Homer

Homer Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant & décor: Ostrich-patterned wallpaper and a window selling soft-serve ice cream onto the street give a taste of the whimsy and warmth that chef Logan Cox and his designer and partner in Homer and in life, Sara Knowles, have breathed into the restaurant. Inside and on the table, though, much of that coziness comes from the large, stone-front wood fire in one corner. Wooden bistro chairs surround about a dozen wood tables, including a long communal one, which makes this hotspot hard to get into. But the dozen seats around the chef's counter offer a dinner with a view, and there's an additional half-dozen seats at the cocktail bar near the door.

Likes: Wood-fired proteins; welcoming service; soft-serve ice cream.
Dislikes: Lack of local options on wine list; quite loud; the restaurant doesn’t take reservations, so there's a line of diners when it opens at 5 p.m., and the wait is up to two hours on weekend nights.

About the food: The fire invigorates the lightly colored room and its bright blue accents and sends everything from small plates like roasted kuri squash with date syrup, fennel and whipped feta to entrées such as lamb ribs with pistachio, Asian pear and cumin to diners with a flavorful char. Beyond the fire, a series of spreads including hummus and labneh with roasted tomatoes star in the show, the mix of Middle Eastern spices and local, seasonal vegetables demonstrating Cox’s previous experience under Matt Dillon at Seattle stalwart Sitka & Spruce. The steelhead trout miraculously manages to retain its crispy skin, even served over a soupy mix of chanterelle mushrooms and kale. It wants only for more of the fluffy pita bread from the dips to soak up the broth. For dessert, the soft-serve (tahini, fig leaf or apricot) is the feature, though pistachio rice pudding or freshly heated cookies are also available.

About the wine & drinks: The wine list is entirely European, a rarity here in wine country, though the beers mix in a few Washington options along with Basque ciders and other eclectic selections. Cocktails complement the Mediterranean flavors from the dishes, leaning on herbal spirits like Aperol, amaro and Strega, sometimes even using the cooking spices in drinks, as in the Brownsteine, which incorporates Urfa Biber peppers and cardamom bitters in with bourbon, sweet vermouth and Cynar.