Hot Plates

Seattle has certainly spawned its share of trends: grunge music and flannel fashion, conspicuous caffeine consumption, California bashing.

Now, the city seems poised to lead yet another movement. This one, to the table.

In the past few years, Seattle has blossomed into one of the nation’s hippest dining destinations.

“Not that long ago, when you thought of the country’s best restaurant cities, it was New York, L.A., Chicago and San Francisco,” said Spokane restaurateur William Bond, who owns Luna. “Now, Seattle would have to be on that list.”

Visitors and locals alike flock to a growing number of cutting-edge restaurants that approach cooking like a twisted geography lesson. The city’s leading kitchens take homegrown ingredients and meld them with Asian, Southwest or Italian flavors.

This cross-cultural cooking trend has been dubbed Northwest fusion, and it has helped propel Seattle to new culinary heights.

Proof of Seattle’s ascendancy to an eating capital comes in various forms:

Ground-breaking restaurants such as Wild Ginger, The Dahlia Lounge and Fullers have been the focus of glowing profiles in national magazines.

When the grand dame of gourmet food, Julia Child, was in Seattle for a recent food conference, she was spotted supping at Rover’s, Fullers and Etta’s Seafood, where she raved about the native oysters and crab.

And a snazzy new CD-ROM package has just been released featuring cooking lessons and recipes from some of Seattle’s best-known chefs.

The recent feeding frenzy has attracted the attention of such celebrity chefs as Wolfgang Puck, of Spago fame, and Hawaiian hotshot Roy Yamaguchi. Both will open restaurants there soon.

“All of a sudden Seattle has become hot,” said Nancy Leson, who reviews restaurants for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and is one of the authors of the Seattle Best Places guidebook. “It’s actually kind of frightening.”

Leson worries that too many cooks might spoil the clam chowder.

“With the big guns like Wolfgang Puck coming in, you wonder what that’s going to leave for some of the smaller places like Wild Ginger,” she said.

For the time being, though, diners slurp up the benefits of having so many eating-out options. The hundreds of choices range from spendy dining rooms where portions can be precious to dozens of neighborhood bistros and interesting mom-and-pop where you can feast for under $5.

Luna’s Bond attributes the explosion in the number of stylish restaurants to the ongoing downtown renaissance.

“There’s a strong vigor in downtown Seattle. You see more sophisticated diners moving in to the area,” said Bond.

Belltown, a neighborhood not far from the Pike Place Market, is positively booming. In the past year or so it’s become home to the tony Flying Fish, the critically acclaimed Lampreia, the casually elegant Marco’s Supperclub and the spiffy wine bar Vina, among others.

Carole Rolando, a Spokane attorney who has been frequenting restaurants in Seattle for the past 20 years, admires the recent rise in quality.

“At its best, Seattle is at San Francisco’s level,” said Rolando, whose favorites include Campagne, a French restaurant with an awardwinning chef, and Place Pigalle in the Pike Place Market.

“I’m consistently impressed with the high quality of food and service,” Rolando said.

Surprisingly, some of the city’s best meals can be found in hotel dining rooms, which are traditionally known for conservative menus.

In a recent issue of Bon Apetit, Fullers’ innovative chef, Monique Barbeau, was prominently featured in an article about the strides made in hotel dining rooms around the country.

The story called the 30-year-old chef a virtuoso who orchestrates dazzling dishes, such as grilled tuna with a lively kimchi salad on the side and tequila-cured gravlax. (That cured salmon recipe was the one Barbeau shared with Julia Child on her cooking program.)

Other notable hotel dining rooms include The Painted Table at The Alexis, Four Seasons’ gorgeous Georgian Room, The Hunt Club at The Sorrento and the new Andaluca at The Mayflower Park.

So, Seattle has got what it takes to be a major player in the restaurant game - chefs with star quality, great raw material to work with and sophisticated diners who appreciate innovative food.

But what does that mean for us here in Spokane? Are we just meant to salivate from afar?

Or will the excitement about eating out trickle down?

“There’s so much energy over there, it’s contagious,” said Bond. “I know the influence has reached here.

“The restaurants here that are trying to be cutting edge have got to tip their hats to Seattle.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Charles Waltmire