UPDATE!

Many times when one visits a restaurant for lunch, which a person has patronized for dinner, you find that the menu is a mirror of the dinner offerings. Oh sure, there will be the addition of a burger or chicken sandwich; perhaps even a lunch salad. But mostly the comparisons between the afternoon and evening meals will be pretty even. One exception to this rule was Sitka & Spruce. While it may not be totally fair to categorize the offers from this tiny Eastlake restaurant with other establishments, since their menu is constantly changing, a lot of my opinion was based too upon the atmosphere versus their dinner service.

Once through the door a person is still greeted with muted chartreuse walls, simple, modernist decor and milky, filtered light from the West facing windows. What is different is the ambiance. It’s a much more relaxed environment, even once the lunch rush begins in earnest. While the menu is still handwritten on the blackboard by the door, orders are placed, and paid for, at the standing counter; dishes are self-bussed. The crowd on my particular visit was made up of moms and individuals waiting for lunch companions; people engrossed in quiet conversations, newspapers or tending their children. This is in comparison to a livelier, more boisterous and curious dinner crowd. I’d learned from my first visit to Sitka & Spruce that the best time to arrive is early, as soon as they open, to get a good seat and, in the case of my lunch, so as to take advantage of all menu offerings before they sell out.

I ordered three items off the menu; the first being Creamy Root Vegetable Soup ($6.00). The bowl arrived filled halfway with an olive oil drizzled, bisque colored soup; crostini served on the side in place of crackers. With a consistency of slightly whipped heavy cream the soup was thick, almost a porridge. The taste was that of celery, potato and perhaps rutabaga, very light and slightly sweet. My thinking is that the sweetness came from nutmeg as it had that twinge of spicy, exotic flavor. This was a great medium for dipping chunks of torn crostini, the soup coating each bite-sized morsel with rich, slightly starchy, goodness.

As I made my way through the soup out came a plate of Tartine of Anchoas, Celery Confit & Meyer Lemon ($7.00). This was a totally different turn from the soup. Briny, oily and lemony all at once I could have eaten plate after plate of this one menu item. Devoid of the fishiness found in most anchovies these fish filets were moist, tender and tasted of clean salt water. The contrast was the slightly crunchy, just cooked through julienne of celery; a welcome textural crunch. This celery had been combined with minced Meyer lemon, to add brightness, and olive oil for a rich, floral note. All of this was served atop slices of fresh baguette. In contrast to the bread served with my soup this bread had been toasted bringing out nutty flavor of the wheat along with added flavor from the grill.

My final selection of the afternoon was to be a sandwich that Sitka & Spruce only had four orders of total, Organic Tri Tip Sandwich, Olives & Piquil Rouille ($8.50). Once again served on the same tasty baguette the sandwich arrived with bits of char grilled beef protruding from the sides of the bread. Served rare the tri tip was flavorful with a bit of chewiness to it. Just warmed trough the pink center was moist in contrast to the crunchy bits of charred exterior that flecked the sliced pieces. Dressed with flat leaf parsley and an herbal sauce made primarily of olive oil gave the sandwich richness along with the added benefit of the oil softening the chewy baguette. It’s a somewhat messy sandwich, with olive oil dripping from either end, but one which could easily fill someone all by itself.

While I thought that dinner when I last visited Sitka & Spruce was good, lunch far surpassed my expectations. Unfortunately it’s only served four days a week, Tuesday through Friday, and from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. If they could open for lunch on the weekend I could easily see my way to making the short trip to Eastlake at least once per week. The best part is that I can count on a changing menu and something new to try on nearly every visit. A menu that will offer variety regardless of whether I’ve dined with them in the past day or the past month.

June 15th, 2006

So far in my time in Seattle I have eaten at some fairly diminutive restaurants. I know, for those of you who’ve spent time reading my reviews it seems like every other week I’m in some new, small restaurant space. But imagine if you will someone opening their dining room up to a group of twenty strangers for dinner. If you can picture that, and picture this person’s dining room was in a strip mall, you’d get an idea of what seating is like at Sitka & Spruce.

Open for only a couple of months, I underestimated the drawing power of this little eatery tucked back off the road on Eastlake Avenue. While my arrival at 5:40 PM was early for dinner it was too late to grab an individual table to myself. As I walked through the door I saw that roughly two thirds of the seats were taken and if I wanted to eat, I was going to have to share space at the large, central communal table. Before I go any further let me just say that if you are adverse to sharing a table with strangers, arrive early or plan to visit after they’ve been open a while. With what I saw of this restaurant’s popularity your chances of having to sit side-by-side with a stranger are quite high.

There were no menus at Sitka & Spruce to peruse. Instead there was a centrally placed chalkboard with a list of about ten to twelve items on it. Fairly straight forward I ordered the Roasted Sockeye with Beets ($22.00) and Rainbow Chard ($7.00). I was informed that each selection comes in two sizes, a small and a large, depending on whether or not you wanted a meal to yourself or to share your selection with the group as pseudo tapas. Since I was by myself I chose to get the large portion of salmon and the small portion of chard to constitute my meal. As it turns out the kitchen prepares their dishes to the chef’s whimsy. So whatever happens to finish cooking first is what is brought out to your table. For me it was the small order of Rainbow Chard. Petite chopped and lightly sautéed the leaves of the chard were tender and buttery but hid a unique flavor. For a second it escaped me and then I hit upon what it was, vinegar. Almost as though the chard had been given the wilted spinach salad treatment, it came dressed with a slightly bitter, sour white vinegar pucker. Not too far over the line but just enough to give contrast to the rich, buttery taste if its quick sauté.

The Sockeye came resting upon a pedestal of more chard and bright, fuchsia beets. The beets were sweet and fork tender having been cooked with shallots and olives. An interesting preparation technique that I noted as one I never would have thought of. The natural sugars of fresh beets intermingling with soft, fatty olive created an interesting flavor that reminded me of, well, of pepperoni. Don’t ask, it just did. But the simple preparation was not limited to beets, the salmon itself was nicely sautéed on the outside but still a moist, translucent orange on the inside. With only a bit of dill draped across the top the natural, mild flavor of this filet was readily apparent. While the menu described the dish as coming with golden fennel I have to admit I was at a loss to find it. That is unless what I thought was radish was actually the fennel. But if it were fennel it would be the spiciest fennel I’ve yet to taste. Nevertheless, my dinner was very good in its use of simple, “pantry available” ingredients. And I guess that’s the overall vibe I got from Sitka & Spruce, homemade. The timing, ingredients and atmosphere; they all contributed to a feeling of not being at a restaurant.

To end my evening I chose the Cheese Plate ($6.50). A room temperature slice of blue cheese, a balsamic macerated strawberry and sweet crackers arrived on a small plate. The crackers were an interesting combination of savory shortbread, sugary coating, chopped nuts and anise flavoring. Topped with a bit of the salty, musky blue cheese the crackers provided a great counterpoint to the cheese’s creamy richness with its sweet, lingering licorice flavor. Balance that with a fresh, cool strawberry sitting in slightly tart and syrupy balsamic vinegar. A nice ending to a well prepared meal.