High-End Hip

THE CAPITOL CLUB is Linda's Tavern playing dress-up, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's an inviting neighborhood place filled with the kind of content, attractive people (including the fine servers) who would otherwise be found downing a pitcher on the Tavern's back patio but are, at the moment, in the mood for something slightly upscale that won't make them feel like posers.

The comment is hardly out of line: The place was initially the property of Linda Derschang, Capitol Hill's Empress of Hip, and though she sold it a few years back, it's thankfully never lost her imprint of casual cool. The slick upstairs bar and perfect-for-people-watching deck with their pillowy, genie-in-a-bottle Mediterranean style give the restaurant a mellow, we're-just-hanging-out aurait may make you feel you've paid just a hair too much for the experience. Nothing on the decidedly uncasual menu will disappoint, but, really: $8 for a drink and $10 for a small plate of prawns that can't be shared to anyone's satisfaction? You're already down $18 and you haven't even had a salad ($7-$10) or a main dish ($9-$18). Call me middle-class, but an evening anywhere near $50 sort of defeats the laid-back Hill experience.

But enough of that, alreadylet's just call it elegantly laid-back and move on, because to diss what's waiting for you here would be a mistake. The modest-portioned but stylish appetizers, in fact, may well be the best such edibles in the neighborhood. Grilled lamb sausage accompanied by grilled polenta and a white bean and roasted tomato salad ($9)? Absolutely. And maybe it's best that you can't share the above-mentioned serrano ham-wrapped prawns atop a thick, savory sauce romesco with balsamic reduction and herb oil, because you're going to want every last one of them for yourself, anyway. And that $8 drink? It's bound to hit the spot: kicky and perfect for slow sipping (try the Casbah, the Club's self-proclaimed classicyou'll be very pleased that fresh oranges and pomegranate syrup found their way into an Absolut Citron and Cointreau mix). Dinners are up to snuff, too. If you're not up for the lamb sirloin ($17) or one of its market-priced, roasted daily fish offerings, I'd recommend the linguini ($13), which can't, and doesn't, go wrong when tossed with white beans and smoked bacon.

Oh, and about those appetizers again: If you miss the mouth-watering Mediterranean summer plate ($9), you're a fool. The memory of that pomegranate-grilled lambin which the sweetness is perfectly pitched to the meatoffsets all the caviling I've done here.

swiecking@seattleweekly.com