A Chef With a Michelin-Starred Background Opens an Alki Beach Restaurant

Washington-born chef Dan Mallahan, and his wife, Jackie Mallahan, who both have experience at Michelin-starred restaurants, are opening their first restaurant in Seattle’s Alki Beach neighborhood later this summer. The restaurant, called Driftwood, will feature extremely local ingredients — including fish sourced with partnerships with the Quinalt and Makah tribes, according to a press release.

Dan grew up in Everett and spent his free time foraging for berries and mushrooms in nearby forests. He went on to work at the Michelin-starred Boulevard restaurant in San Francisco, where Jackie also worked before delving into a career in interior design. Dan moved back to Seattle in 2017 to open Rider, a now-shuttered seafood restaurant downtown.

The space will have 48 indoor seats and a 22-seat patio, with a bar offering views of the Puget Sound. Its menu will feature dishes like snap peas with green strawberries and house-made feta, clams with glazed pork belly and buttered turnips, and apple cake with bourbon caramel, sour apple sorbet, and creme fraiche.

A Kickstarter campaign has raised over $26,00 to help fund the restaurant, and updates will be posted on Driftwood’s Instagram.

Driftwood will be located at 2722 Alki Avenue SW. Hours will be 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday through Monday.

Courtesy of Ethan Stowell Restaurants

Ethan Stowell opens a second location of The Victor Tavern downtown

Seattle restauranteur Ethan Stowell, who owns restaurants like How To Cook a Wolf and Tavolàta, opened a second location of The Victor Tavern at the base of the 2+U office tower near Pike Place Market on June 29.

Perhaps Stowell’s most casual restaurant concept, The Victor Tavern caters to downtown office workers with a happy hour (4 p.m. to 6 p.m.) menu featuring bites like beef tartare, spicy calamari, grass-fed beef burgers, veggie burgers, and fish and chips, served with $10 cocktails, $6 draft beers, and $7 glasses of wine.

The space will feature a 40-seat indoor dining room, a 16-seat bar, a 20-seat private dining room, and 10 tables on a covered patio that’s secluded from the bustle of 1st Avenue.

Shota Nakajima plans another dinner with fellow “Top Chef” alums

Seattle celebrity chef Shota Nakajima is bringing three recent Top Chef alums to Seattle for dinners on August 4 and August 5. Tickets for the six-course collaboration dinners with chefs Joe Sasto from Top Chef Season 15, Sarah Welch from Season 19, and Sara Hauman from Season 19, are going for $450 and went on a sale today. The event will be held at Redhook Brewlab in Capitol Hill.

While Nakajima’s celebrity chef dinners (like his recent event with Michael Voltaggio in Woodinville) are a great way to meet TV personalities in person, the courses are not always the most filling — if you’re still hungry after dinner, you can always head to the end of the block from Redhook for a bucket of fried chicken from Nakajima’s restaurant, Taku.