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94 Stewart's menu bespeaks Pike Place Market

Warmer weather is here, and with it the time for locals to play tour guide for visiting friends and relatives. The out-of-towners will want to see the guys who throw the fish. In oher words, your're going to be joing the slow shuffle through the Pike Place Market, visitors in tow, and eventually you will get hungry.

Grazing is the obvious answer. But when it's time for a site-down meal, consider a stop at 94 Stewart, an American bistro that makes good use of the market's bounty and feels a little like home, no matter where you come from.

Owner/chef Celinda Norton is a smiling, seemingly tireless fixture in the open kitchen that dominates the front of the room. The staff includes other family members, notably wine steward Lindsey Norton (Retired), Celinda's daughter, whose handiwork recently made Food & Wine magazine's annual top 10 of best new wine lists.

Her 240-bottle list includes many for less than $40, some under the category "Fascinating vino from faraway places." She's available to help make choices at dinner, and her suggestions appear with many dishes on the menu. There also are bonus lists, such as eight kinds of rosé at $6 a glass.

Being on a steep hill, 94 Stewart starts at street level and extends underground. Ornately framed prints cover the pale walls. Strategically spaced lines of gold and deep red curtains soften the room and divide the long, narrow space into cozy alcoves, lit by tabletop candles at night.

On the menu, the anchor is an appetizer called Fried Avocado ($14). This is a peeled avocado with a panko crust, flash-fried and arranged in slives with crab meat and corn relish in a glass. The textures and flavors mingle smoothly, making for a pleasant if somewhat pricey oddity.

Otherwise, the menus change every few days, taking advantage of the market's freshest stuff.

Early summer salads ($7-$8) included a chilled combination of peas and asparagus, lightly dressed with basil aioli and spiked with a few raisins and almonds.

About eight entrees are offered on the one page dinner menu, mostly in the $26-$28 range for seafood, lamb chops or a New York steak. The plates typically include a starch and vegetables in generous, artfully arranged portions.

Halibut poached in Sicilian wine ($26) came atop saffron rice that was an apt complement to the mild fish, along with a few asparagus spears and a tasy relish of spring onion and chopped herbs.

Lamb chops ($28) were medium rare and mouth-watering, thanks to a peppery tasting marinade, and nicely matched with lemon potatoes and more asparagus. Unfortunately, after trimming away the fat and bones, we hand only about six bites of meat.

The lunch menu includes an array of great looking sandwiches ($8-$13) and tempting meal-size salads ($9-$16) such as smoked salmon with cucumber, and Dungeness crab with bibb lettuce. The 94's chop salad ($9), with roast turkey, cabbage, tomato and broccoli, seem an especially good deal.

A standout for us was the dinner-plate size asparagus salad with duck ($14). The duck had been processed into a rillete, somewhat like a coarser pâté, and was served in chunks that added richness to the grilled and chilled asparagus spears. Thinly sliced green onion, hazelnut bits and just enough buttermilk pear vinaigrette made this a nearly perfect dish.

Smaller versions of some dinner entrees are available at lunch. We especially liked the Painted Hills petite New York ($16), with its big slice of pink and juicy steak and plenty of roasted red potatoes and broccoli spears.

Crab-stuffed tomato ($17) sounded like a good choice on a warm day, built around a big tomato topped with a whipped coating of Spanish chèvre. The only thing lacking was a noticeable amount of crab. Diced with roasted red pepper, its subtle flavor was lost under that scrumptious cheese.

Dessert choices are on display in the front window. We went for a visual stunner, a tall, three-layer slice of vanilla ckae with cream cheese frosting and Vermont maple syrup ($6) that was big enough to share three or four ways.

Summary: Friendly, cozy American bistro that offers a full array of lunch options from sandwiches to full-plate entrees and dresses up nicely for dinner.

Best New Wine Lists 2006

94 Stewart

The 10 winners of F&W's eighth annual Best New Wine Lists award offer outstanding wines from far and wide, even from the tiniest and most remote vineyards (think India, Turkey—and Ohio). The lists, all from restaurants that have opened within the past year or so, generally assume that customers are willing to spend a bit more on wines than they have in the past. Still, each features at least some sensational bargains, as well as a wide range of brilliant food matches.
By Richard Nalley

Seattle
"One of our most popular features is the Brown Bag Experience," says wine steward Lindsey Norton (Retired) . "It's a mystery wine. We ask people to guess what grape it is."

At 94 Stewart, in Seattle's Pike Place Market, Celinda Norton is chef, son Nicolas is the cheese steward and daughter Lindsey (was) the wine steward. This friendly, New American bistro with an open kitchen and black-and-white-checkered floor has an accessible 240-bottle wine list to match—and it's affordable (lots of wines under $50). The more than 60 Washington choices range from a 2002 Terra Blanca Red Mountain Chardonnay ($24) to a 2000 Leonetti Cellar Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($150).

Best Pairing Lindsey (liked) to serve her mother's panko-crusted avocado topped with Dungeness crab and corn relish with the 2004 Alexandria Nicole Cellars Destiny Ridge Shepherd's Mark ($40), a Rhône-style white blend from Washington. "It's got a tropical fruitiness from the Viognier and citrus backbone from the Roussanne."

Best Buy 2003 Capstone Cellars Yakima Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($48). Lindsey says this Washington wine has "a pretty, violet nose," She adds, "It's firmly tannic without being overly oaky."

Details 94 Stewart St.; 206-441-5505.

