A Fare to Remember

It’s 4:40 on a Sunday afternoon, and I’m grazing at Le Pichet, a French bistro, slathering pork rillettes--an unctuous French cousin of pa^te--on crusty bread and sipping an Alsatian Pinot Blanc. The bartender keeps me in sight as he readies for the dinner rush, his manager writing the evening specials on a chalkboard. Next I order a plate of chevre from the Loire Valley.

Perhaps the only thing better than dining on shamelessly rich food is having such food at an unexpected time and in an unexpected place. This is the case today, as I think of getting back outside to watch the sun retreat across sailboat-dotted Elliott Bay.

Where does that put me?

Smack dab in a city where round-the-clock eating has joined darkly roasted coffee and the Internet as a native pastime.

For three days this autumn, I took full advantage of two big Seattle attributes--that this city is easy to walk around and that you can spend just about every hour of every day eating well. Buttermilk biscuits just after dawn. Northern Thai noodles before noon. Estonian pierogies after lunch.

I’ve made a career of eating--in European bistros, Asian markets and restaurants in my home city of Boston, where I write about food for a living.

My visit to Seattle was my version of a culinary field trip. I knew the Pacific Northwest had become renowned for its amazing foodstuffs and burgeoning wine industry, and for a vibrant restaurant scene pumped up by the high-tech economy’s newly rich.

For me, the food was the important thing. But several days of eating would teach me that Seattle also has found a way to deal with its surplus of good eats: Make them available 24/7.

So how did I whittle down one city’s dining scene into five choices? I read, talked to locals and scouted just about every place where I might eat. My only criteria were that the places be relatively new, valued by locals and, at the very least, well, good.

I also discovered that the city’s noteworthy current dining can be found in the trendy Belltown neighborhood just north of that food nirvana, Pike Place Market.

From nibble to snack, here are my findings:

Le Pichet

With its mirrored, tiled and leather-banquette-lined dining room, this looks like a provincial bistro and wine bar. To further the ambience, waiters offer samples from a 55-label list and let patrons eat in relaxed fashion; the restaurant never closes between meals. It all adds up to what separates Le Pichet from others with Gallic attitude: It acts the part of French sophisticate but without sacrificing the laissez-faire attitude of Seattle.

As you would expect of a bistro open from morning to midnight and beyond, Le Pichet wears different faces at different hours. Mornings and afternoons, there’s a locals scene as students, creative types and the Internet-flush--who have transformed Belltown from seedy warehouse district--saunter in for coffee and savories.

For them, Le Pichet serves sandwiches, simple and striking, with ham and cheese, those sinful rillettes or pa^tes in a crusty baguette. Its salads are all the better for being austere, like the greens dressed with mustard-hazelnut vinaigrette, or Roquefort, endive and walnuts. This dish also gets a local garnish: smoked salmon.

But the real action--and I stopped in at all hours--starts up in the late afternoon. That’s when this narrow storefront starts to rev up. First, small groups appear at the bar, munching on plates of salty olives or almonds and sampling the wine. That’s a must here, as the list hopscotches around France, Spain and Italy, turning up interesting offerings that hardly break the $30-a-bottle barrier.

Soon enough the room fills. Then hearty French dishes--like roast chicken with forest mushrooms or sauteed mussels with bacon and fried potatoes--hit the table. The noise level rises, and those sipping at the bar may run off to dinner. If they’re like me, they note the moderate prices and well-crafted French fare and hope to come back.

Fandango

It’s getting toward Saturday midnight, and the bartender here is running out of cachaca. “We’re jammed this weekend,” he says, explaining the delay in serving my requested caiparinha, Brazil’s strong lime-and-cachaca treat. So, just like the rest of the crowd at this sassy restaurant, I switch and order a mojito, a strong, minty Cuban drink. A “Buena Vista Social Club” good time is in the air.

At Fandango, Christine Keff--a James Beard Award-winning chef--is bringing Latin American cuisine to Seattle. This restaurant is a coconut’s throw from Flying Fish, her noteworthy seafood house. Her latest effort shows Keff’s commitment to understanding--though not always capitalizing on--the African and European influences that make Latin food unique.

With 10 appetizers, six soups and salads, more than a dozen entrees and inspiration from so many lands, her ambitious menu guarantees mixed success.

Keff is unafraid to lay on the spice, and that’s a good thing. Local mussels swim in a stew from Bahia, the African-influenced north of Brazil; the broth is enriched with coconut milk, zinged with chili and tinged red with tomato. Her short ribs come with red chile sauce, watercress salad and a tamale. Carpaccio is deemed Argentine when slathered with a sprightly chimichurri (parsley, garlic and vinegar) sauce and citrus-cured mushrooms--playful and not half bad.

But a Oaxacan green mole, a complex sauce that is a crowning glory of Mexican cuisine, has nowhere near the depth it should; a Caribbean-inspired oxtail and chicken stew lacks zip. How does my table deal with the setback? We smile and sip our mojitos--a touch sweet and our second choice but still a worthy tipple.

Brasa

This restaurant, perched between downtown and Belltown, has a glow that makes everyone look good. The walls are the color of roasted pumpkin and umber, and wrought iron winds about the room. There’s a scene-unto-itself bar area and an open kitchen in back.

Brasa is the first solo venture for chef-owner Tamara Murphy. Her place is so smart that it could work in any American metropolis, so she should be proud that it works in this city of a half-million people.

Murphy is part of Seattle’s growing club of “name chefs,” having earned her reputation cooking lusty French food at Campagne across from Pike Place Market. Now she has taken her style, made it evolve, and applied it to southern Mediterranean cuisine as a whole.

