We've been writing about the challenges facing Seattle best-known restaurants with a waterfront view. Previous posts have featured Salty's on Aliki, Palisade and Ray's Boathouse.
It's no secret that the restaurant atop the Space Needle, formally known as Sky City, is the top-grossing eatery in town. The Needle itself gets two million folks a year, over five thousand a day, riding elevators to the top. Last time I looked it up, Sky City was pulling in an astonishing $14 million a year, roughly twenty times the average gross for an eatery in Seattle. Sure, you say, a 250-seat restaurant can gross a pretty penny, but you still need a lot of butts-in-seats, some 250,000 guests in the course of a year, to get to $14 million. They do it, though. It's well inside the Top 50 of restaurants in the US.
And while the Needle is clearly not on the waterfront, it does have an iconic view of the water.
Altogether, there are dozens of restaurants along Seattle's extensive waterfront: Elliott Bay, the Ship Canal, Lake Union, Lake Washington. The number reaches 100 if you start in Everett and end in Tacoma. And if you add in restaurants with a view of the water, the number goes way up. Some have higher ambitions than others (Canlis comes to mind), some are tried & true (Duke's and Anthony's, for example), or tired & true (Ivar's could use a little sprucing up), some just capitalize on their location (Eastlake Grill), others don't really seem to care where they are (McCormick's Harborside, Joey's).
None of these tourist-attraction restaurants offer particularly bold flavors; you just can't do that at Seattle's top view and celebration restaurants. The clientele is just too diverse, too untrained in more sophisticated dining, too unwilling to make a stretch. (We await Lake Union's Westward, from celeb chef Josh Henderson.) What management at these places demands of its kitchens, and generally gets, is a predictably high level of execution: ingredients of good quality properly prepared. But in the prime locations, to justify the high prices, there must also be drama, and the drama must come from the presentation. So you get towers, you get careful plating, you get sizzle. At Salty's, there's a chocolate fountain at the end of the dessert buffet; at the Salish Lodge, overlooking Snoqualmie Falls, you get "honey from the sky;" at Sky City in the Space Needle, you get a dessert concoction called the Lunar Orbiter, served in a cloud of dry ice.
So, class, to sum up: Where would you send a visitor for the best view-and-taste of Seattle?
If you're reluctant to make a restaurant recommendation, there's a little-known way to get a great view of the city, a boat ride, an island visit, a salmon dinner, as well as a touch of Indian folklore. It's called Tillicum Village, a four-hour, $80 tour, kids half price. Decent meal (alder-smoked baked salmon), well-produced show (respectful of Native American traditions), great views. Done, folks, you can cross Seattle off your bucket list. And yes, Tillicum Village went through a similar scenario a couple of years back, re-branding itself from cheesy "tourist excursion" to must-do "Seattle Sampler Pack."
Good news! Comments have been re-enabled on Cornichon, although you may have to re-register. We look forward to hearing from you!
Leave a comment