Direct Link to Full Article - Food & Wine

 

The Bistro is Back

94 Stewart channels a trend-setting Seattle original.

By Roger Downey
rdowney@seattleweekly.com

On weekdays, the lunch crowd at 94 Stewart is a cross section of downtown Seattle working stiffs: architects, tweedy and a bit long around the hairline, scribbling on the butcher-paper tablecloths; earnest lawyers feeling each other out; politicos jaded and idealistic gossiping about the latest tempest in City Hall's teapot. It's a lively, urbane scene, and for an old-timer, a wrenching flash from the past, because 30 years ago the same people—or their fathers and mothers—were eating much the same kind of food off the same paper tablecloths and having the same conversations at Seattle's first bistro of this kind: the Brasserie Pittsbourg in Pioneer Square...

Direct Link to Full Article - Seattle Weekly

 

94 Stewart: Homey newcomer to Pike Place Market

By Nancy Leson
Seattle Times Restaurant Critic

Here's what I love about Pike Place Market: No matter how long I live around here, no matter how well I think I know this tourist-magnet, I always find something new, something fun, something absolutely delightful to remind me why the Market remains the beating heart of Seattle.

Places like 94 Stewart, a fabulously friendly Northwest-style bistro, open since April.

If you're like me, it's possible you've walked past this address — formerly the Garlic Tree — a zillion times, noting the scent of garlic wafting out from the side door and a couple of cooks visible through a plate-glass window. Perhaps, as I did, you envisioned a small cafe hidden in the space behind them, then walked on by, never stopping to find out what lurked beyond...

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

More reviews at www.seattletimes.com/restaurants. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/nancyleson.

Direct Link to Full Article - The Seattle Times

 

Entrees can't match service at 94 Stewart

By REBEKAH DENN

Pike Place Market is part local treasure, part tourist attraction, and some of the fine restaurants there wind up as both.

At 94 Stewart, with an elegant menu and high-rent dinner prices, a back passageway is already papered with glowing comment-card accolades from around the country, not to mention some locals. After a few meals, though, we regretfully found ourselves leaning more toward the lone dissenter whose card is displayed bravely alongside.

Dishes averaging $25 should be top-notch, and our dinner entrees were uniformly disappointing. The location actually compounds the problem; there's other fine dining within an easy walk, in the same price range, worth raves.

We truly like the spirit at 94 Stewart, though, and there are reasons to give it a try...

Direct Link to Full Article - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter

 

Practically Perfect
A Family Restaurant Arrives and Thrives

BY BETHANY JEAN CLEMENT
94 Stewart

94 Stewart St, 441-5505

Tue–Sat 11:30 am–10 pm, Sun 11:30 am–9 pm.

Walking into 94 Stewart is like finding out your blind date is really, really cute—and has an accent. I was thoroughly prepared for disappointment. I hadn't heard anything about the place in the four months since it opened, which is never a good sign. The location in the Pike Place Market (in, frighteningly, the former home of the Garlic Tree) spelled potential tourist trap. The info I finally uncovered—that it's a family affair, and that said family, the Nortons, had previously run a restaurant in Longview—meant it wouldn't be generic or corporate-feeling. But would it be good? I felt weirdly anxious about the whole endeavor...

Direct Link to Full Article - The Stranger

Dueling Reubens

Sampled Reuben sandwiches at two locations in the past week. First at Goldberg's, a new "authentic" Detroit-style deli at Factoria Mall. Following day at 94 Stewart, a new place in the Pike Place Market.

A small cup of unexceptional potato salad accompanied Goldberg's $11.95 sandwich, which was stuffed with corned beef flown in from Detroit and a wad of sauerkraut on bland, lightly toasted rye bread; but it lacked dressing. Delicious sweet-potato fries came with the $7.95 Reuben at 94 Stewart, whose sauerkraut was slathered with Russian dressing and topped with gruyere, all between slices of crunchy, grilled onion rye.

So why would anybody pay an extra four bucks just to eat at a mega-deli in a mega-mall? Granted, Goldberg's offers 100 different sandwiches, including my favorite, pickled tongue. And it's multi-cultural: on my visit, the maitre d' was Chinese, the waiter Mexican. But it also seemed to represent typical suburban overkill. More about the real find of the week, 94 Stewart, in my next post.

94 Stewart

Today's hot tip is a bistro that resembles Le Pichet and shares its neighborhood: it's called 94 Stewart, which means you won't forget the address.

If the space looks familiar from the outside, you might be thinking of the Garlic Tree. Get over it, and hurry on in. Cindy Norton, a newcomer to Seattle, is the chef, and she’s a fireball. At lunch, the crab focaccia ($12) has what we all crave: plenty of Dungeness crab, moistened with a basil aioli and drenched in cheddar. At , there’s more crab in the Crabby Morning scramble ($14). Come for dinner and start with crab cakes ($14).

Yes, there’s more than crab. A terrific Reuben ($8—and better than the $12 Reuben at Goldberg’s Deli over in Factoria). A burger made with ground lamb. Roast lamb at dinner, too.

Cindy’s daughter Lindsey (Retired) is the wine steward, and she could teach most sommeliers a thing or two. Sunday is BYO night, no corkage. Tuesday is half-price wines. There’s a specific wine suggestion from the by-the-glass list for every dish on the menu, lunch and dinner. And if you need more libations, there’s a full bar as well.

I'm not crazy about the desserts, but I don't have much of a sweet tooth. And if 94 Stewart isn't yet quite as cozy and steamy as Le Pichet, who cares! In the beginning, Le Pichet didn’t know what it wanted to be, either.

Posted by Ronald Holden

 

A New Market Hotspot - the old Garlic Tree has been remodeled and made romantic
(we know, hard to believe) as 94 Stewart. Cindy Norton, owner/chef, brings 25 years of experience
to her sixth restaurant. It's a family affair with daughter Lindsey (Retired) handling wines and beverages and her
partner, Jeff Hagen, as sous chef. Son Nic is in charge of cheese and husband Michael is the fix-it guy.
It's lovely--go see it.
Seattle Dining - News Bytes