Love food? Head to Melrose Market
Published 3:36 pm Thursday, August 12, 2010
There’s a new food-lover’s paradise on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
Melrose Market is a European-style food hall tucked into what was once an auto-repair shop. It’s come to life over the past several months and finally is finished.
It has high ceilings, a breezy feel and is filled with the furthest thing one could imagine from a fast-food-fueled food court. Everything here is rooted in local, sustainable and organic — the opposite of processed.
Vendors include a butcher, cheesemonger, sandwich maker, organic florist and produce stand, a bar and a hyper-local restaurateur.
At one end is Rain Shadow Meats. Their shiny case is full of beautiful cuts of beef and poultry, along with house-made sausages and charcutiere.
The helpful staff across the hall at the Calf &Kid will give cheese lovers an education in Northwest farm-stand varieties. Their shelves are filled with imported wheels that would be hard to find any place else.
At Homegrown, the sandwich makers give new meaning to both “sustainable” and what it means to pile up edible goodness between two slices of bread.
Bar Ferd’nand features a retail wine shop and plenty of seats to sip an afternoon away.
Still, no visit would be complete if you didn’t visit chef Matthew Dillon’s Sitka &Spruce, a restaurant at the west end of the market.
The 40 seats at the new location, recently moved from Lake Union’s shores, double the dining room’s size without losing a small and intimate feel. Nearly a third of the diners here share a long table that extends from the open kitchen.
My brother, a self-proclaimed foodie visiting from Boston, a friend and I shared a smaller table with another trio. We got to delight as a group as the carefully prepared plates arrived at either end.
Dillon’s menu features mostly small dishes, meant to be shared. The line up changes about weekly, so each visit will bring new adventures in eating.
We started with a pile of freshly picked lettuce leaves dressed smartly with sherry vinegar and dancing with crispy, sauteed shallots ($8.50).
Next up, three gorgeous dates shared a plate with tenderly cooked baby carrots atop a hummus that was brought to life with a spicy harissa, a North African blend of chili peppers and olive oil ($9) that burst with flavor.
Six huge, whole spot prawns came in a garlic sauce along with toast points for dipping ($16). A bowl of warm water with lemon allowed for finger cleaning after pulling off the heads and shells.
Salted cod came with delicious fennel, preserved lemon and pimenton, a flavorful paprika ($12).
A rich chicken-liver pate ($14) was spread atop big pieces of toasted French bread. Roasted chanterelles swam in a bath of a lightly fried egg and a mushroom broth, perfect for soaking up with the toast.
We chose to get several small plates and skip the larger portions. The night I went, bigger plates included a roasted chicken ($25), lamb with mint and sumac ($21), or local albacore poached in olive oil and served Nicoise style with tomatoes ($24).
After we saw both dessert options delivered to the other end of the table, we had to try them for ourselves. Lip-smacking pie cherries were sweetened in elderflower syrup and served with a buttery gateau basque ($8.50). For those of us with rusty French language skills, that’s basically a pastry cream tart.
The second dessert featured fresh apricots that took on a whole new flavor after a few minutes on the grill. They came with rich olive oil gelato, buckwheat honey and a splash of amaretto ($8).
The restaurant is noisy and crowded. Sitka &Spruce also isn’t for the finicky eater. The food is daring, different and boldly gourmet.
There were no doggy bags at our table. Just a leftover feeling that I couldn’t wait to return.
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3447; jholtz@heraldnet.com.
