Seattle Times Says Hitchcock a 'Must-Try'; Raskin on World Pizza; Crosscut on Artusi

Providence Cicero says Hitchcock may look like a casual neighborhood bistro, but food is "often spectacular and scrupulously detailed"." Chef/owner Brendan McGill and his staff "churn butter, culture cheese, stuff sausages, cure meat and fish, craft pasta and pastries" for the hyperlocal Bainbridge Island restaurant. There's a traditional menu, but McGill "invites all comers to name their price and he'll devise a tasting menu just for them. Many take him up on it, and you should too." Cicero gives three stars and the following advice: "Succumb to the food and drink; cede your wishes to the chef, who cooks with enough finesse and imagination to put Hitchcock on the must-try map of local dining destinations." [Seattle Times]

Hanna Raskin hits up World Pizza, the new International District iteration of the Belltown original that shuttered in 1996. The new storefront is "irresistibly charming culinary oasis," where all the pies happen to be meatless. Though the owners describe pies as thin crust, "the rosemary-flecked crust was loftier than the crackery crusts which underlay the thinnest-crusted pies." Toppings include ID-appropriate Chinese eggplant and wasabi, but also a popular summertime version topped with peaches. [Seattle Weekly]

Ronald Holden takes up the food-writing mantle at Crosscut, lauding both Artusi and its tripe. Jason Stratton's Spinasse extension is an aperitivo bar where patrons can have a drink and snack before dinner, Italian-style. "But no sooner do you think that Seattle gets it, gets the Italian lifestyle, than you learn that many more folks don't want to leave for dinner at all." However putting pasta on the menu would be "cannibalizing his own specialty" next door at Spinasse. Enter "some remarkable dishes that can be prepped in the Spinasse kitchen and finished on the induction cooktop at Artusi": duck leg with prunes; lamb and of course the tripe, the result of a three-day preparation. [Crosscut]