Fine dining in an unexpected inn

EVERETT – The first time I visited the Pine Street Grille, it was closed between lunch and dinner. It hadn’t occurred to me that a restaurant at a Holiday Inn would close the dining room and convert the kitchen from lunch to dinner like the pros.

On our second visit for dinner, my friend and I commented on how the hotel’s lobby and dining room look much fancier than we expected from a Holiday Inn.

When we first entered the hotel lobby, the chef was visiting with a group of people sitting just outside the dining room. My heart sank at the indication of too few customers to keep the kitchen staff busy. I expected the quality of my dinner to suffer.

Inside the dining room, we were the only customers until the group outside grew to more than 15 and celebrated a birthday in the dining room. Whew. I wasn’t reviewing a dinner in an empty dining room. On the next visit to our table, our server indicated that the place was packed for Christmas and business is now slowing down a bit.

The Pine Street Grille’s dining room feels like the typical hotel dining room with red and white linen and classical music. The hostess seated us at a table across from the fireplace and we selected seats that gave us a view of the fire.

We reviewed the wine list and my friend selected the house blush ($4.95) and I ordered a glass of merlot ($5.50). The short wine list includes selections from Washington, California, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Italy. Bottles fall in the $20 to $25 range.

Our server indicated that she comes to the restaurant on her day off to enjoy an order of the baked crab and artichoke dip ($8.95). To me, that’s a little steep for an appetizer but the recommendation offset the price. We relished every dip of the crunchy crostini stacked with Dungeness and rock crabmeat and artichoke hearts trapped in melted cheese. We ate it all. Never mind that we faced three more courses.

For our main dish, I ordered the eggplant Parmesan ($10.95). My friend somehow bypassed one of his favorites French onion soup ($4.25 for a bowl) – and chose the Pine Street steak salad ($12.95). He really liked the salad, and I found the eggplant to be one of the best in Snohomish County.

By the way, there’s a soup-salad-bread combo for $5.95 that includes a cup of soup of the day, a house green or Caesar salad and warm bread. This sounds like a perfect sized and priced lunch to me.

Let me tell you about the bread. It’s small squares of herb- or cheese-laced sourdough that’s pulled fresh from the oven. During our first dinner, my friend and I ate two baskets of it.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that we found the food a notch or two above our “Holiday Inn” expectations. So, we returned the next weekend and ordered Louie, Louie salad ($12.95) and the meatloaf dinner ($8.50).

Our second dinner was just as tasty as the first. My friend’s salad was stacked with fresh crab and shrimp along with hard-boiled egg and avocado slices over an ample serving of crisp lettuce. He shared one tiny portion with me. I returned the favor with a smidgen of meatloaf in a delicious mushroom gravy and freshly mashed potatoes. My dinner came with an al dente steamed vegetable combo that included red and green bell peppers, zucchini, red onions and carrot slices in butter.

After finishing off our entrees during both visits, we were too full to order or enjoy dessert. That’s unusual for me. More unusual is returning the next week, on my dime, for another meal with the same menu. With the opening of Pine Street Grille, Everett has another excellent dining option.

Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.

Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.