Cafe Campagne
Mar. 13th, 2010 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsAs a treat to celebrate all kinds of things, Omaha and I went out to the Cafe' Campagne in downtown Seattle. It's in Post Alley on Pike Place Market, across the alleyway from that incredibly sexy and expensive kitchen supply store, Sur La Table, and of course all their cookware is Le Creuset.
The inside of the restaurant is done with just the lightest touch of kitsch; it's not quite so authentically French as Boat Street Cafe', a place Omaha and I both love, but it is done in dark, warm woods and yellow, indirect incandescent lighting, with brass fixtures and touches that make it feel very cozy. There are the ubiquitous advertisements from the 1960s here and there, but it's not overwhelming; I've been in Italian restaurants where that trick feels much more overbearing. The tables are tiny. At the door, along with an umbrella stand and a coat rack was a newspaper rack, the oldschool kind with the segmented rod to hold the newspaper in a rack. I haven't seen those since high school.
(There was one sour note in the whole place-- amidst all of this loveliness, the big point-of-sale terminal stood out like a plastic cancer. I kept thinking the owners need to find someone in the Seattle cyberpunk community who could make a shell for it that looked right.)
The service staff was friendly and efficient, young and beautiful and thin. One woman had a tattoo on her tricep, where she couldn't see it, with inch-high letters of the alphabet: AaBbCcDd etc. In Times New Roman. I was reminded of XKCD.
The whole point of a restaurant is the food, so let me say this: wonderful. Chef Daisley Gordon's name is prominent on the bottom of the menu, and deservedly so. Omaha ordered the crispy duck, whereas I ordered the cassoulet. She described the duck as delicious and crispy, everything she expected, with no excessive dryness.
The cassoulet was amazing. I mean, it's basically bean stew with a mixture of pork duck sausages, but it was so much more than that, covered in a thick breadcrumb crust that was so perfectly dried out without being drying in turn that I was in awe. The different sausages blended with neighboring beans and choices of fresh herbs in a way that satisfied me completely. Along with the bread, properly made baguettes probably from Le Panier, it was certainly the best meal we've had out in a long time.
Overall, not to pricey, either. I looked at their amazing wine list and decided not to have anything. We just had water-- no ice-- and it was fine just like that. The total bill was about $45 for two, there was no wait although they do take reservations. If you live in Seattle and haven't eaten at the Cafe Campagne, you're missing something special. Go try it out.
The inside of the restaurant is done with just the lightest touch of kitsch; it's not quite so authentically French as Boat Street Cafe', a place Omaha and I both love, but it is done in dark, warm woods and yellow, indirect incandescent lighting, with brass fixtures and touches that make it feel very cozy. There are the ubiquitous advertisements from the 1960s here and there, but it's not overwhelming; I've been in Italian restaurants where that trick feels much more overbearing. The tables are tiny. At the door, along with an umbrella stand and a coat rack was a newspaper rack, the oldschool kind with the segmented rod to hold the newspaper in a rack. I haven't seen those since high school.
(There was one sour note in the whole place-- amidst all of this loveliness, the big point-of-sale terminal stood out like a plastic cancer. I kept thinking the owners need to find someone in the Seattle cyberpunk community who could make a shell for it that looked right.)
The service staff was friendly and efficient, young and beautiful and thin. One woman had a tattoo on her tricep, where she couldn't see it, with inch-high letters of the alphabet: AaBbCcDd etc. In Times New Roman. I was reminded of XKCD.
The whole point of a restaurant is the food, so let me say this: wonderful. Chef Daisley Gordon's name is prominent on the bottom of the menu, and deservedly so. Omaha ordered the crispy duck, whereas I ordered the cassoulet. She described the duck as delicious and crispy, everything she expected, with no excessive dryness.
The cassoulet was amazing. I mean, it's basically bean stew with a mixture of pork duck sausages, but it was so much more than that, covered in a thick breadcrumb crust that was so perfectly dried out without being drying in turn that I was in awe. The different sausages blended with neighboring beans and choices of fresh herbs in a way that satisfied me completely. Along with the bread, properly made baguettes probably from Le Panier, it was certainly the best meal we've had out in a long time.
Overall, not to pricey, either. I looked at their amazing wine list and decided not to have anything. We just had water-- no ice-- and it was fine just like that. The total bill was about $45 for two, there was no wait although they do take reservations. If you live in Seattle and haven't eaten at the Cafe Campagne, you're missing something special. Go try it out.
