavors, nose-to-tail cooking, fresh seafood, salumi, pickles, and ferments. Salare is expected to open this summer.
Former Book Bindery Cook Wins Silver at Bocuse d'Or
A former Seattle chef helped Team USA take home the silver medal at the prestigious Bocuse d'Or (aka the Food Olympics) in Lyon, France, last week. Skylar Stover, who now cooks at the French Laundry, helped open Fremont's Book Bindery (which has since closed and reopened as Hommage) under chef Shaun McCrain (who left Book Bindery last year to start his own restaurant, Copine, though its opening date is still unknown). French Laundry executive sous chef Philip Tessier led the team. Held every two years, the Bocuse d'Or pits 24 two-chef teams against each other in a five-and-a-half-hour cooking competition. This is the first time the US has ever earned a medal. (Norway took home the gold. But only by nine points!) 
