Search For Tavern Eats Leads To Floyd's Place

----------------------------------------------------------------- Restaurant review

XX Floyd's Place, 521 First Ave. N. ($) Sandwiches, barbecue. Lunch ($4.50 to $7) noon to 3 p.m. daily. Dinner ($6 to $11.50) 3 to midnight nightly, except until 10 p.m. Mondays. Beer, wine. Major credit cards. Smoking allowed. Reservations and takeout: 284-3542. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Cruising for some gut-warming tavern sandwiches. The cruise ended in mid-Seattle - at Floyd's Place on lower Queen Anne. But it started east of Enumclaw.

Skiers and snow chasers who frequent the two nearest major recreation areas - Stevens and Snoqualmie passes - pretty much know their favorite stops along Highways 2 and 90 for after-ski refueling. But coming down from Crystal Mountain or Mount Rainier, along Highway 410, can be a bleaker search.

An almost mandatory pause is at the Naches Tavern at Greenwater: (206) 663-2267. This is the quintessential Northwest rustic roadside tavern: peeled logs, glowing orange under a low winter sun.

The huge stone fireplace in the back room (The Ratproof Room - requirements for decor distinction are modest east of Enumclaw) is a craggy, fiery monument to nonstop human comfort. A sign taped to it is actually part of the menu:

"Cook Your Own Hot Dog - $1.75."

Not a bad idea, although the sandwiches (around $4) are large, the chili is acceptable and the burgers (available only on weekends) and

four-scoop milkshakes are legendary.

Where there's smoke . . .

Much closer to home, Floyd's Place (the former Ginza Tavern) has no peeled logs (although they have vast expanses of knotty pine), no craggy fireplace.

But it has smoke. It's usefully contained inside of a stainless-steel smoker. Marionettes of a dancing pig and waltzing cow spin over the front door.

Floyd's is itself a spinoff. Owners Tom Griffith, Don Tremblay and Brian Curry opened it in March 1994.

Griffith and Tremblay are partners in T.S. McHugh's, just around the corner on Mercer Street. Tremblay was the opening chef at the Kirkland Alehouse and Roaster, when the Tim Firnstahl-Mick McHugh partnership was going strong.

Firnstahl has since prospered with other Roasters; McHugh has developed a business practice of tying in with his former managers and chefs in new ventures on an established pattern.

Floyd's is one of those. The pattern involves big bars and small menus, both carefully wrought. Floyd's (named after Griffith's recently deceased father, as T.S. McHugh's was named after McHugh's parent) has 26 beers and ales on tap, with food choices a modest fraction of those numbers.

But what foods they serve are appealing and distinctive.

Tasty, affordable

Smoked pork loins, back ribs, salmon, beef briskets and whole turkeys are the mainstays, along with salads and "sides." Results are good and the prices are modest.

The "smoke" is aged Eastern Washington applewood and it imparts a choice sweetness to the slowly smoked products.

The Beef Brisket Sandwich ($4.50 at lunch; $6.50 evenings) is representative - and close to irresistible. The beef is smoked until mouth-melting tender, sliced fairly thin and placed in a warm onion kaiser roll. It's then slathered over with a generous (but not sloppy) ladle of house-made barbecue sauce.

The sauce itself is a solid balance between Southwestern dark-hot and Southeastern fruit-sweet. It's spicy enough to give one pause; and fruity enough to make you want to hurry the second bite.

The side dishes feature a competent "Dijon" mixed cabbage cole slaw, a red-skinned potato salad (which I thought mediocre; it really needed some zipping up), Boston baked beans (very bacony; very smokey) and "Cheesy" Corn Bread Sticks.

The cornbread sticks are a bit oily and with pleasant overtones of bacon, presumably in the frying fat. Incidentally, you can buy a tub of any of the side dishes for a dollar.

The Northwest Salmon Sandwich ($6.95) is the most compelling assembly on the card. Thick slices of cold smoked salmon are grilled lightly to warm and served on a soft roll with a heap of braised, almost caramelized onions with an assertively hot Cajun remoulade sauce.

Turkey sandwiches, hot or cold, are the best sellers (the cold version is dressed with sliced tomato and a lively chipotle mayo).

The only dessert is an Apple Crisp, which on a recent visit was decidedly apple but not, alas, crisp. (Copyright, 1995, John Hinterberger. All rights reserved.) John Hinterberger, who writes the weekly restaurant review in Tempo and a Sunday food column in Pacific, visits restaurants anonymously and unannounced. He pays in full for all food, wines and services. Interviews of the restaurants' management and staff are done only after meals and services have been appraised. He does not accept invitations to evaluate restaurants.