Cafe
Lago – there are cheaper pizzas
around, and ovens as hot, but no one is so picky about their applewood
or their mozzarella, no one so loyal to the task, no one waits
as accurately for the arugula to sweeten. The neighbors are grumpy
about all the cars parked butts about and you might pick a night
when the internetters are toasting their fortune. But the food
is wonderful and the crew is trying their very best to give you
an honest smile and a sweet time.
[2305 24th Ave E]
]
Lark
– is just east of Holl’s St Ignatius Chapel, on 12th,
off Madison and you can see the coloured glass windows from your
table, through the trees. It would be snooty but for the owners,
who are too nice to get away with it. It is a single, careful room,
with a careful menu and they do not take reservations and there
is not a ribeye or roast on the list and if you order the short
ribs, there may only be two. They are not trying to feed loggers
here. They fit and they mix and sort and fiddle and maybe your favorite
will be the beets, or a yellow tail sashimi or a pheasant breast
but whatever the case, it will be a delight. It is my daughter’s
favorite.
[926 12th Ave]
Le Pichet
- is across the street from the bookstore and soon another up by
Lark and the St Ignatius Chapel. Jim cooks and Joanne manages –
his job is hard, in this tiny, hot French kitchen with three others
but hers is impossible because everyone wants to get in, they can
see it is hopping and fun and steamy and people are elbow to each
and all are talking and who can resist a brasserie this busy, they
are standing and sort of dressed up and cramped and with a smile
Joanne has to tell each walkup, there is simply no room. They are
open all day, from 8 to midnight or more and there are quiet times
but not on weekends or summer nights, not for Sunday brunch, not
for Friday lunch, the quiche is gone by 12:30. Go, sit at the bar,
that is where we sit.
[ 1933 First Ave]
Licorous - is next door, the same owners, a neighborhood bar
if the world was smart enough but in the meanwhile, it handles the
overflow and its own regulars. The bartender has a drink list that
even I liked, wines that are good and change often, they have a
short cafe menu long on detail and people come to talk, and sit
and talk and eat some. I did not give it a thought until one night,
I had an hour nearby and went in and had a wonderful time and thought
the thing was miracle. People go there for dinner in packs and jabber
and laugh and eat lightly but all over the menu.
[928 12th Avenue]
Matt's
in the Market – has reopened, with vents and stoves
and all stuff they were first denied, but still the view and the
place and the get up and go with fish and gumbos and soups and wonderful
wines.
[ 94 Pike St Ste 32]
Tavolata
– this would be the perfect, quiet, hole in the wall shotgun
restaurant but it is too busy. Even if you know the guys cooking
on the line, right at the middle of room, they don’t have
time to talk. Every antipasti, pasta, salad, entrée is cooked
to order, on full, and rushed off to one of the long tables that
have most of the seating. Everyone is stuck with each other, this
is not where you go if you need to talk and break up, it is too
full of life and fun. The bar is full, the bartender is smart, the
wine list is for drinking. Try the octopus and beans, share the
pasta choices, tell stories, tell your date they look great because
everyone else is looking at your date.
[2323 Second Ave]
Union
- is Tavolata’s fancy Uncle, the first restaurant of Ethan
Stowell, who opened before the Art Museum remodel and through all
the construction, held his course. Union is now rightly snooty,
with very careful choices, all fresh and smart and lovely. As in
any good place, the vegetables, the grains, the greens, the soups,
these are the colours and tastes that you will remember. Now SAM
is open, Union will be more often swamped, so call.
[1400 First Ave]
