La PanaderĂa Now Open in SAM's Olympic Sculpture Park
The Seattle Art Museum recently partnered with Ventures, a local non-profit dedicated to supporting minority-owned businesses, to launch a pop-up restaurant at the Olympic Sculpture Park's PACCAR Pavilion. La PanaderĂa, owned by brother/sister team Oscar Fernandez and Felicitas Flores, is part bakery, part luncheonette, and all awesome. The cafe is focused on the foods of the siblings' hometown in Mexico, Zapopan, and serving said food here was a mutual dream of theirs. One that Ventures was able to make come true! The pop-up is currently open Fri-Sun 10am-3pm and will run until Labor Day Weekend. SAM's press release paints them in a particularly appetizing light:
Fernandez and Flores use fresh, natural, and local ingredients. La PanaderĂaâs menu includes handmade tamales, made with non-GMO, locally sourced masa and organic coconut oil instead of pork lard. Savory tamale flavors include red mole, chicken, and a vegetarian or vegan option. Dessert tamales in strawberry and pineapple are also available. A rotating selection of panini feature ingredients such as chorizo, turkey, ham, and tender cactus.
Mmmm, tender cactus. Here's what their window looks like, if you're out searching:
Sun Liquor's Pike Street Bar Bids Capitol Hill Adieu
The popular local distiller announced plans to shutter the space on Pike and move production entirely to their new University Village warehouse back in February, and now they've gone and done it. The bar's last day of service was Saturday. However, lovers of the Sun Liquor vibe, despair not! The eminently cozy Summit Avenue location remains open.
SLU's Iconic 13 Coins Will Close and Immediately Reopen in Pioneer Square
The building that currently houses 13 Coins, this city's long-running haven for those looking to eat late and still be a bit fancy, is going to be redeveloped, the Seattle Times reports. However, unlike most stories of beloved old favorites being pushed out by South Lake Union development, there's good news here: as soon as its doors close, a new incarnation of the classic will open in Pioneer Square.
Owner Al Moscatel told the Times' Bethany Jean Clement that his goal was to make sure his staff had zero lapses in employment, which involved negotiating a lease extension on the current space. Good man! He also told her, "Donât worry! We know about the chairs, we know about the booths." Thank heavens! The almost fully enclosed, floor-to-ceiling booths are absolutely integral to the classy, Mafia-esque vibe at 13 Coins. Thanks to the booths, even if you go there shitcanned at 3am to wolf down some escargot (a real thing I am unashamed to admit to having really done), you get to feel like a Don holding court and making big decisions. It's wonderful.
Salare's Suzi An Makes Eater's 2017 Young Guns List
Though Eduardo Jordan is the name most closely associated with Salare's success, Suzi An, who'd told Jordan she wanted to be involved in whatever he did when they worked together at Bar Sajor, was there next to him to build the whole thing out. She currently serves as the restaurant group's Creative Director of Operations, handling everything from publicity to wine buying. But she does not get much publicity herself.
Until now, that is, as she's been named one of Eater's 2017 Young Guns, a yearly list of up-and-coming, under-30 folks from the restaurant industry. Check out her Young Guns profile here. Congrats!
Eater's First San Francisco Restaurant Critic Joins the Fray
Eater has hired noted food writer Rachel Levin to do food criticism in SF. The site, not known for having many full-time reviewers on staff, as it's more dedicated to keeping up with the Joneses than commenting on them, decided to bring her on in SF because of "its history of next-level cuisine, the diversity of the great food on offer across the price spectrum, its concentration of American wealth â and the shifting realities of real estate and affordability that wealth brings with it â and the burgeoning food scene just outside SF proper."
And, they add, "Frankly, Bauer could use some more competition." Fair enough.
Wallyburger Officially Open
The new neighborhood burger spot, from the man behind Capitol Hill's cozy Revolver Bar, is now open, Eater reports.
From what I've gleaned so far, Wallyburger sounds like it's going to be every bit as solid of a neighborhood spot as Revolver, albeit for a different type of neighborhood. They've got sub-$10 burgers, there is a "Helldorado" sauce, and Eater describes its vibe as Country-Western and "kitschy, but not over the top." That's a fine line to walk in restaurants these days, so congrats to them!
