Fresh Today

The Westin Hotel has completed a deal with famed Hawaiian restaurateur Roy Yamaguchi to bring his celebrated East-meets-West cuisine to the Northwest.

Yamaguchi, who's been called the most influential chef in Pacific Rim cuisine, will take over the space formerly occupied by the Palm Court restaurant at the Westin.

It will be the 11th restaurant in Yamaguchi's expanding empire, which now reaches from Honolulu to Tokyo, Guam, The Philippines and California.

Westin executive chef Marcus Dunbar will be in charge of the Seattle restaurant. A chef has yet to be selected.

Yamaguchi is a true citizen of the Pacific Rim - born in Maui, reared in Tokyo by American parents, trained at the Culinary Institute of New York and tempered in competitive Southern California.

In 1984, he opened 385 North in Hollywood and virtually invented Pacific fusion cuisine, a style he calls "Euro-Asian." In 1988, he returned to Hawaii to open Roy's Restaurant, called by Food & Wine magazine "the crown jewel of Honolulu's East-West eateries." Roy's Kahana Bar & Grill in Maui and Roy's Restaurant Tokyo quickly followed.

"Roy's menus are a blend of Euro-Asian fare," said Dunbar. "It's innovative, fun food. You might find French, Italian, Thai, Japanese and Polynesian influences in the same dish."

Dunbar said the menu is still in flux, but guests should expect the unexpected.

"It will be flavorful food with very unusual combinations. He might do a Thai chicken, for instance with opah - that's a Hawaiian game fish - a seaweed salsa and a wasabi natural sauce."

Roy's Seattle is tentatively set to open Nov. 29.

Restaurantouring

-- Newest seafood house in town is not on the waterfront but near Northgate, a new startup restaurant called Seattle Crab Co. CEO Paul Baird, formerly chief of Skipper's, brought in some big guns to design the concept: Arnold Shain, creator of Cucina! Cucina! and Chandler's Crab House; menu developer Ted Furst, former co-owner of Campagne; and chef-consultant Kathy Casey, formerly of Fullers. Goal is to combine "the fresh, quality seafood of an upscale establishment" with the "convenience of a quick-service restaurant."

The menu features Dungeness crab in all its permutations, as well as salmon, halibut, cod, prawns, clams, scallops and chowders. Executive chef is Andrew Elf, former owner and chef of Fountain Court Off Main. Seattle Crab Co. is at 1000 Northgate Way N.E.

-- Chris Westcott is the new executive chef at McCormick's Harborside Restaurant on Lake Union. He was formerly executive chef and general manager of McCormick's Fish House. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he worked for restaurants in New York City, including Smith & Wollensky, Ben Benson's Steakhouse and El Rio Grande, and owned two restaurants in North Carolina.

-- More oyster festivals? Why not? You can never get too much of a good theme.

Salty's at Alki throws its annual Amorous Oyster Festival tonight: $18 for an evening of Kumamoto, European Flats, Pacific and Olympia oysters, together with 12 Northwest microbrews and an array of finger food. Five percent of the advance-ticket sales will go to the Union Gospel Mission.

The Brooklyn Seafood, Steak & Oyster House runs its Northwest Oyster and Microbrewery Festival all this month, featuring 45 varieties of oysters native to the Pacific Northwest. Chef Tony Cunio's menus include Pacific oyster champagne stew, smoked oyster spinach salad, Louisiana pan-fried oysters and other variations on the theme.

Crumpeter's holiday

One of Seattle's best-kept secrets may be the wild-rice crumpets made by Nancy McFaul at The Crumpet Shop, down on First Avenue and Pike Street. They're available only on certain days and for certain holidays.

"I don't think anyone else makes them," says McFaul, who baked her first batch as an experiment 20 years ago. "I take wild rice and grind it into flour. It gives the crumpets a nutty, grain-like taste. They're really nice with pesto, tomato and Parmesan cheese, or a little garlic butter."

Because they were costly to make, wild-rice crumpets disappeared from the menu for several years, but returned by popular demand last fall.

They're $2.95 for a package of six, and they're baked only on Saturdays and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Tuesday before Christmas.

Short bites

-- Last week, Times food writer Judith Blake ferreted out a few of the places in Seattle where you can still get a plain old cuppa joe. Add to the list Nordstrom's in-store cafes, where a cup of coffee still costs just a quarter.