The talk of Belltown ; Edgar Martinez may not own it, but Fandango is a hit

Jul 21, 2000

Nancy Leson

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# # # Fandango

2313 First Ave., Seattle

Reservations: 206-441-1188

Latin ($$)

Hours: dinner daily 5 p.m.-midnight; bar menu available 5 p.m.-1 a.m.

Prices: starters: $5.50-$9.50, entrees: $13.95-$19.80; bar menu $5.85-$10.95

Full bar

Credit cards: MC, V, DC

No obstacles to access

Smoking in bar only

Parking: on-street, pay lots nearby

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Fandango's got a buzz on. And it's not just the effect of all those mojito-drinkers in the bar, either. Good, bad, excited, indifferent: people are talking about chef Christine Keff's second foray into the Belltown frenzy - a frenzy she helped create with Flying Fish, still reeling 'em in a half-block away from this new Latina cucina.

Buzzzzzzzz: Edgar Martinez owns the place. Sorry, sports fans. Keff owns Fandango, though Edgar owns the highest profile among the restaurant's 27 investors. So, if you want your bat signed, ask pastry chef Robin Reiels for her autograph; her clever creations, including warm pecan empanadas and molten chocolate cake with cinnamon-scented horchata ice cream, are major league.

Buzzzzzzzz: That's the biggest open kitchen I've ever seen and I'm not so sure I really want to see it - or be seated so close to it. Granted, sitting at one of the handful of tables fronting the kitchen is akin to sitting in the kitchen, but this is the It-Spot for those who like to watch. From here you can take in the bar's social scene, the active kitchen and the festive-yet-formal main dining room. There, teacup-shaped banquettes the color of Orange Crush surround the favored window tables, offering an urban view of traffic swooshing by on Highway 99 and Elliott Bay sparkling beyond.

Buzzzzzzzz: Have you tried those beef short ribs? Dios, mia! Yes. Good thing our server suggested a hefty wine to go with them - a terrific $29 tempranillo culled from the list's "Latin Reds." By the way, I've also treated my tongue to the recado-seasoned suckling pig ($18.95). It's rubbed with annatto paste, thinned with vinegar and sour orange juice and accented with salt and garlic, marinated overnight, wrapped in banana leaves and slow-roasted for six hours. The tender shards of pork arrived, as did the chili-stoked short ribs ($15.80), flavored with an intensity that woke me up from my been-there-ate-that slumber.

Talk all you want about Fandango's street-side bar, where 50 tequilas are waiting ta-kill-ya, rum's the word in those marvelous mint-enhanced mojitos, and a bar menu is available, late. Talk about baseball players and a gonzo kitchen where chef/owner Keff orchestrates and expedites in a starched white coat. But come for dinner intent on exploring this unfamiliar menu and you'll have something better to discuss: the food.

This menu brazenly ventures beyond Mexican-for-the-masses, heads south to Central and South America, and aims for inspired authenticity rather than cross-cultural confusion. The flavors of Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Argentina emerge here, the result of Keff's intensive, six-week working tour of kitchens in Central and Eastern Mexico.

Among the Mexican-styled masa-based snacks are panuchos ($6.80). These munchable mini-tortillas come stuffed with black beans and capped with shredded chicken and slaw.

Refreshing ceviche ($8.90) offers a lively mix of bay scallops, shrimp and oysters "cooked" in lime juice, while gazpacho ($5.75) comes perfumed with sweet orange rather than stinking sharply of garlic, a problem that all-too-often afflicts this summery soup. Argentinean carpaccio ($9.50), Argentina's prized beef sliced raw, is so pink it looks fake. But there's nary a false note here, just melting succulence and a pleasant oily kiss of herby chimichurri.

Three plump quail bask in a soothing, green, pumpkin-seed sauce, crisp from their turn on the wood-fired grill ($17.90). Shrimp Vatapa, fresh Gulf prawns marinated in tamarind and grilled, are presented with their heads bowed and shells split, over a concoction textured with ground nuts and scented with dried shrimp ($17.90). Ultimately, I found this less exciting than it looked or sounds, preferring the creamy-centered sea scallops ($16.75), whose orange, caper and almond sauce proved simple yet refined.

Certified meat-eating maniacs will meet their match in a monstrous, juicy, bone-in pork chop ($15.90), artfully seasoned, gloriously grilled and accompanied by a side of sauteed greens. But the dish that really sent me was a vegetarian posole ($13.95), grandly presented in a cobalt-blue tureen. A lift of the lid found fresh porcini mushrooms and corn floating in a broth punctuated with the profound citric kick of tomatillos and a squeeze of lime. It still has me buzzing.