Logan Cox’s Beacon Hill Restaurant Gets a Name and a New Timeline

Now that Sitka and Spruce’s former chef de cuisine Logan Cox has signed a lease and named his Beacon Hill restaurant — it’ll be called Homer — he has pushed back his opening timeline to summer 2018. When Cox announced his plans last June, he hoped to open the restaurant in spring 2018, but he told Eater July 1, 2018 is the new estimate.

The restaurant is located at 3013 Beacon Ave. S, just three blocks from the couple’s home. The name Homer is a reference to the town in Alaska where Cox and his wife spent a long summer and solidified their relationship. It’s also the name of their dog, who will be “poking his head into the restaurant from time to time,” Cox says.

The restaurant will have seating for 50, and Cox promises a full bar as well as an affordable beer and wine selection. Sticking with a current Seattle trend, Homer will eschew gas ranges, fryers, and other such modern kitchen amenities in favor of a wood-fired oven and a wood-fired hearth (Tarsan i Jane and Opus Co. are a couple of recent adherents to this strict style, though lots of places, Sitka included, have a wood-burning hearth in addition to other tools). The menu will skew slightly Mediterranean and Middle Eastern, with items like pitas and spreads, grilled vegetables, local shellfish, and larger protein dishes intended to be shared. “Expect lots of herbs, yogurts, fermented items, chilies and chili oils, spices, smoked items, interesting vinegars, and pickles,” he says.

Despite his tenure at Matt Dillon’s highly respected Sitka and Spruce, Cox says he isn’t going to mimic Sitka’s high-end, destination-restaurant feel. Instead, he plans to keep prices low and create a space that’s casual, family-friendly, and, hopefully, a neighborhood staple. “It's the kind of place that I'd want to eat at everyday and will be priced accordingly,” Cox says, with dishes ranging from $6 to $22. “No plate of food should cost more than that in my opinion. We live in this ‘hood and love Beacon Hill, we want [it] to feel like we're part of the fabric of the neighborhood and not something that sticks apart from it.”

That goal will also be helped along with the addition of a soft-serve machine stocked with seasonal flavors and sold through a walk-up window.