The Book Bindery: Restaurant Opening of the Year?

A few months back, when the first details about the Book Bindery (named for the business that used to be housed in the north Queen Anne warehouse where the restaurant will be) started to trickle out, I felt a little twinge of excitement. First I found out the project was headed by Patric Gabre-Kidan, who opened Tavolata and How to Cook a Wolf during his  years-long partnership with Ethan Stowell before leaving Ethan Stowell Restaurants early this year.

But what really got my motor running was chef Shaun McCrain's resume. McCrain has cooked all around the world including Les Elysees du Vernet in Paris (2 Michelin stars); Per Se, Thomas Keller's lovely New York fine dining house (3 Michelin stars); and Michael Mina, a two Michelin starred restaurant in San Francisco.

There aren't many chefs in Seattle with that kind of experience, and Gabre-Kidan, whom I spoke with  earlier this week, said that is exactly the point. 

He recruited his friend McCrain because he wanted to push Seattle dining to the next level, with cooking that's on par with any in the country.

I'm told that the food will be modern American, in some ways a return to what Union did in the beginning. Plates that are quite pretty, quite composed, using unexpected ingredients to remarkable effect. Gabre-Kidan also mentioned that one of his goals is a "return to service....we want our guests to feel really well taken care of." He insists that doesn't mean stuffiness, just more refinement. We have enough restaurants in this town with waiters who act like they're there to hang out rather than to work, so this sounds like a really nice change to me.

Could this be the restaurant opening of the year? It's promising. We'll have to wait until very early September to find out for sure.