The Apartment
2226 First Ave, 956-8288
Tues-Sun dinner 5 pm- 10 pm, bar open until 2 am.
It must be hard to be a Belltown-lounge goldfish–with no lavish tropical tank to swim about in or finny friends to keep you company–just a lone goldfish in a square glass vase. The one on our table at the Apartment seemed to disapprove of the tippling and flirtation (not to mention the fish-eating) going on around him, kind of like the scowling goldfish in The Cat in the Hat. But with his ivory, gold, and violet scales, he was very chic, and this of course is the main point at every new Belltown lounge.
The brand-spanking-new Apartment looks good–it used to be the Lux coffee shop, but recently it was made nocturnal to fit with its neighbors like the Bada Lounge and Axis. It is named after the Billy Wilder film, which plays in a mute loop on a plasma screen hung among a wallful of boozy bottles. Creamy white chairs and cool purple-gray walls are designed to match the halftones of Joseph LaShelle’s lush black-and-white cinematography. Conveniently, most guests choose to wear blacks and grays under their jet and platinum hairdos, keeping everything very well coordinated.
In the movie, Jack Lemmon, as Bud, is made nearly homeless by agreeing to let his bosses use his apartment as a love nest for all their affairs. So, is this Apartment, the bar-restaurant, supposed to be like the convenient sex pad for Bud’s philandering bosses or is it supposed to be the homey retreat where Lemmon nurses Shirley MacLaine back to love and life? The place seems divided on the subject. Near the bar, there’s certainly a whiff of the usual Belltown weekend predatory heterosexuality. Toward the end of dinner, a manager even toted out a velvet rope, hoping to stir up a line. But before 10:00 p.m., at least, the Apartment sets out to feed its guests, and with surprisingly homey food. Its offerings are less bar food than bistro standards.
This does not mean there are not some well-poured cocktails to be had. I’m sure the trysts in Lemmon’s apartment were fueled with stolid, classic martinis, but the martinis here can be a bit fruitier, made with house-infused vodkas. I made Andrew order a pumpkin spice martini ($8) because it sounded so awful, but in fact it scratched pleasantly at my memory with a hint of holiday flavor, and turned out to be not at all cloying.
We started eating with some pumpkin bisque ($6) that veered a little sweet and a little thick, but was still a lovely smooth soup. Even better was a plateful of sautéed mushrooms ($8) (shiitake, matsutake, and oyster) drenched in a big, buttery, honey-colored sauce. A bowl full of squid cooked with tomato sauce and a little of the bar’s homemade cucumber vodka was tender, maybe a little too delicate. It was definitely a bit hard to eat, demanding less sauce and a shallower bowl. Or maybe it could be thrown over spaghetti, drained as Lemmon does in the movie, with a tennis racket.
Come entrée time, everyone got mashed potatoes with their main course, the hand-mashed, chunky kind, rich on butter and cream, ordinary, but irresistible. As for protein, the roast chicken was especially happy bathing in its a-little-bit-French, a-little-bit-Japanese sake-mushroom sauce ($14). Rib-eye steaks were tasty if not so pretty ($18)–they hit the medium-rare mark with precision, but they clung awkwardly to some easily trimmed gristle. So too, the king salmon ($17): it was crisp on top and tender dark-pink perfection inside, but it was one gawky pennant of fish flesh. Still, I was grateful it tasted so good with its Anaheim chili aioli.
Normally I don’t fret too much about presentation, but such a rarefied little spot should have food that’s more fresh-pressed in appearance to match its stylish tableware and décor. Maybe this is why the goldfish seemed antsy. The food at the Apartment might need some visual refinement to match the space’s own tongue-in-cheek chic, but it seems on the right track toward becoming a place where philanderers and homebodies might both be satisfied–with a good dinner and a smart little cocktail all in one sitting.