www.salarerestaurant.com
By J.P.
Edouardo Jordan is a native of Florida and, after graduating from Le Cordon Bleu School in Saint Petersburg, he has worked at several restaurants, including the prestigious The French Laundry in Yountville, California, and Per Se in New York City. In Seattle, Edouardo Jordan worked at the Herbfarm and at two Matt Dillon's restaurants: Sitka & Spruce and later at Bar Sajor, where he led the kitchen. Bar Sajor closed in July 2016 and was replaced by Copal, another Matt Dillon’s venture.
In mid-2015, Chef Edouardo Jordan finally opened his own restaurant, Salare. The name of the restaurant is an Italian word that means “to salt” and comes from Jordan’s memories of time spent in Italy where he was studying charcuterie. Reviews of Salare by Seattle critics were very favorable from the start (see) and more recognition of Edouardo Jordan’s work followed. In 2016 he was included in the Food and Wine list of the 10 Best New Chefs in America. In 2017, he was one of the seven Seattle Chefs included among the semifinalists for the James Beard award of Best Chef: Northwest (see). No Seattle Chef ended up getting this award that went to Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton and Greg Denton of Ox Restaurant in Portland, Oregon (see).
Salare is located in Ravenna, a neighborhood in northeastern Seattle, north of the University district. We had reservations for 5:30 pm on a Friday in late April 2017. Our table of six was located in the second dining room, facing the bar. All seats at the bar, as well as all the six tables in this second dining room, got quickly occupied. When we left, shortly after 7:30 pm, the whole place was crowded.
The menu includes five sections: bites; raw or cured; garden; pasta; sea, land and air. We decided to order items to be shared by the whole table and started with a few selections from the "bites" section:
- House sourdough and seeded roll
- Falafel, leek jam and ricotta
- Marinated olives
- Pork cheek, lentils and curried aioli
 |
| Sourdough and seeded roll |
 |
| Falafel |
 |
| Pork cheek |
Everything was very good. Although you had to pay for bread, not charged in most restaurants, it was worth doing it. Both breads and butter were delicious.
We then ordered an item from the "raw or cured" section:
- Cured rockfish (ginger, onion, yacón and dried persimmon). Yacón is a species of daisy traditionally grown in the Andes from Colombia to northern Argentina.
This was excellent. It tasted liked a ceviche and certainly a good one.
 |
| Cured rockfish |
We followed that with two items from the "pasta" section and two items from the "sea, land and air" section:
- Cavatelli (calamari, preserved lime, spinach, Calabrian chili and pistachios). Cavatelli are small pasta shells from eggless semolina dough.
- Casarecce (oxtail, rogue kale, hazelnuts, mint and beef au jus); Casarecce (from casereccio which means "homemade") is a free-form shape pasta. Rogue is a hybrid green curly kale that does well in warmer weather.
 |
| Cavatelli |
 |
| Casarecce |
- Octopus (anchovy, Niçoise olives, brassicas and puttanesca). Brassica is a plant of the mustard family; puttanesca sauce typically includes: tomatoes, olive oil, anchovies, olives, capers and garlic
- Duck (green garlic, quinoa, giblets, liver mousse and shallot marmalade). Giblets is a culinary term to designate the edible internal organs of a fowl, in this case the duck.
 |
| Octopus |
 |
| Duck |
Everything was very good, with high marks for the pasta dishes that were excellent. This may have to do with the training chef Jordan had in Italy.
Now it was time for dessert. Our choices were:
- Hazelnut brown butter cake (poached apples, salted caramel, honeycomb crunch and milk ice cream) (J.P./A.M.; F.A.).
- Pots de crème (chocolate stout, bourbon chantilly, oat toffee crunch, cocoa nib cookie) (M.A.)
Again all good.
 |
| Hazelnut cake |
To accompany the meal we had a Bordeaux: Château L'Escart, Cuvée Eden, 2014 ($48). Château L'Escart introduces itself as having winemakers who use biodynamic methods. This is definitely not a top Bordeaux wine, but it was satisfactory for the occasion. It belongs to the “Bordeaux Superieur” appellation. “Bordeaux Superieur” and “Bordeaux” are the two regional appellations of the Bordeaux wine region. However, the AOC "Bordeaux Superieur" is subject to more stringent rules.
In summary, our visit to Salare turned out to be a very good experience. As expected from a Seattle restaurant of its kind, atmosphere is informal and extremely pleasant. Service was attentive and food was very good.
The good news is that after dining at Salare, we found out that, only a couple of days before our visit, chef Jordan had opened a new restaurant, Junebaby. The restaurant is located in the Ravenna neighborhood, not far from Salare, and focuses on southern food (see).
Dinner for four adults and two children, including tax, tips, and $120 of wine, added up to $390.
0 Comments