Boutique Dining -- A New Chef Transforms The Cafe Alexis
Cafe Alexis
Alexis Hotel, 1007 First Ave.
Regional American
Lunch ($7 to $13), 11:30 a.m.
to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday; Saturday noon to 4 p m.
Dinner ($15 to 24) 5:30 to
10 p.m. every day
Full liquor
Major credit cards
accepted
No smoking
in dining room
Reservations:
624-3646.
``THERE'S A small hotel . . .''
The Cafe Alexis is, from the customer's point of view, an ideal dining situation. A small, romantic dining room with a state-of-the-art, culinarily artistic menu, it invites the discriminating diner as well as the merely self-indulgent.
From the food professional's point of view, I have often thought, it must be a colossal corporate headache. Yet the Cafe Alexis, tucked away in a corner of the main floor of the Alexis Hotel, from its inception has been blessed with the quality of its food professionals - from the bus boys to the chefs. And they all love the place.
It has but a dozen tables (sometimes 14, if they are arranged differently) and a range of food choices that suggests a vast purchasing budget. Yet how much can one buy for a dozen parties?
However, that equation is not only solved daily at the Cafe Alexis, it is solved brilliantly. There are few dining rooms in the city that make even the drop-in diner feel not only welcome, but pampered.
``Actually,'' said Noel Burk, general manager, ``it is not that difficult a task to purchase for the cafe. The menu is very selective, changes often, there is no waste and we order daily. Seattle has become so `Northwest nouvelle,' I guess you could say, with specialized suppliers like Sally Jackson cheeses and fresh things from The Herb Farm, that we have to change frequently to keep things interesting for our regular hotel guests, who stay here on a regular basis, and to keep things interesting for the kitchen as well. To keep the spark of creativity alive, that's important.''
Creativity at the Alexis has never been in short supply. Stability is another matter. Few places in town have gone through so many changes.
The original Alexis Restaurant was a rather large two-tiered room, with strong architectural lines done in a somewhat austere pink (if that is not a visual contradiction in terms). Designers and architectural-contest judges loved it. Diners tended not to.
``Seattle didn't take to it,'' Burk said. ``People here just didn't like it, although a publication in France included it as one of their examples of outstanding design.''
The room then was leased to McCormick and Schmick's (which operated a steak-and-seafood operation a few doors up the street), and an attempt was made to convert the space into a ``Seattle-oriented'' steakhouse - called Schmick's. The Iowa air-dried steaks were fine; a huge mural of Seattle ``personalities'' blazed across the whole south wall.
One could not fairly fault the steaks (and few openly sneered at the mural), but regardless, Schmick's flopped. The hotel turned it into a lunch-and-breakfast spot, 92 Madison, and turned culinary attention to the cafe.
What is now the Cafe Alexis was originally the bar-lounge for the main dining room. It is intimate and, in an understated way, ornate. That is: pumpkin and peacock motifs in the wallpaper, but subdued.
Greg Caldwell, a chef and concept-development specialist, was called in to make an incredibly small kitchen functional to the needs of the cafe, as well as design the emerging Cajun Corner menu downstairs.
A succession of talented chefs came through and reworked menus: Bruce Naftaly, Emily Moore, Pam Kill and Jerry Traunfeld.
Four months ago, the hotel found and recruited Charles Ramseyer, German-born, Swiss-trained and a veteran of the Four Seasons chain (Vancouver, Seattle and Santa Barbara).
``We fell in love with Charlie,'' a hotel spokeswoman said. ``He was perfect for us.''
The first time I tasted Ramseyer's cooking was at an invitational dinner for Evan Jones, food writer and James Beard biographer.
Items such as poached sea bass wrapped with red chard in saffron broth were exceptional, along with a salad of Vashon Island greens with Sally Jackson's cheeses on walnut croutons. Jones marveled. The ghost of James Beard probably did likewise.
A couple of subsequent visits on my own confirmed the finding. Ramseyer is indeed perfect for the Alexis - and for Seattle. Here is some of
what is offered:
Cream of wild mushroom soup with marsala; bisque of potato and pear with Tillamook cheddar (this dish is incredible; see recipe that follows); lamb sausage with fresh fennel in a warm huckleberry coulis; smoked Idaho trout with apple horseradish and warm black bread. And those are only starters ($3.50 to $8.50). Entrees (from $15.50 to $20.50) are no less imaginative.
One of the most popular dishes on the card is angel-hair pasta with dungeness crab and chanterelles in a light champagne cream sauce ($15.50). Angel hair, the thinnest of the spaghetti extrusions, has one remarkable attribute: Its vast volume of exposed pasta surface makes it a veritable sponge for sauces.
Therefore, overly rich sauces can be a disaster on (or in) it. Ramseyer's cream-champagne treatment coats properly, but without converting the dish into a seafood dumpling.
``Our customers just love it,'' he said with a grin.
Some other recommended options: Peppered ahi tuna served with saffron risotto cakes ($20.50); a formidable grilled New York steak with cabernet onion marmalade; seared jumbo scallops in a poppy-seed cream on roasted red peppers ($20.50), and roasted chicken breast with pancetta pappardella in a smoked tomato coulis ($16).
As is the case increasingly with many smaller, fine restaurants, no smoking is allowed in any part of the dining room. That may present an inconvenience to some, but a godsend to many.
Almost all the dinner entrees are available at lunch in slightly smaller portions and at considerably reduced prices.
What is to me especially rewarding about the whole Cafe Alexis experience is the developmental philosophy behind its origins. Cornerstone, which owns and operates the property, planned from the beginning to establish a high-quality but affordable establishment in what had been a borderline, rundown stretch of First Avenue.
They established their inner-city inn (recently named by Travel and Leisure magazine as ``The Best Boutique Hotel'') and nurtured it through the early formative years. In so doing they combined the best aspects of entrepreneurial development with genuine urban renewal - all without putting up another bleak skyscraper.
PEAR, POTATO
AND TILLAMOOK
CHEDDAR SOUP
6 servings
2 medium pears, peeled, cored and cut into small cubes
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes1 rib celery, cut into small cubes
3 tablespoons finely diced onion
Pinch dried thyme1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup dry white wine
5 cups chicken stock or broth
5 cups grated Tillamook cheddar cheese
1/2 cup whipping cream
Salt to taste
White pepper to taste
Nutmeg to taste
1. In a large pan, saute the pears, potatoes, celery, onion and thyme in the butter over medium heat until translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the wine, bring to a boil and add the chicken stock. Simmer 30 minutes.
2. Puree the soup in a food processor. Transfer back to the pan and return to the heat. Slowly add the grated cheese, the cream, salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Heat through but do not boil.
3. Garnish the soup with toasted buttered croutons and peeled, diced pears.
JOHN HINTERBERGER'S FOOD COLUMNS AND RESTAURANT REVIEWS APPEAR SUNDAYS IN PACIFIC AND FRIDAYS IN TEMPO. HE ALSO WRITES A WEDNESDAY COLUMN FOR THE SCENE SECTION OF THE SEATTLE TIMES. GREG GILBERT IS A TIMES STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER. CECE SULLIVAN OF THE TIMES FOOD DEPARTMENT TESTED THIS RECIPE.