Terrance Brennan (Picholine, Artisanal) Opening Seattle Restaurant

[MarkGrace]

Ok, Bellevue actually, but this may qualify as one of the few justifiable reasons to cross the bridge into Washington's more uncouth regions.

Who wants to take me on a date? HFN, this is your chance!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ucaneat28.html

[TripletDaddy]

Looks interesting, but I am getting burned out on the brasserie concept. Everyone is serving steak frites these days.

Seattle has become a food destination in its own right. The old days of going to Seattle to eat salmon are a thing of the past.

[smokymountainrain]

Ok, Bellevue actually, but this may qualify as one of the few justifiable reasons to cross the bridge into Washington's more uncouth regions.

Who wants to take me on a date? HFN, this is your chance!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ucaneat28.html

Do you even know how to get to the bridges? There are two, you know.

[MarkGrace]

Do you even know how to get to the bridges? There are two, you know.

Under situations where I will consider crossing the bridge, it is only the one. I'm not going to the other. What a nightmare.

[MarkGrace]

Looks interesting, but I am getting burned out on the brasserie concept.

Agree. Though I do always love streak frites!

The other trend that is getting to me is street or comfort food going upscale. In the last couple of months I've been to Lunchbox Laboratory, Pike Street Fish Fry and Anita's Crepes, and while all may have been the best burger/fish and chips/crepe I've ever had, paying in the range of $30-$40 for my wife and I to eat said items just doesn't seem right.

I feel like $20 is about the max I'll pay to eat these types of foods.

A new place called Kushibar recently opened and everything you order there is basically Japanese street food. I haven't been, but I imagine I'd walk away with the same feeling.

[MartyFunkhouser]

I have bad associations with the city Bellevue and not sure that I will ever return. The last time I was in Bellevue, I was taking the bar exam and paid a ridiculous price to stay at a crappy hotel for a few nights.

[Donuthole]

I have bad associations with the city Bellevue and not sure that I will ever return. The last time I was in Bellevue, I was taking the bar exam and paid a ridiculous price to stay at a crappy hotel for a few nights.

That reminds me of my LSAT experience. I took it in Logan, as Weber State didn't offer the test at the time. I didn't want to risk Sardine Canyon getting snowed in overnight, so my wife and I decided to head to Logan the night before the test.

I made my hotel reservation at the Days Inn a few days in advance, and didn't think twice about it. When we arrived in Logan, I saw BYU attire all over the place, and it donned on me that BYU was in town for the USU game (the Ben Olson didn't start like Crowton promised/Curtis Brown breakout game). Oh lucky me to learn that the Days Inn had given away my room, even though I had a reservation. They acknowledged my reservation, but didn't have an available room. Go figure. (Think Seinfeld, only a hotel room instead of a rental car).

After trying half a dozen other "respectable looking" hotels, it became clear that we'd have to lower our standards. After another 4 attempts, we learned that he only hotel in town with a vacancy was "Old Trapper Inn," which was actually more of a short-term apartment complex than a hotel. Our room was in a separate building from the main building (never a good sign) and the window was right in front of the rear parking lot. The shower didn't have a curtain, and there was a used bar of soap left from the previous occupant. The room had a 19" tv with three channels.

Being somewhat uptight about my preparatory routine for the test the next day, we decided against attending the game in person, and watched on our 19" tv. Once the euphoria of the big win (translation: relief that we didn't lose to USU) wore off, we turned out the lights for some shut eye. So I thought.

All night long drug deals went on outside my door as cars pulled in--their headlights shining right into our room--only to happily 'visit' the tenant next door for a couple minutes, and then leave. I slept in 10-minute intervals all night long in-between drug deals. Mrs. Donut is blessed with the gift of sleeping through anything, so she doesn't remember most of it. In fact, she thought the bed was quite comfy. I, on the other hand, felt extremely tired the morning of the test.

I blame that (along with my bladder, which inexplicably decided that it needed to be emptied during the reading comprehension section, even though it had just been emptied 15 minutes earlier) for my rejection from Yale. (Hey, we can't all be Robin Finderson).

[MarkGrace]

I have bad associations with the city Bellevue and not sure that I will ever return. The last time I was in Bellevue, I was taking the bar exam and paid a ridiculous price to stay at a crappy hotel for a few nights.

Here's another reason to hate Bellevue. I was just reading about The Bravern development (where Brennan's restaurant will be) and this was the description:

The Bravern is located in the heart of one of the nation's most affluent communities. The Puget Sound region is home to a host of successful companies, including Microsoft, Costco, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Amazon.com, among others. The region's prosperity is concentrated around The Bravern's location, on the east side of Lake Washington, where you'll find the Northwest's wealthiest and best-educated citizens. The average household income within a five-mile radius of The Bravern is more than $100,000, with 56 percent of residents holding a bachelor's degree or higher — more than double the national average.

* Nearly 1 million people reside within a 10-mile radius of The Bravern.
* Of King County's ten wealthiest zip codes, nine are on the Eastside.
* Retail sales per household on the Eastside are more than double those of Seattle.
* Within a 5-mile radius, the median home price is $421,839, more than two and a half times the national average.
* There are over 3,500 units of nearby urban housing, with 1,750 under construction and more than 1,500 in the pipeline.

* Bellevue is home to more than 145 headquartered companies.
* Bellevue's Central Business District has 6.5 million square feet of office space, with 1.8 million under construction.
* The adjacent convention center hosts more than 200,000 visitors annually.

Pretentious bastards.

[MarkGrace]

Seattle has become a food destination in its own right.

I have to admit that it's a bit strange to see national names moving into our scene. Seattle has become a food destination on the strength of local chefs, and it has been nice to see the scene here develop organically. Chefs like Ethan Stowell, Matt Dillon, Maria Hines, John Sundstrom, Jason Wilson, Jerry Traunfeld, Rachel Yang, Holly Smith and Justin Neidermeyer, among others, have really put Seattle food on the map in recent years. And all are local chefs who have made their debuts here and gained a lot of visibility on the national scene by what they've done locally.

Earlier this year a tapas spot called Taberna del Alabardero, which is based in Seville and has an enormously popular outpost in Washington, D.C., opened in Belltown. Now we have a branch of Artisanal coming our way, and both seem to be of the very corporate nature that comes with a big national name. One of the things I have always loved about Seattle food is that all the attractive restaurants are scattered about in low-key neighborhoods, and not collected downtown in glitzy dining rooms.

I don't know, feels a bit strange. And the last thing we need is dipshits like Bobby Flay opening restaurants in Seattle. We shall see how things go as the Seattle scene continues to develop.

[MartyFunkhouser]

On the plus side, the crappy hotel was right next to a Denny's. There is nothing like dining on a Moons Over My Hammy (with turkey instead of ham) with a vanilla Coke after enduring the bar exam. It is also great how the Washington Bar feels a need to be completely different than everyone else and have an all essay bar exam. There is nothing like a huge room full of people all filled with the overwhelming fear that their computers are going to die in the middle of this damn test.

[TripletDaddy]

One of the things I have always loved about Seattle food is that all the attractive restaurants are scattered about in low-key neighborhoods, and not collected downtown in glitzy dining rooms.

This is what dooms glasvegas. too many things require you to walk through a casino lobby. not enough stuff to take you outside of the strip. at least not yet.

I don't know, feels a bit strange. And the last thing we need is dipshits like Bobby Flay opening restaurants in Seattle. We shall see how things go as the Seattle scene continues to develop.

This is inevitable. While the presence of new chefs is exciting, it is also a proof of concept for future investors. It is no coincidence that local stuff pops up in the cheaper real estate while the transplants rent space in high rent or concentrated wealth areas.

Some of the best stuff in LA is in crappy neighborhoods or otherwise uneventful little locations. The high rent crap comes with so much overhead that they have to charge everyone an arm and a leg.

There is a cool new hot spot in LA called Church and State. It is located in a warehouse about 8 blocks from the Skid Row area in the Industrial district. you wouldn't see out of town funding for something like that. smart money wants to see new places opening up in rich neighborhoods.

[MartyFunkhouser]

I have to admit that it's a bit strange to see national names moving into our scene. Seattle has become a food destination on the strength of local chefs, and it has been nice to see the scene here develop organically. Chefs like Ethan Stowell, Matt Dillon, Maria Hines, John Sundstrom, Jason Wilson, Jerry Traunfeld, Rachel Yang, Holly Smith and Justin Neidermeyer, among others, have really put Seattle food on the map in recent years. And all are local chefs who have made their debuts here and gained a lot of visibility on the national scene by what they've done locally.

Earlier this year a tapas spot called Taberna del Alabardero, which is based in Seville and has an enormously popular outpost in Washington, D.C., opened in Belltown. Now we have a branch of Artisanal coming our way, and both seem to be of the very corporate nature that comes with a big national name. One of the things I have always loved about Seattle food is that all the attractive restaurants are scattered about in low-key neighborhoods, and not collected downtown in glitzy dining rooms.

I don't know, feels a bit strange. And the last thing we need is dipshits like Bobby Flay opening restaurants in Seattle. We shall see how things go as the Seattle scene continues to develop.

