Gateau Basque

Sitka and Spruce still impresses me very much!  I've been back there like 4 times now.  I've not seen the my chef crush Matt Dillon this time but had this amazing Gateau Basque with Huckleberries. 

Gateau Basque is an exquisite tart filled with a drier like cake. Sometimes it's filled with fruit but Sitka and Spruce kept it traditional and I believe filled it with pastry cream and baked.

They just know how to make and present food.  This is the kind of food I love to eat!

So lovely, have to show it twice!

The New Sitka & Spruce

Hello Friends!
It's been a long time...my excuse is my day job has taken a lot of my day time and beyond.  
  
There also just has been a lot of activities, traveling, spending time with my good friends, family, and helping my dear friend Hamed and Pascale with their upcoming restaurant.

I've done a lot of food...but just haven't spared the time to connect here.  It's a wonderful reminder when your friends ask about it and then you realize that more folks are paying attention than you thought.  Even a co worker friend from Paris said he followed...that's amazing!

I thought I start with a special treat I had this morning.  An unplanned brunch out to Sitka and Spruce.  What a treat! I went there for dinner last month because my sis has been raving about it and how true it was.  The Melrose building is gorgeous and they have built a great place of food there.  The building houses a flower/gift shop, cheese shop, butcher shop, wine bar, and more lovely places of food related goodies.  Next door to the Melrose building is a fish store ( 1 door down ).  It reminds me of neighborhoods in NYC or old days where you had to go to the multiple specialized places to get all your groceries.  

The heart of building is of course Sitka & Spruce.  I loved the place when it was in Eastlake neighborhood, but clearly it's blossomed to it's full personality at this new location.  The first time I went for dinner (where I was too embarrassed to take picture because we were at the communal table where the chef/owner (my crush the last 3 years) was at the head and I was too nervous.  

This time for brunch, I had no shame and here are the food. All plates were served to share.

Sweet Buttermilk Scones with Housemade Butter and Jam

Pacific Farmstead Cheese with Cherries and Honey

Housemade Yogurt with Warm Dates, Strawberries, Pomegranate Molasses, and Flowers




Salmon lox with Slivered Turnip, Orange Peel, and Honey

Ful Medames with a Six Minute Egg

Emmer Crepes with Rhubarb, Nonna Capra, Hazelnut

The only complaint I have was that there was no potato item on the menu.  It's not breakfast without spuds.  When I asked about it, they had a point...it's not in season right now.  They may get purple potato in a few weeks.  How can you get upset about that? It makes sense.  Most of their ingredients are from Washington...total localvore.

Sitka and Spruce

Many of you know my love of Sitka and Spruce, as well as the chef god Matt Dillion.  I tried to get dinner last Friday to celebrate Joan's birthday but we got there like 7pm and couldn't get a table until 9:40pm so we decided to eat at Serafina's instead.  It was a great dinner and I actually ran into the chef/owner of Both Ways Cafe that I used to work at.  

I am going back on a week  night when it slows down.  Another blog to come!