Canlis Has Become A Seattle Institution

XXX Canlis, 2576 Aurora Ave. N. American. Dinner ($35 to $40) 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Closed Sunday. View lounge (5 p.m. to midnight), full liquor. Major credit cards accepted. Nonsmoking area provided. Reservations: 283-3313.

Canlis. It is the Seattle storybook restaurant. In terms of family moments to remember, nothing else in the city comes close.

How many prom nights, engagements, proposals (of business and marriage) have taken place under the influences of its transplanted Asian charm.

Birthdays, anniversaries, a farewell drink before a voyage. It is by self-definition Seattle's most formal, most decorous dining spot. Rare is the man who shows there without a dark suit and silk tie.

(I sometimes do; sometimes don't, which I suppose makes me - in Canlis' eyes - medium rare.)

Yet, this Seattle tradition all began as a steak broiler. And it did not begin in Seattle.

Peter Canlis first opened The Canlis Charcoal Broiler on the beach at Waikiki in 1947. That original restaurant remained in the Canlis family until a few years ago when it was sold to Japanese investors. It has since closed.

The Seattle Canlis opened in 1950, after Canlis had been urged by vacationing locals to open a similar restaurant here, and after Peter Canlis himself had discovered the Northwest, and after - as Chris Canlis recalled - ``Dad fell in love with the mountains, water and the people of Seattle.''

It was intended from the start to be the city's most tony restaurant and its most expensive. This was not so much a matter of social and economic snobbishness as it was a reflection of Peter Canlis' vision of what he wanted his edifice to be, who he wanted in it and what his role as a showman-host would be in that soaring Roland Terry-designed setting.

Despite all that, Canlis was seldom intimidating, at least in part because of the gracious, kimono-clad Japanese women who made up its dining-room staff.

The menu has expanded over the years from the char-broiler steak-and-seafood basics. (Seafood now outsells all of the other meat and poultry items combined.) In a way, that's almost too bad. Canlis has always served some of the best, most reliably grilled steaks in town.

Start with either the Seafood Symphony ($9.50) or the Dungeness Crab Legs with Mustard Sauce ($8.95). The former combines chunks of lobster, scallops and bay shrimp in what Canlis unabashedly calls ``America's best Thousand Island dressing.'' And it may be. The mustard sauce served over the crab legs is a bit bland.

Other good starters include Sockeye Salmon ($8.25), locally caught and smoked in Bellingham, and Discovery Bay Clams ($7.75).

Two salads have been offered for decades: the Canlis Salad ($8) and the Roquefort Broiler Salad ($7.25).

Be advised that the latter salad is not broiled (it's romaine spears, mixed vegetables, bay shrimp and Roquefort cheese), but named after the Honolulu restaurant where it was created.

The Canlis Salad is essentially a Caesar's without anchovies.

The restaurant was the first in the Northwest to grill its steaks and seafood over ultra-hot Hawaiian Kiawe wood coals.

``When Dad first opened the Broiler,'' Chris said, ``the outdoor barbecue was not a common American backyard scene. He took the idea of the barbecue and made it a theme of the restaurant.''

Among its better offerings is Mahi Mahi ($20), Thailand Scampi ($24) and any of the five beef steaks ($22.75 for a filet mignon to $52 for a double-cut, extra-thick New York for two).

Sable Fish, Mornay ($19) is presented topped with crab and steamed in ti leaves, fragrant, attractive and nicely done with that buttery quality of the black cod perfectly retained. The Mornay sauce, a bechamel augmented with cream, butter and cheese - usually gruyere - was a touch floury.

Baked Oysters Canlis ($19.50) was invented by Doug Guiberson, the restaurant's general manager. ``I had asked him to come up with something special for oysters other than Rockefeller,'' Canlis smiled.

What he came up with was a circular collection of what I believe were yearling Pacifics, topped with diced crab, shrimp, tomato, sweet basil and more Mornay sauce, oven roasted. It is a surprisingly effective dish that even oyster purists would find enjoyable, and is savored by those who don't even like oysters.

Canlis is one of the few places in Seattle that still serves Calf's Liver ($19.75) and perhaps the only place to serve it right: sliced thick and grilled medium rare as you would a choice steak.

Entrees come with a choice of French fries and/or a rather good rice pilaf tossed with pine nuts. Other items (baked potato, vegetables) are charged for separately; from $4 to $4.50.

The wine list is vast, 40 pages of judicious selections about evenly divided between imported and domestic bottlings. Several regional vintages are available at $15 and under.

The Canlis clientele is obviously a well-to-do collection of regulars, many of whom know each other and all of whom appear to be known by the staff. Lots of well-coifed gray hair; lots of natural fabrics. New cars and old money. All cars valet-parked.