Didn't you tell me once that the Portland restaurant scene has been developing as well. I know of a few places that I think are great in Portland, but I respect your opinion on food a lot. I remember you recommended a couple of places you want to try in Portland. When Mrs. Funk and I go back to Portland, I will hit a couple of those places along with a few of our favorites. I miss the Pacific Northwest. Maybe, I will go to Portland in the summer and see if I can convince Mrs. Funk to head up to Seattle for a Mariners game and hit one of the Seattle Restaurants.

[MarkGrace]

Didn't you tell me once that the Portland restaurant scene has been developing as well. I know of a few places that I think are great in Portland, but I respect your opinion on food a lot. I remember you recommended a couple of places you want to try in Portland. When Mrs. Funk and I go back to Portland, I will hit a couple of those places along with a few of our favorites. I miss the Pacific Northwest. Maybe, I will go to Portland in the summer and see if I can convince Mrs. Funk to head up to Seattle for a Mariners game and hit one of the Seattle Restaurants.

Yeah, Portland seems to be doing pretty well, too. A lot of times in food articles from national sources they'll throw PDX and Seattle together, since they are so close in proximity and because neither is very a big city. So I've read about a handful of places that seem to be making a splash in Portland, though I've never been to any. But here are some of the ones I've read about recently: Lucier, Beast, Andina, Genoa, Le Pigeon, Park Kitchen and Toro Bravo.

The chef at Andina, Emmanuel Piqueras, opened a place here in Seattle called Mixtura, though from what I heard his Portland place is much better. And I believe that his Seattle place actually closed recently.

There have been a couple other Portland chefs who have also made their way up here recently. Michael Hebberoy (who bizarrely changed his last name to just Hebb in the last year) opened Gotham Building Tavern in PDX, but apparently after things went sour and the restaurant closed he moved to Seattle. For a bit he was running this underground supper club called One Pot, and just under a year or so ago he opened that foodie fish and chips place I referred to above (Pike's Street Fish Fry). The NY Times did a feature on him a while back: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/di...tml?ref=dining

The other guy was Tom Hurley, who owned Hurley's in Portland (not sure if it is still open). He opened a place here called Coupage and brought in Rachel Yang from Alain Ducasse in NYC (she had also spent some time at Per Se). My wife and I went there last year and had a pretty fantastic meal. That has also since closed and Rachel Yang opened her own restaurant, Joule, which is in the final two for our V-Day dinner! About a month or so ago I read that he's got plans for two new places somewhere around downtown.

Not sure if you are into tea, but the Mrs. and I went to a place I had read about in Gourmet and had a great time. There article was about great new teahouses in the NW, and there were a few places in Portland mentioned. That may fun to check out if you're into that sort of thing.
http://www.gourmet.com/restaurants/2...ific-northwest

[MartyFunkhouser]

Yeah, Portland seems to be doing pretty well, too. A lot of times in food articles from national sources they'll throw PDX and Seattle together, since they are so close in proximity and because neither is very a big city. So I've read about a handful of places that seem to be making a splash in Portland, though I've never been to any. But here are some of the ones I've read about recently: Lucier, Beast, Andina, Genoa, Le Pigeon, Park Kitchen and Toro Bravo.

The chef at Andina, Emmanuel Piqueras, opened a place here in Seattle called Mixtura, though from what I heard his Portland place is much better. And I believe that his Seattle place actually closed recently.

There have been a couple other Portland chefs who have also made their way up here recently. Michael Hebberoy (who bizarrely changed his last name to just Hebb in the last year) opened Gotham Building Tavern in PDX, but apparently after things went sour and the restaurant closed he moved to Seattle. For a bit he was running this underground supper club called One Pot, and just under a year or so ago he opened that foodie fish and chips place I referred to above (Pike's Street Fish Fry). The NY Times did a feature on him a while back: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/di...tml?ref=dining

The other guy was Tom Hurley, who owned Hurley's in Portland (not sure if it is still open). He opened a place here called Coupage and brought in Rachel Yang from Alain Ducasse in NYC (she had also spent some time at Per Se). My wife and I went there last year and had a pretty fantastic meal. That has also since closed and Rachel Yang opened her own restaurant, Joule, which is in the final two for our V-Day dinner! About a month or so ago I read that he's got plans for two new places somewhere around downtown.

Not sure if you are into tea, but the Mrs. and I went to a place I had read about in Gourmet and had a great time. There article was about great new teahouses in the NW, and there were a few places in Portland mentioned. That may fun to check out if you're into that sort of thing.
http://www.gourmet.com/restaurants/2...ific-northwest

Mrs Funk and I do enjoy tea, but I would recommend Cacao first and foremost word of wisdom approved beverages in Portland. The drinking chocolate at this place is incredible. The drinking chocolate with chili in it is great.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/06/17...tml?ref=travel