Ethan Stowell’s Next Italian Restaurant Is Headed Downtown

Despite this week’s bombshell that Ethan Stowell is selling his Capitol Hill restaurants Bar Cotto and Anchovies and Olives, the restaurateur isn’t done expanding, with word dropping this week that Cortina, his latest Italian restaurant, is taking over the former home of Sullivan’s Steakhouse (621 Union St.) downtown. Cortina is set to open in January or February, The Seattle Times reports.

Unless Stowell unloads Bar Cotto and Anchovies and Olives first — part of a plan to narrow the company’s vision and to shift the focus and staff away from underperforming restaurants, Stowell told Eater — Cortina will become the company’s fifteenth Seattle restaurant. Like some others in the portfolio, Cortina will specialize in Stowell’s popular brand of Italian food, with appetizers, pizzas, handmade pasta, and entrees.

The large space will have an 80-seat bar, plus room for 40 to 50 in the dining room; private rooms will also be available for rent. Stowell’s wife and business partner, Angela, suggests the restaurant will be good for the office crowd’s corporate lunches, meetings, and after-work drinks and snacks, as well as a stop for crowds shopping or catching a show.