The many meals I eat to compile guides to the city’s 50 best restaurants, best new restaurants, and top tasting menus for $100 or less give me a lot of time to notice the tiny details that can set a restaurant apart and the little patterns that emerge at any given moment. Some of these trends deserve to be served up to customers on a silver platter; others leave a bad taste in my mouth—but not this month. Take a nibble of this season’s trends, which are all sweet, like an omakase of desserts.
Sandwiches, Sandwiched
The best thing to happen to meat since sliced bread is that new sandwich shops are keeping launch costs down by finding a home inside existing businesses. Look for Louie’s Deli in Pioneer Square event space Europa and Stacked operating out of Queen Anne bar Montana Badlands.
Ballard Expansions
No, it’s not light rail—that’s either 40 or infinity years away. It’s Madrona’s hot matcha shop Yoka Tea and Fremont restaurateur Vincent Steinbrueck of Local Tide both bringing their talents (and long lines, probably) to Ballard Avenue.
Rich in Egg Tarts
Both Nata and The Creamy Crow began with a mission to bring pastéis de nata to a Seattle that lacked them. Ironically, now Ballard Farmers Market alone has at least three different vendors selling the custard-filled Portuguese pastries—those two and Geni’s Ethiopian Corner, which sells the Seattle Met-favorite Mozambique-influenced version from their Pike Place Market sister shop, Lands of Origin.
Hang Loose, Smoked Meat
Hanging cuts of pork and beef over a grill infuses them with smoke, and a few new restaurants are doing just that—and achieving delicious results. Though King County’s Public Health Department says, “There is not a specific prohibition against hanging meat over a grill or smoker during cooking or hot holding,” the qualifications they added make us nervous to name names.