Her food is sensuous, rugged and deeply flavored. It is also accompanied by co-owner Bryan Hill’s wine list--a love letter to expressive winemaking, broken down by producer and style. He dedicates one section (strong on finds from the Pacific Northwest) to “upstarts, mavericks and beauties from the wrong side of the tracks” and another (blessed with European rarities) to those “very near to our hearts and dear to our pocketbooks.”

For one of my meals, Murphy served an egg-and-potato ravioli, actually one pasta pocket the size of a deck of cards. The just-poached yolk mingled with mushroom jus and shards of bold sweetbreads. That same earthy quality was echoed in my dish of foie gras with honeyed polenta, roasted acorn squash and a balsamic reduction.

Simple--but difficult to do so well--was a perfectly rendered salad of wild greens, sherry-shallot vinaigrette and spicy Cabrales, a Spanish blue cheese for the ages.

Barflies, meantime, might want to sample Brasa’s pissaladiere--a thin-crusted Provencal pizza laden with anchovies, cheese, onions, olives and tomatoes.

I’d also highly recommend the suckling pig, which comes in an earthenware crock with a garnish of crackling. The meat is falling-apart tender, with clams and chorizo and laurel-scented potatoes. Add to that a brawny, rich Ribera del Duero 1997 from Pesquera. And then thank Hill and Murphy, who are usually well within sight.

Cascadia

Meals don’t get much more intense than those served in this austere white and wood room. Its marble bar is lighted from below like a makeup table in a cabaret dressing room. Waiters speak with reverence about the food, almost every ingredient of which is gathered from the Pacific Northwest--Quillisascut goat cheese, Oregon shrimp, Washington state beef tenderloin.

Chef-owner Kerry Sear, intellectual and passionate, cooked at the Four Seasons Olympic Hotel for years. He’s so devoted to local products that he calls his cuisine “Decidedly Northwest.”

By offering four seven-course tasting menus--including one vegetarian--Sear challenges diners to forsake the appetizer-entree-dessert format and let him steer the meal.

After much finagling, I got Sear to combine two tasting menus--one vegetarian and one not. An heirloom tomato salad began the meal in less-is-more fashion: Peppery arugula and zesty goat cheese flavors tangled under a veil of garlicky dressing.

Next up was a spectacular potato pancake strewn with lettuce shoots and dill vinaigrette. It showed that Sear could take something ordinary and, with extraordinary skill, craft a dish that made me and the others at my table marvel at the interplay of textures and tastes.

Not every effort is as great. A bisque of organic greens--summer in a bowl, really--was less appealing to me, the grilled vegetables soggy. But Sear hit the spot with his skillet-roasted crab cakes and smoked spot prawns with pickled chanterelles and elderberry syrup--sweet, smoky, lush and crunchy all at once. If only Cascadia could be consistent in this way.

On the meal marched: wild salmon on cedar fronds and roast butternut squash with a Port reduction; vegetables stuffed with roasted bean curd, carrots and watercress; and a cheese course of Samish Bay Gouda with plum chutney and savory cornmeal cookies.

At one point I got the feeling that my very good meal might have been great if only I had kept to Sear’s recommendations and not mixed his menus. But as long as Sear aims for greatness, I’ll try his food again.

Macrina

The first thing that struck me about Leslie Mackie’s bakery-cafe was its morning glory muffins, bursting with bran, shredded carrots, diced apples and raisins. After brunching in a comfy room on a remarkably fluffy omelet overflowing with roasted zucchini, caramelized onions, Gruyere and bell peppers, I’ll be honest: Every city needs a place like this. It’s equal parts neighborhood hang and class purveyor of baked goods. Whether it’s terrific buttermilk biscuits at dawn, yummy panini at lunch or fine, oversized peanut butter cookies in the afternoon, Macrina manages to provide lots of “wow” eating with minimal fuss.

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GUIDEBOOK / Sampling Seattle’s Haute Cuisine

Getting there: From LAX, nonstop service is available on United and Alaska Airlines to Seattle. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $198.

Where to eat: All telephone numbers are in the 206 area code. Le Pichet, 1933 1st Ave.; local telephone 256-1499. A casual place serving sophisticated food from early until late, with the crowd and scene changing throughout the day. Entrees $12-$19. No dinner service Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Brasa, 2107 3rd Ave.; tel. 728-4220, https://Internet www.brasa.com. Fine food and wine served in a glowing room in a spot that’s generating much buzz. Entrees $16-$26. Dinner 5 to 10:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 5 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays.

Fandango, 2313 1st Ave.; tel. 441-1188. A “Vida Loca” scene with a chef dishing up Latin American cuisine. Entrees $14-$20. Dinner 5 p.m. to midnight daily.

Cascadia, 2328 1st Ave.; tel. 448-8884. Elegant, ambitious eating, especially for those enamored of Pacific Northwest foodstuffs and the cuisine that springs from them. Entrees $19-$32. Dinner 5 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 5 to 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Macrina, 2408 1st Ave.; tel. 448-4032. A bakery-cafe where carbos are regal, yummy and relatively inexpensive. Open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.

For more information: Seattle-King County Convention & Visitors Bureau, 520 Pike St., Suite 1300, Seattle, WA 98101; tel. (206) 461-5840, fax (206) 461-8304, Internet https://www.seeseattle.org.

Also, Washington State Tourism, P.O. Box 42500, Olympia, WA 98504-2500; tel. (800) 544-1800, fax (360) 753-4470, Internet https://www.experiencewashington.com.