I’m not sure what’s harder: Getting a reservation at West Seattle’s highly sought-after new Italian spot Il Nido or getting 10 minutes with the man behind it. Chef and owner Mike Easton is an understandably busy guy. Il Corvo, his weekday lunch-hour-only Pioneer Square restaurant, has gained a cultlike following, with hordes of people waiting in a line that usually stretches around the block to nab a bowl of one of the two daily rotating hand-rolled pastas. I wasn’t surprised his latest venture has been booked solid since opening in May. But apparently Easton was. “We expected things to be busy, but not like this,” he said during our interview as he put the first layer of the night’s tiramisu into the oven.
Easton has been wanting to get another project started for a while. “Il Corvo has taken a lot of work,” he said. “We’re eight years in, and things are running really smoothly, mostly thanks to my wife [Victoria]. She’s an integral part in running that restaurant. And I’ve become less necessary in the day-to-day.” His downtime at Il Corvo eventually led to the fruition of Il Nido.