stoneburner

everything but the pizzas. we ordered a number of appetizers;smoked tuna; cauliflower; a salad with chickpeas and a pizza. pizza was average, the benchmark for pizzas is too high why bother! the pizza is great if you have kids but the chef's strength is clearly in everything else. all of our appies were unique and tasty and i would sooner justeatoff the appetizer list, maybe a main to share, with a few drinks and call it a night.

lunch. i walked in at 11 am on a saturday hoping toeatlunch with my children. the place was empty and the hostess said it would be 45 min for a table. when we walked out the hostess sat a group the same size as ours. apparently they did not want kids toeatthere. thanks for teaching my kids that lying is how to handle a situation. lame!!!

aside from a few chooks kept as pets, there are two kinds of chickens: those weeat(broilers), and those whose eggs weeat(laying hens). it's a short life, six weeks for broilers, no more than two years for hens. the exploitation of these birds in much of the poultry industry demonstrates the worst of human indifference. chickens may appear to be dumb farm animals but they're as social as puppies. a typical "egg factory" crams tens of thousand

this is obviously a top quality restaurant. we had one of the best servers i have ever had in any restaurant anywhere -- i wish i could remember her name. incredible building, when the windows are open it's almost magical and instantly makes you feel like you are on vacation in another country. the fresh pasta was great -- the long ziti is the main dish i ordered. my husband loved his porkchop. we weren't thrilled with the salad special -- the greens were very bitter -- or the roasted carrots -- the curry spice was overwhelming. our server took them off our bill without us asking - she must have noticed that we didn'teatvery much of either. the wine and cocktails were top notch. definitely an impressive restaurant.

greasy. while looking forward to trying stoneburner, it was with reservations, given the decidedly mixed reviews. service was good, though when i specifically stated we needed to be complete in 50 minutes, having our food (pasta and a sandwich) arrive with only 20 minutes toeatsuggested the kitchen can't effectively honor those kinds of requests. my biggest complaint was how greasy my sandwich was - i actually requested a second napkin in an attempt to keep my fingers relatively clean. (all sandwiches that day were fixed panini-style.) add in greasy house-made potato chips and the whole thing was less than appetizing. i'll try the restaurant again, but only happy hour.

new favorite place. we have been in here a few times, as we were just checking the hotel for out of town guests. we first had lunch there, then breakfast another time, and finally dinner. when they are busy, food can be a little slow, but when it finally arrives, wow. everything we have eaten there has knocked our socks off. my husband is a wonderful cook, so we rarelyeatout and find the food is better than what he makes at home. my husband will usually ask the wait staff about the food preparation in some form or fashion, and everyone we spoke with has tasted the food, and knows specific details of its preparation. we love the energy of this place. everyone there seems to really enjoy preparing and serving incredible food. cocktails were also very good. this is in my top 3 seattle restaurants.

stoneburner's magic touch. we have eaten at stoneburner three times now since they opened and stopped in late another night for drinks. having tried more than half of the menu, here are a few of my initial impressions:

the pasta. stoneburner picked up a cafe juanita alum and it shows. the pasta is delicate with relatively uncomplicated preparations letting the pasta and ingredients shine. the carmelized cauliflower "bed sheet" ravioli with squash blossoms and parm was somewhere between a large raviolo and a lasagne. the filling took me completely by surprise. we had it again on our second visit. also consider the little queens which were filled with spinach pesta, ricotta and preserved lemon. fusilli with sausage ragu (of course the sausage is made in house) was served with fava beans and pecorino. having pasta and white beans together is something i picked up in the last few years and if you haven't had it the pasta and starchiness of the fava beans make a very savory and satisfying combo.

the bar. erik carlson, who made waves at moshi moshi and now designs the cocktails for all of the maclise and weimann restaurants, is personally overseeing stoneburner at the moment (and yes i would put him up there with anu apte, dave nelson, jamie boudrea, jay keuhner, anna wallace, marley beard tomic, jim romdall and the rest). a combination of top classics and erik's creations -- all of the highest caliber -- with the all-the-rage barrel aged option can be counted on. and james lechner has put together a great wine list.

the front of the house. james and jason do a very solid job with their staff who are all well versed in the menu, the ingredients and who have been attentive and friendly on our visits. they have also brought in dawn smith from powerhouse cafe juanita (which has some of the best all around service on the planet) and i can tell you she was omnipresent -- unobtrusively paying attention to how guests were reacting to their food. a comment that something was salty brought her immediately in asking about a fix (it turns out the guest thought the food was perfectly savory).

the decor. james weimann and deming maclise are masters of concept and sourcing. in a million years you would never guess you were standing in a standard street level high ceilinged box space. the slightly different floor levels, areas of arched or boxed ceiling, architectural elements and great use of lighting, tile, glass and wood make the restaurant look like it has been there since the early days of ballard ave. they should have designed the hotel.

jason stoneburner. the chef is a humble food enthusiast who knows his cuisine and in my opinion has a great eye and taste for flavor combinations. keep in mind that he was a force behind how to cook a wolf and knows his italian food. and he is good at so many things, with a real strength in forcemeat. there were so many interesting surprises on the menus like the crispy cheese filled deep fried castelveltranos olives, the soft boiled egg with artichoke mayo and snacking peppers (which felt for some reason very roman to me), the thinnest (nearly translucent) crudo of grass fed beef with elephant garlic chips, a succulent and tender octopus salad with cucumber and gaeta olives, a salad of roasted broccolli with farro and leeks and a crazy white crispy crust pizza with thin sliced potatoes, morel mushrooms, spring onions and fonduta that was like the most luxuriant english muffin.

prices. reasonable. nothing on the menu over $25 and only two large plates are near that mark. large plates are $14-$2. pizzas, $11-13. pastas $14. veg $8. small plates $13-15. greens and grain salads, $9-$16. snacks $2-$6.

i am excited to go back andeatthere again. i think this is going to be a big hit.