On weekdays, the lunch crowd at 94 Stewart is a cross section of downtown Seattle working stiffs: architects, tweedy and a bit long around the hairline, scribbling on the butcher-paper tablecloths; earnest lawyers feeling each other out; politicos jaded and idealistic gossiping about the latest tempest in City Hall’s teapot. It’s a lively, urbane scene, and for an old-timer, a wrenching flash from the past, because 30 years ago the same people—or their fathers and mothers—were eating much the same kind of food off the same paper tablecloths and having the same conversations at Seattle’s first bistro of this kind: the Brasserie Pittsbourg in Pioneer Square.
Celinda Norton didn’t set out to re-create a local dining landmark when she opened 94 Stewart nine months ago. She started her culinary career in 1979, when the Brasserie Pittsbourg was already past its prime. And nobody today could draw as sophisticated a downtown lunch crowd as François and Julia Kissel could, with a French-accented steam-table buffet. Nevertheless, there’s a spiritual similarity, not least in Norton’s constant presence in the kitchen; the small, idiosyncratic menu; and the rattling good nature of the room (very little changed from its predecessor, the Garlic Tree).
Norton’s basic culinary approach is Mediterranean but wholly individualistic, as befits a self-taught chef. There’s a traditional antipasto platter of cured meats, pickles, peppers, and cheese ($14 and ample for three as an appetizer); a near meal of a salad of roasted beets, zucchini, and eggplant tossed in superfragrant olive oil and dressed with cheeses and balsamic vinegar ($9); and fried calamari sauced with a tomato-saffron compote ($12)—even a house-made duck paté with a side of cornichons ($8). But I don’t think any Mediterranean bistro table was ever blessed with the house specialty: lumps of fresh avocado, rolled in panko and deep-fried and served warm with fresh crab and tomato-infused oil. A smallish serving costs $14, and you’d be a fool not to order it.
Crab is something of an obsession in Norton’s cuisine: It appears as cakes ($14, served on a bed of bacon-chipotle-zested wilted greens), in a wonderful creamy chowder with corn and sweet red pepper (cup $5, bowl $9—don’t plan to eat much of anything else after a bowl), and in a succulent grilled sandwich with bacon, tomato, and spinach on herbed bread ($12).
Most of the dishes mentioned are available at both lunch and dinner. The only luncheon item that I felt fell short was “94’s Famous Reuben” ($8). Good Reuben sandwiches come in many forms, including ones like this that need to be eaten with a knife and fork if sartorial disaster is not to ensue. But I don’t think any Reuben should be composed of as much vinegary sauce as sauerkraut and pastrami combined. Bottom line: You have to be able to taste the meat.
Pasta dishes, too, don’t seem to engage Norton fully. A plate of pappardelle ($10) seemed barely introduced to the heavy sauce of blue cheese, cream, prosciutto, and tomato, and sorry, but candied walnuts are almost always too much of a good thing; and I can’t imagine the whole experience being improved by adding grilled chicken ($3) or large prawns ($4).
At dinner there’s a lineup of half a dozen main dishes that alter with the seasons. Right now, there’s an herby pork loin ($22), stuffed with blue cheese and crusted with more of those candied nuts, offset by fragrant shalloted mashed potatoes; roasted duck breast in chilied cider sauce ($28); and pheasant with braised greens and chorizo-leek stuffing ($29). Based on our experience, you’re assured of satisfaction in flavor and presentation with any of the entrées, but considering the rubbery quality of the pasta at lunch, you might want to think twice about the dinner version of the pappardelle with its truffle oil, artichokes, and sweet peppers ($20).
The 94 wine list is extensive, intelligent (it’s supervised by Norton’s daughter Lindsey), and rather stiffly priced, but if you penetrate to the end of its four pages, you’ll find some reasonably priced, though still not bargain, bottles. In my opinion, the bar has a long way to go. The signature cocktails are overfancy, for the most part oversweet, and named with appalling coyness.
Service at 94 Stewart is not up to the standards of its kitchen. There may be polished performers among its wait staff, but we were treated to that style of service, both intrusive and inattentive, that is happily becoming rarer all the time hereabouts. I implore Norton to leave her kitchen to her able sous chef, at least occasionally, and spend some time on the floor—I’m sure the 94 Stewart experience would almost immediately rise to equal its price level and the quality of the cooking. Norton must on no account leave the kitchen, however, before finishing the day’s baking. There are few cooks who excel both on the line and in the oven, but Norton’s many and varied tortes make for one of the most original yet down-home dessert menus in town.
94 Stewart, 94 Stewart St., 206-441-5505, DOWNTOWN/PIKE PLACE MARKET. 11:30 a.m.–9 p.m. Tues.–Thurs.; until 10 p.m. Fri.–Sat.; until 8 p.m. Sun.; closed Mon. Lunch served until 5 p.m. www.94stewart.com.
