UPDATE, July 1: Nick Castleberry is no longer in the kitchen, and Chuck Bourg is leaving this month. Zack Millican, formerly at Cascadia, is the new chef, delivering smaller portions, higher prices, and, sorry to say, less finesse.
Artemis Café, on a gentrified sidestreet at the intersection of Bellevue Avenue, Bellevue Place and Bellevue Court, perches on Capitol Hill's western slope, but it's very much the sort of place every neighborhood needs: friendly, airy, moderately priced. There's a $6 cocktail, the Bitter End, made with gin, campari and grapefruit freshly squeezed by barman Chuck Bourg. The kitchen, headed by Nick Castleberry (late of Sitka & Spruce), turns out upscale comfort food (seared scallops, pork belly, venison) for under $20.
This is the kind of place Yelpers can't stand; it's not a high-energy corporate outpost that emphasizes phony "customer service" over good food and laid-back atmosphere. Castleberry himself responded to one particularly whiney post with a rousing Cheney-ism. Way to go, Nick!
Artemis Café, 757 Bellevue Avenue E., 206-860.2752 
i thought artemis was quite good, and look forward to trying the gin, compari, and grapefruit concoction during my next visit.