RunSenoRun

Perfect Lighting

The natural light at Lot No. 3 in Bellevue made for a really nice picture. This was taken with my phone. The grilled cheese was pretty damn good, too.

I'm actually doing one-off food posts on a Tumblr blog called Doug Santos Lives, if you're curious.

Ballard: Staple & Fancy Mercantile

Though I realize don't need to choose a favorite, I'm having an internal debate on whether I prefer Tom Douglas or Ethan Stowell. Let me rephrase that, I love them both, but if I could choose one chef for the private island I share with Zooey Deschanel (who, in said fantasy, eats both meat and gluten), it sort of depends on my mood.

At the end of the day, I would probably choose Douglas, simply because his desserts are so damn good. But, for the food food, definite toss-up.

Which leads to me to Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Ethan Stowell's newish restaurant in Ballard. Two of the better meals I've had in Seattle were Stowell restaurants: How to Cook a Wolf and Anchovies and Olives. How would Staple & Fancy compare?

For dinner, we ordered the chef's plate, a four-course meal whereby you have no idea what you're getting, but came highly recommended.

This was both a blessing and curse. The meal started strong, with a lovely Burrata cheese plate. It was followed up with two delicious seafood plates, grilled spot prawns and fried Ipswich clams. The clams, in particular, were really good. While deep fried, they weren't greasy.

The crostini served with two spreads: pork liver mousse and blue fish, wasn't quite as successful, as I found both to be overly salted. Of the two, I preferred the pork liver, which, while salty (par for the course, I guess) really was pretty good.

The bread salad, something I'd never eaten, was kind of interesting. It's basically a salad where the crouton is the main ingredient. In fact, there was no lettuce. This plays into my wheelhouse, as I usually shun all things green.The salad was served with fresh veggies and a big hunk of le tour cheese.

We closed the appetizers with small cups of chilled tomato soup. If you like fresh tomatoes, and I love tomatoes, this was really good.

So, six small plates down, and only one miss... the blue fish spread on the crostini. It was here, however, where the meal went south.

Now, part of this could be that there's no way I would've never ordered the next two dishes. So, I'm not really sure the chef fell down. But, after the first six plates were so good, the main courses were a big letdown.

The pasta dish was squid ink spaghetti with calamari. Again, the execution may have been right, but I don't like squid ink. It's too bitter. Combined with a citrus, lemon, I believe, it was just too acidic for my taste. The spaghetti, though, was served perfectly al dente. I really love Stowell's pasta dishes, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here and say the problems with this dish were my issues, not his.

The protein dish was a boring bass served with chickpeas, olives and radish. Never would I order bass from a restaurant (exception being Nobu's Chilean Sea Bass). My brother catches every fish in the sea, so I tend to get fresh fish at least once a month.  That said, there was nothing outstanding about this dish. The flavors were fine, but nothing to get excited about.

For dessert, they served up a warm brownie topped with toasted walnut ice cream. The brownie was good... the ice cream amazing. We had to ask the chef about the ice cream. Seriously, it was that good. Turns out they make it fresh each morning. The custardy ice cream (sounds like they're pretty liberal with their use of eggs) has the perfect balance of sweet and salty. 

Overall, Staple & Fancy Mercantile has a very Seattle, casual vibe with excellent service. The food is fresh and fun. Being less than a month old, they have a few kinks to work out, but I definitely plan on a repeat visit.

Now, about that parking issue in Ballard...

 

Pike Place Market: Seatown Snack Bar

Yes, Tom Douglas has another restaurant in Seattle. Actually, it's sort of two. 

The Seatown Snack Bar is two separate establishments, though they both share the same roaster. There is a takeout bar (that houses the rotisserie roaster) and a sitdown restaurant. My friend and I sat at the restaurant.

The first thing you'll notice about the restaurant is that you can sit right on the kitchen counter. The other thing you'll quickly notice is that there's no smoke. The kitchen has no open flames or grill. Everything is fresh.

I had the BLTC. You know what the BLT stands for, but the C stands for crab. Simply put, this was an awesome sandwich. The bread was crisp on the outside, but nice and doughy on the inside. The lettuce and tomatoes were fresh. The thick-cut bacon perfect. Even without the crab, this would've been an exceptional sandwich. But with the crab... oh my God. So good.

My friend ordered the Fruit and Veggie plate. Normally I find veggie plates to be terribly uninteresting, but this one... wow. Everything on the dish... from the peaches to the cucumbers to the peppers were all so fresh. They weren't boring either. Each were flavored with different spices and sauces.

For dessert we split a piece of apple pie a la mode. Yes, we had dessert at noon. But, because the pie had a cheddar cheese crust, it almost seemed healthy. Almost.

The counter service was some of the best service I've ever had. All of the servers stopped by to tell us about the food, yet weren't obtrusive. They were just really friendly and excited about the food.

Seatown Snack Bar is a winner in every way. Next time you're at the Pike Place Market, I recommend you stop by. You won't be disappointed.