THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Scout Awards

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Scout Restaurant Review:

Plaid-covered benches and big wood fixtures make a statement in the dining room of this hotel restaurant: you are in the Northwest. The message, shouted by the ice-bed of oysters along the counter and the vaguely water-themed design below the bar, continues to the menu, where wild-foraged mushrooms share appetizer space with Dungeness crab chowder and more than half the entrées involve seafood. The chef's table menu is a multi-course whirlwind of creativity. The regular menu, though, offers barely more than a dozen options total, proposing the likes of pork cheeks Bourguignon and cavatelli with garlic scapes. Hardly dishes that would stand out in Seattle’s sea of similar spots, but an act of daring-do for a downtown hotel restaurant and presenting a chance to open visitors’ eyes to the local ingredients and styles. Desserts follow the same pattern, demonstrating the Northwest’s highlights, as in an almond tart filled with lemon and blackberry, topped with meringue. But, mysteriously, the wine list takes far more liberty with geography, ranging around the Northwest as well as all over the old world.