Ciao, Val's

One of Phinney Ridge's lone remaining greasy spoons is soon to close its doors, as is the neighboring Daily Planet, where I once purchased a robot named Toby to serve as a research assistant. Says my pal Jeff of Val's: "When I started going to Val’s, they had a great hamburger steak & eggs and a gorgeous brunette server named Heather. She might have been the hottest chick to ever pour me a cup of coffee."

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With a name like Honore, the bread better be good

Riding down NW 70th street yesterday, I ran across a new bakery, Honore. The outside looks more or less finished, and quick peek in the window revealed pastry cases ready for business.

If you name a bakery Honore, presumably after the French patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, you're either an idiot, or you've come to play with the big boys. I sincerely hope it's the latter.

Anyone know who's behind Honore? Who's in the kitchen? When does it open?

And are they for real?

Honore, 1413 NW 70th St., BALLARD.

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New Place on 12th: Majles Middle Eastern Cafe & Hoohka

Strolling past Lark the other night, I spotted a sign for a new place, set back from the sidewalk.

The tiny print on their hand-painted sign in the window reads:

This is a private club. Inquire inside about membership.

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Not So Grand Opening: Hebberoy and Fish Fry Are Here

Customers take a peek at their food as it's served for the first time at the Fish Fry.

It may not be famous Frites, but its fries and sauces are on par with the former favorite Capitol Hill drunken destination. Nestled between Nuemo’s and Moe Bar, Pike Street Fish Fry even shares the old Frites location.

But the comparisons stop there. The interior of the seriously tiny former Nuemo’s box office has been revamped with red lighting, new hard wood, shiny appliances, and standing tables.

The overall concept has changed considerably from the snack stop the space once held, thanks to the creativity of new Seattleite Michael Hebberoy. Fish Fry offers street food that constitutes a meal, for one. I left full after enjoying a grilled steak sandwich on a French roll ($8) and, of course, a large basket of fabulously fattening fries ($4).

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Pike Street Fish Fry to Open

There have been rumblings on the blogs that Michael Hebberoy was taking over the old Frites space at Neumo's, and I just got word from the One Pot organizer himself that it's all true.

Sometime soon — perhaps next weekend, maybe a little after that, he doesn't want to specify — Pike Street Fish Fry will open up, serving food from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. about five days a week. The restaurant is a partnership between Hebberoy, Jerry Everard (Neumo's, Sole Repair, etc.), and Mike McConnell (Caffe Vita and Via Tribunali). Monica Dimas, who's worked at Campagne and Le Pichet, will be heading up the kitchen.

Though Hebberoy claims that Fish Fry's kitchen is actually as big as the one in many bistros, the premise behind PSFF is simple street food. Hebberoy says it will offer five or six kinds of fish a day, from cod to Spanish mackerel, lightly battered and served with a choice of 5-6 sauces made from house-pickled ingredients (homemade tartar sauce, preserved-lemon aioli). They'll also be serving fries, grilled octopus, and some red meat. "What I’m hoping," says Hebberoy, "is that when people walk in, your average foodie will notice that we’re canning and preserving vegetables and have whole fish on ice, while a drunk kid at 2 a.m. is stoked he can get fries and fish balls, or a grilled piece of steak."

The partners have expanded into Neumo's old box office, which now has banquette seating for six, while the rest of the tiny space has SRO tables. If all goes well, Pike Street Fish Fry will open for lunch. It also may supply food for the happy hours at Moe Bar next door.

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Gypsy Apparently Shuts Down

This mysterious message just came in from Gypsy, the mostly underground restaurant:

Camelot has ended.

We wake up, we go to work, we come home, we occasionally eat out. Most lives are fashioned after this pattern. Most restaurant's lives are as well: make food, sell food, clean up, go home. Sometimes, a very magical sometimes, restaurants are able to trancend [sic] the merely ordinary and in doing so, transform to some small degree the lives of its patrons.

Gypsy has been this magical place for many many people. New friends, new ideas, new love, a salon of creativity. But as with all things destined to touch hearts, evil waits to take it away. We have been betrayed. Gypsy as we know it was too scary a place to exist, so now it doesn't.

