The Bell Curve at Branzino

A rising-star chef makes Branzino worth a visit—and Belltown relevant again

Belltown’s heyday as a dining destination is largely past. With few exceptions—Tavolàta, Txori and the pending reopening of Lampreia come to mind—the area’s best restaurants (think Zoë,  Flying Fish and the late Mistral) opened a decade ago. Eons, really, at least in terms of the relatively short lives many restaurants live. The overwhelming trend for Seattle’s tastemakers is opening smaller, humbler eateries ensconced in neighborhoods around town. Maria Hines’ Tilth, and Seif Chirchi and Rachel Yang’s Joule renewed Wallingford’s stagnant dining scene. Jerry Traunfeld’s Poppy, and Spinasse (along with Quinn’s and Presse) breathed minty-fresh life into Capitol Hill. And Matt Dillon’s The Corson Building put the Georgetown Corson Street exit off of 1-5 on every food fanatic’s map this summer. The days of Seattle’s best chefs dreaming of opening a place in Belltown, it seems, are mostly over.

That’s why it’s so surprising to find Ashley Merriman cooking such perfectly calibrated Italian food at Branzino, which opened in the short-lived En space at Second Avenue and Wall Street in June. Before being named top chef at Branzino, Merriman was sous-chef at Tilth, Hines’ organically focused, hyper-local restaurant, named by The New York Times as one of the nation’s top 10 new restaurants in 2008; it’s as down to earth and food focused as any restaurant I can think of.

Branzino, however, is a considerably slicker operation. An expanse of stools lines the L-shaped bar, prime territory for perching and posing (this is Belltown, after all); along the sponge-painted amber and merlot-tinted walls, tall-backed mahogany booths allow dinner dates to slip into conversations (or a little PDA) in the otherwise bustling space. Add in a 20-something staff who know how to keep wine glasses filled and who are so good looking it’s impossible not to do double-takes, and it’s clear that, if there’s a formula for how to open a hopping Belltown restaurant with a sizzling singles scene, Branzino owners Peter Lamb and Michael Don Rico have it down pat.

Then again, maybe it’s because Lamb—who’s worked his magic on restaurants including ’80s headline-makers Il Bistro in Pike Place Market and Queen City Grill on First Avenue—and Don Rico, a former manager of El Gaucho, are two of the guys who invented the scene-centric Belltown restaurant formula. It’s one that works: Today, Il Bistro is such a well-oiled machine that chefs come and go and no one seems to notice. Likewise with the ever urbane Queen City Grill, which Lamb helped open in 1987; it defies Seattle’s lust for the new, with standing room only on weekend nights.

But while those restaurants hold a special place in my heart (especially Il Bistro, where, as a 21-year-old college junior, I worked my first kitchen job as a slow, inept pantry chef), they’ve settled into doing what they do well, but they’re not leading the city’s culinary revolution. The same could have been said about Branzino, if it weren’t for Merriman’s remarkable talent in the kitchen. No doubt about it: She’s cooking much better food than the diners coming to the average Belltown establishment for a drink, bite and  “meat-market” eye candy have reason to expect.

The locally sourced northern Italian menu is split into five categories: meat, fish, pasta, antipasti and “contorni” (side dishes). Since most of the dishes split the distance between appetizer and entrée size, the best way to approach a meal at Branzino is to share multiple dishes; if it’s available (selections will change to showcase the best of the season), I highly recommend starting with the crudo, a dazzling slice of line-caught wild salmon drizzled with lemon, olive oil and dotted with briny Niçoise olives ($14). Salads, which you’ll find under “antipasti,” are another strong point, including a notable Caesar ($10) crowned with fried capers. 

Servers here know how to hustle, which helps when the place fills up with the see-and-be-seen crowd on weekends. They even find the time to prepare the namesake fish (a branzino is a Mediterranean sea bass) tableside, cracking and removing the whole fish’s salt crust, and deboning its tender flesh ($32). But, while it’s certainly a dramatic presentation, I found the fish, served with nothing but a seasoned olive oil and meyer lemon, underwhelming for the price. The braised octopus ($16), on the other hand, surrounded by a gutsy puttanesca sauce piqued with lemon and capers, was bold and spicy. Pastas—which are made in-house with the exception of the linguine—are captivating. I particularly liked the ravioli ($16) in a tarragon-flecked fresh pea sauce, and the addition of bacon to the linguine with clam sauce ($16) is a touch of genius.

But Merriman’s greatest strength lies in her balanced, restrained hand with meats. A pork chop ($23) from Grass Valley, Oregon–based Carlson Farm, brined and cooked to an oh-so-succulent medium rare, is served with nothing but a black pepper saba, showing off the pork’s local pedigree. Her pappardelle Bolognese ($16) is utter perfection: satisfyingly meaty (there are even little hunks of pulled short ribs to be found), but not heavy in the slightest; the sauce is a wonder.

The Italian-centric wine list is full of very drinkable Montepulcianos and Tuscan varietals in the $40 range, and the well-made cocktails are some of the most affordable in town (where else in Belltown can you get a Bombay martini for $8?). That fact hasn’t escaped the suave bar-hopping set, who set up camp and tip back Manhattans and cosmos with aplomb deep into the night. Serious diners may want to make earlier reservations in order to taste Merriman’s delicious Italian cooking before the scene upstages the food.

Branzino; Belltown; 2429 Second Ave.; 206.728.5181; branzinoseattle.com.

Dinner Tue.–Sat.