The year begins with casualties of war. Withdrawing from the battlefield as their lease expires is Belltown Bistro, one of five in the BluWater Bistro group and the only one not actually on the water. (The others are on Eastlake, Greenlake, Leschi and Kirkland; the owners are closing the Kirkland store as well.) Landlord is Belltown's biggest curmudgeon, Brooke Barnes, who keeps his own name on the liquor license to give himself more leverage with his tenants. If you remember the old Belltown Tavern, the exodus when that lease expired five or six yeaers ago prompted manager Tim Buckley to start his own pub on Lower Queen Anne (only to roar back into Belltown some years later), and others to join Ivo Yonev at the old Firefly (changing the name to Lumette). Given the tendency of First Avenue, I'd look for a Twist-y, Blush-ing boutique nightclub in the Bistro space before long.
Bruce Pinkerton has closed his Urban Wine Bar at the corner of 2nd and Denny. No surprise, really, given that he'd already moved his Designed Dinners into the new space on Elliott Avenue that he named Urban Cafe.
Regardless of what their website says, Mike'sEast Coast Sandwiches is no longer crowding into that tiny space on Cedar in Belltown, by the way. They've moved into larger quarters in the International District.
And returning to Queen Anne for a moment, Enza Sorrentino, who opened Sorrentino Trattoria & Pizzeria in that same Lumette space three years ago, is "reopening" it tonight as Enza Cucina Siciliana.
Mamma Enza, as she's known, has given the inside a new coat of whitewash, decommissioned the pizza oven, and gone back to her Sicilian roots. Along a newly-hired, Italian-speaking staff, she promises homemade pasta, local seafood and "legenday Sicilian hospitality." Across the board price cuts, too: most main courses are $12, the antipasto "fantasia" is $10.
Enza Cucina Siciliana, 2128 Queen Anne N, 206-694-0055 
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