Hard Rock Cafe Seattle Introduces...Local Food?

In this fascinating era when farm-to-table dining has begun to feel like the baseline for new restaurants, it's fair for food fanatics to simply give up on the many, many chains that don't bother with a single item sourced thoughtfully. But the needle is moving, and the Seattle outpost of Hard Rock Cafe, a worldwide phenomenon known more for its rock and roll memorabilia and ubiquitous t-shirts than its tasty T-bones, is playing catch-up.

If for some reason you find yourself at the Hard Rock Cafe downtown, tucking into lunch with starry-eyed out-of-towners, look for poutine with cheese curds from Beecher's Handmade Cheese, beer-battered fish and chips dunked in Mac and Jack's African Amber, fresh-caught wild Alaskan salmon, and even a fresh catch of the day from neighboring Pike Place Market, visible from the cafe's killer rooftop bar. It's a small step, but a significant one — and no, this doesn't seem to be an April Fool's joke.

A spokesperson for the company tells Eater that this isn't a top-down initiative, and Seattle now has one of the few locations that has implemented local ingredients. The venue is even "looking to roll out more items in the future." Got to start somewhere, right? See the new menus below: