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Bada Lounge
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Bada Lounge satisfies the savvy palate and the cautious wallet alike. Stop into this urbane Belltown spot for an under-$10 glass matched to addictive, Asian-inspired bar noshes created by chefs Seisuke Kamimura and Kelly Gaddis; or slip into a plush, white-vinyl booth for a full dinner with a bottle off their surprisingly modestly priced list. Its left-coast leanings provide some excellent deals, such as Oregon's Clos Ladybug Pinot Noir at $35 or Camaraderie's Grace Cabernet from Washington at $36.
- Shelley Grant
Bada Lounge, 2230 1st Ave., Seattle, WA; 206-374-8717
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How to Cook a Wolf
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How to Cook a Wolf Over the past year, Seattle has seen an explosion of microrestaurants —intimate spaces with casually exquisite food.
One of the best of this new breed is How to Cook a Wolf, the third venture from Union chef Ethan Stowell. Paneled in blond wooden slats
and sheets of hammered copper, the 23-seat restaurant features a menu of small plates and pastas. Sommelier Angela Stowell has a fondness
for small-production wineries from France and Italy (pinot grigio from Alto Adige's Peter Zemmer, Les Granges from Chinon's Baudry),
mirroring her husband's love for slightly arcane ingredients like hedgehog mushrooms, beef tongue, and crab apples, which he seeds
into simple, seasonal fare.
- Jonathan Kauffman
2208 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle;
206-838-8090; howtocookawolf.com
(reviewed W&S 6/08)
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Restaurant Zoë
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Quinn's pub is probably the most handsome restaurant to open in Seattle this year: Restaurant Zoë
owners Scott and Heather Staples revamped a run-down taqueria, using salvaged 4-by-4 timbers to
create a look that's half Swiss tavern and half loft. Befitting a gastropub, the wine list is brief,
with a bottle list that ranges from the prosaic to the cult plus 14 beers on tap, including the
Trappist ales Chimay and Koningshoeven Quadrupel. The hearty, rainy weather fare includes wild boar
sloppy joes, delicate potato gnocchi that stand up to a rich oxtail ragu and, because Seattle
vegetarians drink beer, too, curried Puy lentils with roasted cauliflower and spiced mango.
- Jonathan Kauffman
1001 East Pike; 206-325-7711; quinnspubseattle.com (reviewed W&S 2/08)
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Sambar
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"Sambar is just a bar with really good bar food," insists owner Sara Naftaly. That's true only in the way that her husband's elegant Le Gourmand next door is just a simple neighborhood restaurant. Everything bears the mark of patient, loving hands, from cheeses from master affineur Herve Mons, through pitch-perfect renditions of croque monsieur and frites, to mixed drinks that make inspired use of Northwest ingredients. The wines-by-the-glass list shows the same sort of care, favoring little-known pours for $10 or less.
- Robert Pincus
Sambar, 425 NW Market St., Seattle, WA; 206-781-4883.
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Txori
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The walls at Txori (pronounced CHOR-ee), in Seattle's design-conscious Belltown neighborhood, are plain white. But no one
would call this tiny Basque bar-restaurant minimalist. Miniaturist, perhaps: Chef Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez, of Seattle's
famed Harvest Vine, prepares pintxos-101 ways to gussy up a slice of baguette. Instead of serving the snacks buffet style,
as many San Sebastian bars do, Jiménez's cooks prepare each thin oval to order, decorating it with the precision of a petit
four. Txori's pintxos range from a few slices of chorizo showered in dark chocolate to layers of salt cod, potato and salsa
verde. The bar stocks an abridged version of Harvest Vine's list, and the drinks-glasses of Arregi Txakoli, bottles of 2001
Remelluri Crianza, saffron-citron cocktails-are the main course, rather than the accompaniment to the exquisite bites.
- Jonathan Kauffman
2207 Second Ave.; 206-204-9771; txoribar.com (reviewed W&S 4/08)
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Union
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Union marks the union of 1st Avenue and Union (the street), a mere high note away from Symphony Hall and a few blocks from Pike Place Market. The market, with its devotion to Pacific Northwest offerings, inspires Ethan Stowell's dishes, which bend the flavors of these local staples in unexpected ways: the tang of Stellar Bay oysters brightened by a Meyer lemon gelée; roasted halibut anchored by an earthy bed of ginger-scented Bloomsdale spinach. Transplanted Dutchman Reinier Voorwinde oversees an unfussy list that balances European bottlings (with a clear fondness for Alsace) with local treasures, like Bob Betz's muscular Clos de Betz red blend.
- Patrick Comiskey
Union, 1400 1st Ave., Seattle, WA; 206-838-8000; unionseattle.com
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