Book Bindery’s New Chef and Shaun McCrain’s Next Chapter

By Seattle Mag June 2, 2014

mccrain-nico

!–paging_filter–pCome end of June, stronga href=”http://www.bookbinderyrestaurant.com/” target=”_blank”Book Bindery/a/strong in *Queen Anne will be closing for good, re-emerging in August with a new name and a new chef./p
pBy way of press release, the owners behind the winery-adjacent restaurant along the Ship Canal announced that Nico Borzee, most recently of stronga href=”http://artusibar.com/” target=”_blank”Artusi/a/strong, will be stepping into the role being vacated by chef Shaun McCrain, who has been with the Book Bindery since it opened in 2010./p
pNico, who was recommended by McCrain, has a few Michelin-starred gems on his resume including L’Atelier du Joel Robuchon and La Table du Lancaster in Paris; Alain Ducasse’s Bar et Boeufnbsp; in Monaco and his “crown jewel” Louis XV in the Hotel de Paris; and Daniel Patterson’s Coi in San Francisco, where Nico served as sous chef./p
pAs for McCrain, he’s got his own restaurant in the works. He’s staying pretty tight-lipped on details for now, but revealed that it will be small, probably no more than 60 seats, in a neighborhood that’s bustling and a little more surrounded than the destination-dining Book Bindery. It also sounds like we can expect him to stay in his fine-dining wheelhouse, perhaps a little more refined than Book Bindery, but comfortable (no dress code) enough that a fellow cook could come in and eat and “not feel that they’re getting ripped off.” McCrain is taking his partner and Book Bindery General Manager Jill Kinney with him, along with Beverage Director Ruven Munoz. He tells me that best case scenario, he’d love to have his restaurant open by early winter./p
pMcCrain promises more details once he and Book Bindery say their goodbyes on June 28. After that, the plan is to close down the restaurant and reopen it mid-August with a new chef and a new name (McCrain tells me he’s heard the front-runner, and it’s a good one—with a story behind it)./p
p*Updated location from initial post/p

 

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