We are going much deeper underground. Those who really know how to get ahold of us, please email (please don't call us), we will start a new list, a more protected list. Dinners are cancelled for all intents and purposes. And to the traitor to the clan we offer you this: May you never sleep well, may laughter sound bitter in your ears, and may food always taste like ashes to you...this is our Gypsy curse. You have destroyed a good thing.

I've got an email out to them to see if I can learn more. If you know, let me know.

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Green Leaf Reopens, Expands

Green Leaf, the popular little noodle shop on 8th and Jackson, has been planning for months to expand into the floor above. It's about time, says anyone who's had to wait for one of the tiny black tables. A few weeks ago the restaurant closed down while owner Peter Kuang put the last touches on the new room, and it reopened this week. I went for lunch yesterday, and the new second floor is...cute: It has more light and the same wood-paneled walls and green-and-tan color scheme. There's a little bar at the back of the second floor and a row of wooden tables and booths with a wagon-wheel motif that I think just might have come from a Cracker Barrel warehouse. Even at double capacity, Green Leaf is still packed, though there's no line, and the extra volume doesn't seem to have affected the food. Or at least my grilled mushrooms and pork-three-ways rice plate.

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Maneki, Local Chefs Make the Beard Award Finals

The final nominations for the 2008 James Beard Awards have been announced, and many Seattle restaurants are on the list.

Maneki was nominated for (or awarded — I'm not sure yet) one of the Beard Foundation's annual "America's Classics" awards. As the judges write, "With a rich history that stretches over a century — it has been around through both world wars, Japanese internment, and has even seen one of its former dishwashers become the Prime Minister of Japan — Maneki is the only surviving restaurant from Seattle’s once-bustling Japantown. Comfort food dishes like agedashi tofu and takoyaki share the menu with sushi and sashimi, satisfying homesick Japanese locals and introducing a new generation to traditional Japanese cooking."

Tom Douglas has been nominated for the "Outstanding Restaurateur" award.

The Canlis family has been nominated for "Outstanding Service."

In the Pacific Northwest Best Chef category, Seattle chefs won four of the top five slots: Maria Hines (Tilth), Holly Smith (Café Juanita), Ethan Stowell (Union), and Jason Wilson (Crush).

Congratulations to all and good luck at the ceremonies, which take place June 6 in New York! These awards are very much deserved.

Congratulations also to local food writer Sara Dickerman for her Slate article on movie portrayals of chefs, and a special woo-hoo! to my old colleague Eliza Strickland, whose SF Weekly expose on the California Culinary Academy should be read by every prospective cooking-school student.

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Adieu Herban Pottery, Ola Herban Feast

Wowwy wow wow. Anyone getting married anytime soon, or planning an otherwise large engagement or shindig? Have I got the venue for you.

The 3200 1st Avenue South space that has been Herban Pottery and Patio for the last oh so many years is being taken by a different Herban, Herban Feast of West Seattle, the catering company you may have seen hanging out at the West Seattle Farmers Market on Sundays.

The 12,000 square foot giant barn of a room is a gorgeous example of how to preserve an old space while also conveying a warm, modern, environmentally friendly design. Exposed beams have a sealant protecting them, but still allow the old chipped paint to show through. The space also has little offshoots that will make excellent bar and lounge spaces. Word has it that the kitchen will go in back, under the expansive windows, and be open enough so as not to take away from the grandness of the the space.

Herban Feast takes over the building as of April 1st. Ooooeeeee, I've got half a mind to get married again just for kicks. I can only imagine the catfights that will ensue over Saturdays in August, 08 and 09.

For more information: Herban Feast in SODO

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Mistral to Close, Undergo Metamorphosis, Reemerge as Giant Lunar Moth

The Seattle Magazine food blog reported yesterday that Mistral is closing at the end of March. The four-star restaurant, which just was named one of the world's top 100 destination restaurants in a new guide (link to come when I get back to the office), had just made Seattle mag's top 10 for the year, with a photo spread and all, and the issue was already in print when food editor Allison Schiff learned from owner William Belickis that he was shutting down.

That sucks for everyone.

However, Rebekah Denn over at the P-I has followed up on the magazine's post and reports on her blog that Belickis is replacing Mistral with a massive dining complex — 4,000 square feet, five dining areas, five different restaurant concepts — and that he already has the financial backers to make it happen.

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