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The owners of Pair have created an ungimmicky tribute to the good

Published 7:00 am Monday, September 24, 2012

Though the supper-club fad hasn't had as much traction as the dry-aged New York strip -- thanks to a little boost from Dr. Atkins -- Felix and Sarah Penn, owners of Frank's Oyster House and Champagne Parlor, are reviving old notions of fine dining without making them seem gimmicky.
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Though the supper-club fad hasn't had as much traction as the dry-aged New York strip -- thanks to a little boost from Dr. Atkins -- Felix and Sarah Penn, owners of Frank's Oyster House and Champagne Parlor, are reviving old notions of fine dining without making them seem gimmicky.
Though the supper-club fad hasn't had as much traction as the dry-aged New York strip -- thanks to a little boost from Dr. Atkins -- Felix and Sarah Penn, owners of Frank's Oyster House and Champagne Parlor, are reviving old notions of fine dining without making them seem gimmicky.
The Penns are also giving a nod to the classic American steakhouse, with its wood paneling, golden lighting, and leather booths, through Jacob and Lucas Mihoulides' decor.
The walls of the Champagne Parlor section of the restaurant are covered in hundreds of unvarnished plywood squares that jut from the wall at varying heights, reminiscent of a Kurt Schwitters collage, while the Oyster House half is paneled vertically in the thin sides of raw two-by-fours.
What will make Frank's Oyster House into that perfect blend of boardroom and pub, hangout and special-evening destination, is to pack the room with diners who've eaten there so often and so long the booths become a neighborhood in themselves.
The woodshop chic the brothers introduced at How to Cook a Wolf has taken on a psychedelic cast.
Their oysters--kushis, Olympias, shigokus, other top picks from the Northwest--are presented on a long, blocky rectangle formed from pressed ice cubes.
The owners, whose 5-year-old Pair is now solidly popular enough to enable them to open a second restaurant three blocks down the street, say that Frank's is an homage to Sarah's grandfather, a pressman at the Boston Globe who died in the early 1970s.
They're showing their respects by reworking dishes like crab louie, a classic that Seattleites have loved for a century.
All these dishes mine a well-worked vein in a way that doesn't feel tired.

The owners of Pair have created an ungimmicky tribute to the good old days. All photos by Renee McMahon. Read Jonathan Kauffman’s full review.Published on June 10, 2009

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