Now in Seattle: New Restaurants

3650 Wallingford Ave, Seattle, WA 98103 (map)

This glowing Italian eatery is nestled in an old brick building in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood of bungalows and strollers. Open since January, Cantinetta is an example of the love Seattle has for its neighborhoods. Located smack dab in the culinary wasteland between Wallingford and Fremont, this little noshery that could has quietly become one of Seattle’s hottest new restaurants. In the kitchen is Chef Brian Cartenuto, a transplant from Florida-by-way-of Rhode-Island.

3416 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103 (map)

It seems like the plotline for a great bromance movie: two fresh-faced twentysomething boys open up a sandwich shop to citywide acclaim (and some controversy having to do with that villain Claycamp). Lucky for us, this is our very own glossy reality--in quirky Fremont. Complete with black-and-white-checkered floors, chalkboard menus, and two dashing proprietors, Homegrown has found solid roots in the Emerald City. One would expect Cameron Diaz to bounce in at any moment.

2524 Beacon Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144 (map)

Every town needs a villain, and Gabriel Claycamp has steadily become a solid Seattle antihero—thanks to a few permitting missteps and his own vitriolic rants (and, you know, the fickle nature of the press). Claycamp began his bad-boy tenure as captain of the vagabond dinner series Gypsy before opening up the brick & mortar Culinary Communion, which served as both a restaurant and learning space until it shuttered in late March. The Swinery—a butchery and charcuterie outpost—was also underway (selling contraband product to Homegrown, above) until it was recently nixed by the Health Department.

1525 10th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122 (map)

The dream team that was Ericka Burcke (chef of Volunteer Park Café) and Linda Derschang (proprietor of virtually every bar in Seattle) is no longer. Despite rampant rumors to the contrary, the party line from both is that the split is amicable. Ericka returns to helm VPC full-time, while Derschang has brought in a boyish-looking chef from McCormick & Schmick’s to handle production for the large and ever-so-popular Oddfellows space. Man-of-the-decade Matthew Dillon is consulting, but a recent visit caught Linda with an armful of cookbooks, happily writing the day’s specials herself.