The Seattle Times' Providence Cicero recalls simpler times , when Tom Douglas owned just seven restaurants, rather than his current roster of 12. She drops 2.5 stars on restaurant #7, Seatown Seabar and Rotisserie, which she says lacks a clear focus. "It's as if the Douglas team mixed a little bit of Dahlia Lounge and Bakery, Etta's, Palace Kitchen, Lola and Serious Pie to come up with Seatown." Mashup aside, she likes the porchetta, potpies and the fact that the breakfast menu runs 'til 3 p.m. There's plenty of local Dungeness, local seafood, rotisserie meat and baked goods from Dahlia Bakery (well, technically now Dahlia Workshop). "The all-day menu makes an obvious play for the tourist trade, but it's no tourist trap; it's the restaurant equivalent of the Made in Washington store." [Seattle Times]
Hugo Kugiya's "eating on the edge" series proclaims tacos are the latest street food to officially go upscale, as evidenced by fancy new Capitol Hill taqueria Poquitos. This "masterpiece of restaurant design" makes its own tacos and is a rare upscale restaurant that serves fancily sourced goat. He contrasts this new spot from the Bastille team with Rancho Bravo, just around the corner: Poquitos' more expensive tacos are "the result of a bit more breeding," while Rancho Bravo's version is "a delicious but simple creature, chopped meat atop a factory tortilla, sprinkled with chopped onion and cilantro, for about $2. Succulent and fatty in a good way, improvement is difficult to find." He concludes, "while you can eat delicious Mexican food at restaurants in White Center or Burien, those aren't the places most grown-ups want to go when they get dressed up." However he's eager for the takeout counter to debut, staying open 'til 2 a.m. and "putting some of the street back in the food in the one neighborhood in Seattle where late-night street food might actually work." [Crosscut]