Former Luna Chef Opens Seattle Bistro More Dining Spots Preparing To Debut
New restaurants open so often in Seattle, it’s hard to keep up.
Here’s the scoop on one new spot with a Spokane connection and a preview of a few new places debuting soon.
Abby Yerxa impressed Spokane diners as the original chef at Luna. Then she moved to Seattle to be near a boyfriend.
Fast forward two years - she married the guy and is now Abby McCune. After working at the Grand Central Bakery for a while, she has opened her own bistro in the Fremont neighborhood.
It’s called Ventana, and it features lots of interesting, moderately priced dinners and appetizers, such as a seared wild rice cake with stir-fried veggies and pork tenderloin with herb bread pudding.
Abby’s place is located at 4401 Fremont Ave. North.
Cookbook author and chef Roy Yamaguchi has created his own style of fusion cuisine, dubbed Euro-Asian, which takes classical dishes and infuses them with Pacific Rim flavors.
Roy’s is a successful chain of stylish restaurants in the Hawaiian islands and in Japan. The young chef takes great care in selecting the freshest, most unusual raw material.
It will be interesting to see what he does with Northwest seafood.
You can expect to pay $20 and up for dinner.
Roy’s opens Dec. 7 in the Seattle Westin, 1900 Fifth Ave.
Wolfgang Puck has become almost as famous as the celebrities who frequent his Beverly Hills restaurant, Spago.
Puck will bring his brand of culinary wizardry to Seattle at a place called ObaChine.
The moderately expensive menu will take a cross-cultural approach, with dishes such as wok-roasted clams with Thai basil, curry calamari with a miso vinaigrette and pork with a coconut-pineapple marinade.
ObaChine is scheduled to open the middle of next month, at Sixth and Pike.
El Gaucho was a showy Seattle institution for years, with its flaming kabobs on swords, mink-lined booths and tuxedoed waiters. Many mourned when it closed years ago.
Now, veteran restaurateur Paul McKay (a manager of the original El Gaucho and more recently a former partner in Flying Fish) has decided to revive that grand tradition in the city’s busiest restaurant district, Belltown.
The pricey menu has been updated but is still heavy on the beef, with dishes such as chateaubriand, filet mignon, a porterhouse, along with full-flavored meats like double-thick venison chops and a buffalo ribeye.
Chef Ken Sharp will do much of the cooking on an open charcoal grill.
El Gaucho will open Dec. 2 at First and Wall in what used to be the old Sailor’s Union Building.
Emily Moore attracted a loyal following as a longtime chef at The Painted Table.
Now her culinary talents will have a new slick showcase at an upscale bistro called Theoz.
Diners can expect innovative dishes such as smoked duck and sesame banana leaf tamales, black Thai rice souffle and a foie gras sandwich. The bar will feature exotic nibbles served dim sum style.
Prices will vary from moderate to expensive, depending on the dish.
Theoz is scheduled to open in late December at 1523 Sixth Ave., just across from NikeTown.
, DataTimes