Emmett Watson WAS, of course, the late local columnist and instigator of the Lesser Seattle movement, invoked so faithfully and frequently during the recent transportation wars. Lesser Seattle was a lot of things, but it was largely a position of resistance against becoming a new, world-class city at the expense of Old Seattle character. I was reminded of this when I recently took a seat in a booth at Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar; right over me was a big old sign suggesting that if you've got a problem with Seattle traffic, you should move to Albuquerque. Like Watson himself, this is a restaurant that doesn't give a Hangtown Fry whether or not you like it.

Here is a menu that is all about fish--not in any kind of precious way (i.e., New Seattle), but in an honest, fishy fish-shack way: fish 'n' chips, boiled shrimp ("u-peel"), cioppino, chowder, oysters on the half shell. I was last there on one of those freezing, wet days (Don't like the weather? Move to L.A.), and ordered a seafood gumbo special ($8.50) and a half-dozen broiled oysters ($9.50). I tried to sneak the menu, written on a paper bag, into my pocket. The no-nonsense waitress noticed and took it back.

The restaurant, tucked in an inconspicuous space in the Pike Place Market, does a brisk summer business in fish 'n' chips, but in the wintertime business slows way down, like a lobster in a freezer. I don't know why; the food is fine and warming. My soup was spicy and tomatoey, full of tender clams and mussels--plus salmon and cod, which were tender but a little flavorless (but I've never thought soup the best place for fin fish).

The broiled oysters (beauties from Palala Bay) with cocktail sauce, bacon, and Parmesan were also good--hot and briny with a kick from the cocktail sauce, although I would have liked a little less of the overwhelming cheese. Such dishes are a violation of my raw-only policy for oysters, but I've been violating it regularly since a kind friend treated me to oysters Rockefeller at the Oceanaire, and then to the broiled Louisiana-style Oysters Frontiere at the Frontier Room.

You can get raw oysters at Emmett Watson's, of course, but such snobbism is strictly New Seattle behavior. Get over it. Otherwise you'll miss out on the oyster roll (fried oysters tucked in a bun), which I am making it my personal business to try at my earliest convenience.

Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar

1916 Pike Place (in the market), Suite 16, 622-7721.