Taste SAM
100 University St, 654-3245
Tue-Sun 10 am-4 pm, Thurs 10 am-8 pm.

I wanted a lot from the cafe at the Seattle Art Museum. I wanted, or at least expected, crowds. I'd heard that the great Danielle Custer, of 727 Pine fame, was in charge of the food-service program, so I envisioned a great lunch from chef Christopher Conville.

Expectations are a bitch. Granted, the museum's between exhibits and mid-expansion, but it was echoingly empty on a Sunday afternoon. The cafe, lodged midway up the marble staircase, was home to only a few people staring abstractedly into space.

I wanted more than I can say from my sandwich, called, terribly, the Full Monte Cristo ($8). After a recent discussion with a friend about this sandwich as an American art form, I was practically beside myself--here was a version made with Macrina bread, house-roasted turkey, cave-aged Swiss. But the turkey was dry, and the cheese wasn't melted; it seemed sad and neglected.

The menu features, admirably, foodstuff along the local/organic/sustainable axis, another reason for great expectations. My friend's Salad SAM ($5), with nine tantalizing ingredients including apple-apricot salsa and Marcona almonds, sounded fancy and fresh, and looked pretty. But the shallot-Stilton dressing was nearly undetectable, making the whole thing a big bore. The asparagus vichyssoise ($4) was creamy, delicate, and as it should be--except for the "jasmine-roni" element, grains of hard rice that seemed so much like they'd fallen in by accident, I kept looking at the menu in disbelief. Whidbey Island mini-burgers were fine, but the accompanying roasted blue potatoes were shriveled.

I wanted to take home my leftovers, sort of. No one was around. I stuck my head in the kitchen. "Hello?" I said. Somebody finally emerged, and I asked for a box. "Yeah, yeah," he said.