35th Street Bistro is worth braving the bridge

If you haven't been to 35th Street Bistro — formerly that hallowed hippified haunt Still Life in Fremont — what, exactly, are you waiting for?

If your answer is, "the day when the ghosts of coffee-dates past fail to remind me of this landmark's storied past," I'll call you a fool. If you're waiting for the completion of the $40 million Fremont Bridge improvement project (set to alter traffic patterns for many moons to come), I'll beg you to reconsider — and take Highway 99. Here's why:

Owner Bob Day bought the cafe in 2002, later renamed and re-envisioned it as a Euro-styled bistro and has taken pains to put the bistro-imprimatur on the place ever since. Late last summer, after a spate of revolving-door chefs, he did himself a favor by putting his kitchen in the hands of Steve Smrstik.

A veteran of Seattle's fabulous Flying Fish, Smrstik spent seven years in Belltown as Chris Keff's talented chef de cuisine. Now at home in the heart of Fremont, he's taken charge of a menu that's loosely defined as Country French yet unapologetically offers "pasta del giorno," eggplant-wrapped ricotta and tiramisu.

At 35th Street, you can make yourself at home at a small bar with a carefully crafted cocktail in hand. Relax in an atmosphere that's at once comfortable and casual, yet urbane enough — with its hardwood bamboo floors, jazzy soundtrack and white table linens — to make you feel like you're somewhere special.

Spend a pleasurable evening sharing a bottle of wine chosen from a wide-ranging, reasonably marked-up list that borrows heavily from the Old World while plucking worthies from the New.

If you're smart, you'll tuck into a heap of some of the best frites in town — crisp slender fries with garlic oil, a blizzard of shaved Reggiano and a drizzle of crème fraîche ($5) — before settling down to something more serious.

Say, rare-centered muscovy duck breast fanned out over a bed of lemony leek ragout ($22). Or pan-seared rainbow trout fillets dressed for success in a fine crust of ground almonds ($16). That trout, served over creamy garlic mashed potatoes surrounded by a moat of beurre rouge, is one fetching fish, outfitted with fresh fennel and orange salad and a jaunty plume of watercress.

Seasonal menu tweaks bring other pleasant surprises, like fiddlehead ferns and spring mushrooms that refuse to play second-fiddle to luscious lobes of bacon-wrapped monkfish.

Celebrating a birthday? Why not party in a semi-private nook at a big table that handily seats eight? While you're there, persuade a friend to go sharesies on standouts like the plump, crisp-skinned chicken breast with sautéed chard ($17). And steak frites starring a massive rib-eye, gorgeously grilled and scattered with crumbled Roquefort ($24).

Celebrating the sun? Consider lunching or brunching on the sidewalk patio adjacent to the tree-lined street that gives this place its name. That meal might begin, end or be entirely composed of a stunning "cheese collage," an appropriately artistic display of fruits and nuts plus five generous slices of goat, sheep and cow cheese. Hope for the MouCo ColoRouge from Colorado — a slightly stinky washed-rind cheese that put this cheese-lover on a Rocky Mountain high.

By day, 35th Street serves French classics like croque monsieur (a staple on the bar menu), French onion soup (enriched with balsamico and a meal in itself), salade Niçoise (with beautifully seared albacore tuna and a lovely tarragon vinaigrette) and moules et frites (those great fries again, hold the accoutrements).

Next time I hope those moules are actually the Mediterranean mussels the menu promised. And I plan on skipping the mushy Dungeness crab cake served flat as a pancake.

But I'll certainly return for another two-fisted Kobe beef burger ($10), the thick juicy patty dolled up with bacon and Tillamook cheddar. Ditto for the lemon-sour cream "tartelette," a cloud of lemony goodness whose delicate shell shows the mark of a true pastry chef.

And finally, a few words for the service staff.

Bless the kind waiter who treated my child like the adult I hope he will someday become. And the winning waitresses who swiftly and effortlessly tended to the lunch-bunch one sunny day out on the patio.

Hats off to the eagle-eyed busboy who was quick with the water pitcher, knew when and how to clear a table, and brought us more Macrina bread and complimentary red-onion jam. And kudos to the kind server who laughed along with us one noisy Friday night after she handed my husband a macchiato when he'd asked for amontillado. (I drank the coffee, he got the sherry.)

To a one, their team approach and apparent love for their work goes a long way toward defining this as a great neighborhood bistro.

Nancy Leson: 206-464-8838 or taste@seattletimes.com.

More reviews at www.seattletimes.com/restaurants.

Sample menu

Bistro Frites $5

Pear Salad $8

Pan-Roasted Chicken Breast $17

Kobe Beef Burger $10

Rainbow Trout $16

Cheese Collage $15

Profiteroles $6