Smokin' (Meat) Reviews of Old Sage & Martino's

[Photo: S. Pratt/Thrillist]

Two spots known for their smoked meats get the review treatment this week. First up, The Stranger compares the Santa Maria tri-tip sandwich at Martino's to the "best-cooked food" described in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. "Whoever devised this steak sandwich really shouldn't want to be anything but a meat-maker," writes Paul Constant, who adds, "It's a simple menu—five sandwiches, two salads, a daily special, and four sides—that was clearly built around the Randian concept that it's better to master a few simple items than to do a mediocre job with a binder full of entrees."

Still hungry?

Providence Cicero says Brian McCracken and Dana Tough's Tavern Law and Spur sibling, The Old Sage, is "gastropub grub fit for a fancy feast" in her review this week in the Seattle Times.

The nibbles are pricier than the guys' other two restaurants (smoked meat plates hit right around $19), prompting Cicero to ask:

If I tell you that the salty, sweet, hickory-smoked ham was soft as butter and tasted like an American cousin to Parma prosciutto; that the vibrant radish, okra, cucumber and wild-carrot pickles had been fermented three different ways; and that making the rolls is a two-day process, would those prices sound more reasonable?

Your answer to that question will determine whether The Old Sage — a handsomely broody bar and lounge with two-star service and four-star food — is your kind of place.

It certainly seems like Cicero's kind of place. She gives it three stars.

· Temple of Smoking [The Stranger]
· Martino's [Official Site]
· The Old Sage: Gastropub Grub Fit for a Fancy Feast [Seattle Times]
· The Old Sage [Official Site]