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Opening a restaurant is an act of defiance. Just about everyone’s advice has to be ignored and you have to have the confidence to soldier through permitting, build out, hiring, menu creation and on and on. And that’s before you even open. So it’s especially wonderful to see what Chef Kevin and Terresa Davis are doing at Blueacre. If you watch them work, you understand how serious they are about every detail. Okay isn’t good enough. They execute at a very high level in every area: food, service, atmosphere, presentation.

While Steelhead Diner, their first restaurant, is a labor of love for both of them, it’s more a reflection of Chef Kevin’s love of cooking and fly fishing. Blueacre, while clearly showcasing Kevin’s culinary skills, is all about Terresa’s vision. She felt it was time to reproduce their success at a second restaurant. She procured the financing (she has an accounting degree from Seattle Pacific University and is now in law school at Seattle University), and the name of the restaurant, Blueacre, is a riff on the generic legal term for property, Blackacre. Drink names like The Rainmaker, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Full Disclosure reflect her legal schooling.

For Kevin, being able to really pull out the stops on "all things aquatic" is fantasy turned into reality. Their concept of American seafood leaves him unconstrained in terms of genre, i.e., Northwest, Southern, etc. "The US has a vast array of wild seafood," says Kevin. "We know the fisheries and where the fish come from. We know how they’re handled. With advances in technology, we know there are sustainably-farmed freshwater species that don’t harm the environment." The broad menu includes everything you’d want in a seafood restaurant—clams, mussels, squid, chowder, lobster, crab (Dungeness and blue), oysters, fin fish—all with the kind of twist that has created such a following for Chef Davis. "Twist" may not be the best word—it implies some kind of trick or trendiness. Chef’s food has more to do with the best quality ingredients, clean combinations and fabulous flavors, none of which ever go out of style. "We’ve always wanted to do a seafood restaurant and this was our opportunity," says Terresa.

The location makes the broad menu possible. "People know they can get great seafood at Steelhead," says Terresa. "The one thing that disappoints them is that we don’t have whole Dungeness crab on the menu. Our kitchen is just too small to be able to do it. The kitchen at Blueacre is enormous, so we’re not limited." While the focus is on seafood, the overall American concept includes beef from Painted Hills Farms, Salumi cured meats, Draper Valley Farms chicken, Carlton Farms pork and Superior Farms lamb. Side dishes come from local producers and reflect the season: pan roasted asparagus with basil pesto and ricotta salata, fried green tomatoes, garlic wilted mustard greens. Vegetarians will be happy to see Franks' Veggie Meatloaf on the menu. It started off at Steelhead Diner, but is now a Blueacre staple. Vegetable soup, brown rice jambalaya and the Bluebird Farms farro burger will also have vegetarians singing.

An all American wine list is more of an all western North American wine list that includes wines from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California, including some harder-to-get bottles from the likes of DeLille Cellars, Leonetti Cellars and Betz Family Winery, among others. Locally made brews include Issaquah Brew Pub, Full Sail and Anderson Valley Brewing. Add this to the aforementioned legally-named cocktails and mocktails and you’ve got a beverage program that works for everyone.

Steelhead Dine
95 Pine St
Seattle, WA 98101
206-625-0129
www.steelheaddiner.com/

April 2010

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