Seattle (and Scottsdale too)

This May, I had terrific chow in Seattle (and one place in Scottsdale also).

Overall impressions were terrific and abundant seafood, fruit (especially berries), and vegetables. And a highly caffeinated population. Notable eating:

1. Etta's - Pacific Northwest food near Pike Place Market. They were very friendly and accommodating for a very late lunch/early dinner. Opened with baked local oysters with wasabi, pernod, and Hackleback caviar. Good but not great. Terrific manila clam chowder and very satisfying and seasonal Dungeness crab salad with asparagus and avocado. Nice wine by the glass list.

Etta's Seafood
2020 Western Ave.
Seattle, WA 98121-2109
Phone: 206-443-6000

2. Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar - A real joint. Menu on brown paper bags. Started with very plump and fresh Washington State oysters. Excellent Puget Sound Salmon Soup - salmon fillet, clam broth and mussels. Finished with local bolded shrimp. Washington State Gewurtz to drink. Great food in a hyper-casual environment. It hit the spot. In one of the buildings off of the Pike Place Market.

Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar
1916 Pike Place
(206) 448-7721

3. Salumi (Armandino's Salumi) - Owned and operated by Mario Battali's dad Armandino, who retired as a Boeing engineer and went to Italy to learn the art of salumi. Funky location near several missions (felt right at home). Very friendly atmosphere where you are seated at a communal table, with wine from bottles on the table via the honor system. I had ordered the lamb prosciutto and received lamb sausage by mistake. After one bite, I had no desire to correct the mistake. They nonetheless realized what happened and brought a small plate of the outstanding lamp prosciutto. The cashier played excellent host and introduced my to the guy across form me, who had just returned from climbing Everest. He introduced me to the nice couple who were about to leave for the South of France; the husband had sold Armandino his ovens. Lot's of sharing and good conversation.

Salumi
308 Third Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98104
206-621-8772

4. Los Sombreros (Scottsdale) - Ate there on Cinco de Mayo. A consistent pick on the Southwest Board. Interior Mexico similar in approach to Frontera, etc., but with less variety. Began with an outstanding Jicama Salad with very refined saucing. My entree was Mixiotes de Conejo( Braised rabbit in ancho chile sauce) with great homemade corn tortillas. Dessert was cajeta ice cream (homemade goat milk caramel). The latter was one of the best ice creams I have ever had.

Los Sombreros
2534 N. Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale, AZ 85281
480-994-1799

Thanks OPMark, wife and I are headed to Seattle in late July.
Salumi has been on my list for awhile now. Will try Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar for sure as wife and I are oyster fanatics. FWIW, we thought Etta's was very $$ and the quality ok.

There is some good stuff happening in the Phoenix area:

Pizzaria Bianco is a don't miss.

Had some stellar (and some mediocre) dishes at Cowboy Ciao.

Roaring Fork came highly recommended to me, but I have not been.

Los Sombreros is on my list for the next time we are there.

Good article on Salumi from the Post Intelligencer:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/177927_salumi16.html

Ate at Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar last week... Half dozen fresh local ones. Pretty firm and mild tasting... Also had some mussels steamed in garlic broth and a mixed fry basket at the table. Mussels were really excellent. Would have been better off ordering some steamed clams instead of the basket. The fried seafood was good, but with the exception of the oysters the pieces had the distinctiveness fried right out of 'em...

-MZ

Went back to Emmet Watson's, which was good again, this time for oyster loaf, gumbo, and clam chowder.

Also Etta's, which was very goodt...

And Matt's in the Market, which sits almost exactly between the two restaurants in style. Great catfish sandwhich and bread pudding. Also located at Pike Place.

I didn't notice this thread when it first popped up, but back in April I had two really great meals in Seattle: one at the already well reviewed Salumi, and one at Harvest Vine, a Basque tapas restaurant on Madison.

I won't go into detail on Salumi, since everyone else has, and it's pretty well known (although no one I was visiting in Seattle had heard of it).

Harvest Vine, though, was superb. Vastly superior to any tapas I've had in Chicago, certainly.

The main space is fairly small, it seats maybe 30 at best, including 10 at a bar that wraps around a very tiny open kitchen (prep area running the length of the bar, a fish/garde manger station, and a grill/flat top/oven for everything else. There is also a room in the basement that seats another 20 or so. I sat alone at the bar, and was waited on and served by the chef/owner.

I don't have my notes anywhere -- I seem to have lost them -- but here's what I remember of the meal:

First plate: pan-roasted spanish chorizo with sauteed mushrooms and roasted potatoes, drizzled with olive oil (pic of the chorizo in a different plating, not my pic). Really wonderful. The chorizo wasn't as dry as the spanish chorizo under the Palacios brand; rather, it was much more like the bilbao chorizo Zingerman's sells (and which I now pick up every time I go through ann arbor). It was juicy and slightly spicy, with flavorful pockets of melted fat throughout and slightly charred edges.

Second plate: tuna belly (pic here, not mine), sauteed with assorted herbs that I can't remember, plated with a vanilla-infused olive oil.

Third plate: I can't quite recall -- I was in a food-induced coma/dream. I know it was a game bird that included truffles somewhere. It was also very good, but I just don't recall it as vividly.

Dessert I also don't remember -- it wasn't bad, I just don't remember it. I think it was a cake, perhaps a molten-center-chocolate-cake, but I can't for the life of me tell you what it really was.

I wish I had my notes, as the meal was one of the best of my trip (and the trip was good eating for me: Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley and Sun Sui Wah in Vancouver were among the other highlights).

I believe my four plates, with tax and tip, came to $60. It was well worth it, and certainly was too much food for just one.

Really highly recommended. The menu changes daily, so I'm looking forward to visiting a couple more times on my next jaunt out there.

The Harvest Vine
(206) 320-9771
2701 E Madison St
Seattle, WA 98112

http://thescarletmacaw.com/harvest_vine.htm

I would echo the approving comments about Harvest Vine. I lived in Seattle for a year and had three or four dinners at this place. It was excellent every time.

My wife and I made an effort to hit all of the high points in Seattle dining and this was my favorite place by a long shot, although it is right up my alley so I was probably predisposed to love it. The food is a little bit like Avec in Chicago, but better IMO. (The atmosphere is totally different from Avec.)