Tentenyu Opens on Belmont Avenue
Capitol Hill has a new ramen joint, Tentenyu, and I can report first hand that it is good. I stopped in last night for the media preview, and enjoyed everything, but especially the exceptionally earnest speeches from their head ramen maker—a recent transplant from Kyoto’s famous, highly competitive ramen district—and their brand new server Ty, who loooooves ramen and speaks great Japanese and is bubbling with the type of enthusiasm you almost never see from the service industry these days.
We barely opened the door before Ty had furnished us with lovely little jars of cold sake, and his speech about why he was excited to serve ramen was so goddamn moving I basically had to down the entire jar shortly thereafter to refrain from crying. Their ramen is all about the cloudy chicken broth base that is apparently famous in Kyoto (kotteri-kei), as opposed to the pork broth tonkatsu you’d get at Samurai Noodle, and it’s mad good. You can get all manner of add-ons, but their soft boiled egg was a major hit, and I view their willingness to add black garlic oil to any bowl of ramen as a major plus. Well worth a visit!
Congrats to Canon!
The swanky 12th ave cocktail spot took home top honors at Tales of the Cocktail, winning “World’s Best Drink Selection.” Charles might be skeptical of their outlandish offerings, but the national cocktail community is psyched.
Monica Dimas to Open Bagel Window on Madison Street
The Neon Taco proprietor obviously knows a thing or two about serving food from a little window. She just signed a lease for the recently vacated La Bodegita space, where she’ll be running a classic bodega bagel stand (albeit with coffee that’s actually good). They’ll serve bagel sandwiches, “really good, like the best” bialys, bacon/egg/cheese breakfast sandwiches, and Cafe Vita coffee. On Sundays, she’ll be featuring guest roasts from New Orleans’ Congregation Coffee, which is owned by Seattle expat chef Eliot Guthrie, and other interesting roasters. Dimas’ partner in the venture is local pastry chef Molly Westman, who hails from Macrina Bakery.
L’Oursin Adds Brunch
L’Oursin, the CD’s new favorite seafood joint, launched “Le Brunch,” Seattle Met reports, and it features a bunch of delicious baked goods, pancakes, and all manner of savory delights.
Speaking of savory, Seattle Met’s Rosin Saez urges you to “let L’Oursin take you to savory town, a place of potato pavé—accordion folds of potato, crispy on the outside—with sous vide poached eggs, then there’s cold-smoked sablefish with l’oursin boursin, a sea urchin cream cheese, nodding of course to the bistro’s sea creature namesake; it all sits atop a bagel along with tomato and onion, a Frenchified take on lox.”
That’s some elaborate grammatical construction, but it’s definitely proof that the Rosin knows how to make shit sound appetizing. Having been to L’Oursin for one of the more pleasant business dinners of my young life, I think I can join her in eager anticipation of brunch. They know what they’re doing over there.
Bacco Does Dinner
The popular Pike Place market brunch spot is now doing dinner, a recent press release announced.
“The evening menu at Bacco Café is designed for diners who desire a quick bite before dinner or for those who want to cap the night off with an after-dinner drink and dessert,” their press release reads. “Food is focused on charcuterie including pork rillettes, pate and themed charcuterie boards focused on selections from Italy, Spain and France.”
As someone who used to schlep their aggressively terrible breakfast offerings to guest rooms at the Inn at the Market, where they’re housed, I can’t honestly say I’m excited. Quite the opposite, as I once ordered a burger for lunch from them and they delivered it on an English muffin. Honestly, I am still offended to this day.
I don’t know why you would ever serve a hamburger on a limp English muffin, unless you were just like, “Fuck the hotel staff, they’re not real people, they don’t deserve a bun.” True, we were a bunch of garbage human service industry alcoholics, but that does not excuse you for serving a hamburger on a goddamn English muffin. It was especially awkward because it was never addressed. No explanation, no, excuse, no “shit we just ran out of buns, it’s late in the day.” Just a soggy, gross English muffin and a salad with their unpalatably saccharine vinaigrette. Le Caviste is about five blocks away, and their charcuterie is about five thousand times better, guaranteed.
Is This My Fault?
A while back, I wrote a review of Mollusk 2.0, the restaurant’s post-Travis-Kukull reinvention. I did not like it, and mourned for the days of innovative, weird food that my predecessor, Angela Garbes, praised so highly. Hearing this news now, via Eater, that they’re doubling all the way down on their pub food rebranding and becoming the “Dexter Brewhouse,” is fucking sad. The main reason I gave them a shit review, aside from the choucroute stew that was more of an oil suspension than a stew, is because they lost track of their mission as an adventurous, palate-pushing beer bar. I was hoping they might be brave and pivot back to their roots, but that’s not what’s happening here. To be clear, this is a move all the way away from sunchoke nachos, and my condolences go out to Mr. Kukull, wherever he is now. I hope to God it’s somewhere sunny and pleasant and far away from the type of dickheaded tech bros who turned their noses up at his eclectic offerings. Indeed, it’s hard to blame the Mollusk folks for their moves towards blandness, as I saw more dickheads coding alone in condo lobbies on my way in to review Mollusk than I saw actual humans at their actual bar.
Suzi An is Leaving Junebaby
The silent hero of the burgeoning Edouardo Jordan restaurant empire is taking off to start her own naturally-ferment-focused wine bar, Eater reports. She recently won an Eater “Young Gun” award, and is obviously an ass kicker. Edouardo will be fine, and she’ll be adding more culinary fire to the Seattle restaurant scene, so this is overall good news. Her new venture is called Vita Uva, and may be a brick and mortar or an online venture or who knows. Whatever it is, it’ll more than likely be worth paying attention to.
Ma’ono Owner to Open Pizza Bar
The popular West Seattle chicken spot will soon have a sibling, in the form of Supreme pizza, a New York-style pizza place that owner Mark Fuller plans to open on California Ave by October, Seattle Met reports.
Stoup Opens Event Space
If you want to host an event—a corporate mixer, a hang gliding expedition planning group, or an orgy meet ‘n’ greet, perhaps—Stoup now has you covered, MyBallard reports. You can rent “Upstairs at Stoup” for all your private event needs, and whatever freaky shit you’re doing up there, you’ll be doing it with some goddamn good beer in hand.
Today in WTF? Food News…
I have no words. Of all the fucked up customer service tantrums I’ve witnessed over the years—and I’ve witnessed a lot—a man demanding that a grocery store refund his money for purchasing squash that he thought was cheese, and then also furnish him with an equivalent amount of cheese, is completely fucking batshit. Proof, if you even needed it, that the customer is not always right, via SBNation.