FOOD MATTERS | Cuban in Madison Park

You’ve learned by now that the Cuban sandwich storefront Paseo in Fremont closed abruptly. (The Ballard offshoot, too.) A great gnashing of teeth was heard across the city, an outpouring of grief that suggested a tragedy of the highest order. 

But before long, enterprising reporters located the text of a lawsuit filed by several employees who claimed wage theft and racial discrimination; this was followed by a press conference by other employees defending the owners and, in turn, by a filing of bankruptcy. Whereupon, in righteous Seattle fashion, someone launched a Kickstarter campaign to take over the restaurant (and its recipes). 

Most critics agreed that Paseo served the best Cuban sandwich in town, but let’s not despair. Right here, in Madison Park, there’s a terrific Cuban sandwich on the menu at Bing’s (4200 E. Madison St.). It’s served on Macrina’s Francese loaf, piled high with porchetta, Black Forest ham, caramelized onions, peppers and Swiss cheese, then slathered with cilantro-lime mayo. It’s a couple of bucks more expensive than the Paseo’s version, but then again, you don’t need to stand in line outside get to one.

By the way, Angela Dunleavy Stowell told the local edition of the website Eater that she’s traveling to Green Lake for her Cuban sandwiches now. One of the restaurants she and her husband, Ethan, have started in the recent past is Red Cow (1423 34th Ave.) in Madrona, which was nominated by Eater readers in the Best New Restaurant category. As it happens, Red Cow lost to Rachel Yang’s Trove, on Capitol Hill, but there’s honor in being nominated at any rate. 

Slow opening

It was with great anticipation that I paid a visit to the new Alicia Fusion Bistro (200 Lake Washington Blvd.) in Leschi. After all, proprietors Ridgley and Peter Kuang have been running two very successful Thai restaurants under the Green Leaf banner in the International District and in Belltown for the last several years. They also took over the former First Hill Bar & Grill (925 E. Madison St.) and turned it into Lotus Asian Kitchen and, at one point, were looking at converting the Tia Lou’s nightclub venue into another Thai spot. 

So you can imagine how disappointing it was to find a single, novice server on duty for happy hour at 4 p.m. on a recent Monday afternoon, telling me she was “very nervous” about mixing any of Alicia’s signature drinks since she’d never made a cocktail before. (It didn’t help matters that the “cheat sheet” someone had written to help her through her first solo shift was seriously flawed.) 

The kitchen served up a tangy-enough shrimp-and-avocado appetizer and a tasty-enough “petite burger,” while the sound system played some tuneful French café songs, but not even the sunny view across Lake Washington could dispel the gloom. 

So here are a couple of suggestions to all owners: First, it’s not OK to throw a youngster without any cocktail experience into a crappy time slot and hope no one will notice. Second, it’s crucial to invest in service training, especially if there’s a long-established, well-run chain like Daniel’s Broiler in the same building. Daniel’s — part of the Schwartz Brothers chain now run by Lindsey Schwartz — has its own happy hour, with a broad menu, including grilled lamb chops (at a quarter of the dinner price). 

Comings and goings

Earlier this year, I reported on the closing of Celinda Norton’s Italian-themed restaurant, Parco (1807 42nd Ave. E.). For a time, it appeared there might a new owner who would maintain the premises as a restaurant, but that will not be the case. As the owner of the building, Karen Binder (who ran the place as Madison Park Cafe for two decades) pointed out long ago, the kitchen would have needed a major remodeling to remain viable. 

The Madison Park Blogger reports that the property’s new owner (unidentified at this writing) intends to convert the house into a private office.

Do you remember Madison Valley’s Ines Patisserie? Until she moved to Capitol Hill, Nohra Belaid occupied space at 2909 E. Madison St., next to Cafe Flora. Now, there are new occupants, a mother-daughter operation called Simply Soulful Cafe. 

Barbara and Lillian Rambus opened six months ago, basing much of their menu (Southern soul food) on family recipes like sweet potato pie, red beans and rice, chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy, sweet tea — those are the heart of the menu. 

The Rambus family started out operating a catering company, which sold the sweet potato pies at farmers markets and stores like Leschi Market and Central Co-op. Lillian worked for the state until recently and didn’t go looking for a retail restaurant operation until her mom retired from Costco. Then they found the Madison Valley space and took the plunge. 

RONALD HOLDEN is a restaurant writer and consultant who blogs at Cornichon.org and Crosscut.com. His new book, published in October by Belltown Media, is “HOME GROWN SEATTLE: 101 True Tales of Local Food & Drink.”

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