FOOD MATTERS | A splendid chef’s table in Madrona

Now we know what The Seattle Times considers a four-star restaurant in Seattle: It’s Bateau, on Capitol Hill, a wonderful steak house owned by the prodigiously talented Renee Erickson, whose earlier ventures (Boat Street, Walrus & Carpenter) have focused on seafood.

The four-star rating came after a string of savage, one-star put-downs of Orfeo, Dunbar Room and the Bookstore Bar.

So it gives me great pleasure to report that the Seattle Times reviewers could (and should) alight in Madrona’s thriving commercial center and find a similarly terrific, new spot, run with energy and efficiency by Brian Clevenger, who was once part of the Ethan Stowell brigade.

I’m speaking of Vendemmia (1126 34th Ave.), and its new next-door offshoot, East Anchor Seafood (1124 34th Ave.).

Overflowing with flavor

Clevenger, an Anacortes native, has a degree in hospitality management and has cooked in Michelin-star restaurants in France and Italy, as well as in San Francisco. Working with Stowell also influenced his culinary style: “We don’t over-complicate things,” is his motto.

When Clevenger opened Vendemmia (the Italian word for “grape harvest” or “vintage”), he had a couple of months to learn how things worked in Madrona: the ebb and flow of pedestrian traffic, the habits of a neighborhood whose hilltop grocery is now long gone (replaced by a Group Health center, also departed), whose neighborhood Asian spot (Cool Hand Luke) was replaced by a fancier dinner house (St. Cloud’s), whose foray into fast-and-fresh (Plenty) is gone, whose corner dry cleaner is now a Pilates studio.

It’s not easy to understand the temptation to drop an oyster bar, fresh-fish counter and deli into this particular urban mix, but it makes more sense when you own the restaurant next door.

It’s an overflow bar for Vendemmia: It’s a place to sell those kusshi oysters you might not want to keep around another day, that black cod fillet, those whole branzino. It keeps customers coming back, gets them used to seeing some activity on a block where the late Alexander Conley III used to make customized Easter bonnets or replace the sweatband on your favorite fedora.

At East Anchor, during the lunch hour (before Vendemmia opens), you can buy a sandwich or a salad. The smoked salmon on a baguette was enlivened with crunchy red onion; the Dungeness crab was tossed with snap peas and a light mayonnaise.

The chef’s table

But the real treat comes at Vendemmia itself during the dinner hour, especially if you book a seat at the chef’s table. Show up at 6 p.m. sharp, and be prepared for a seven-course stroll through the menu conducted by Clevenger himself: ahi tuna, beets with crab, beef tartare, black cod, wild prawns with spaghetti, New York steak with mushrooms and pea vines and a chocolate terrine to finish.

At the end of the evening, he hand-writes your menu because he’s combined elements of most of the two-dozen dishes he serves every night.
Clevenger can focus intently on a dish, tweezers in hand as he places micro greens “just so” on the sashimi-grade ahi, but be expansive when he talks to guests at the chef’s table overlooking the kitchen.

He can see every table from his command post — all 32 seats. And because of his energy, he can turn out over 100 covers in an evening — not bad for a restaurant that’s been open less than a year.

“Value bridges the gap between good and great,” Clevenger says. I’m convinced.

Oh, and Clevenger teaches pasta-making classes once a month, as well.

RONALD HOLDEN is a local restaurant writer whose next book, “Forking Seattle,” comes out this summer. To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.