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Seattle Times Review
Friday, July 12, 2002
Moms' homey Wild Mountain Cafe is a dream
long deferred
By Nancy Leson
Seattle Times restaurant critic
Love's
labor is not lost at the Wild Mountain Cafe. This Crown Hill charmer
is the culmination of a lifelong dream for Connie Stone, a single
mom with a singular vision and a restaurant that has "labor of love"
written all over it. |
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For Stone, the interim between deciding to open
a restaurant and doing so decades later encompassed a waitressing
career, marriage, motherhood and — just when she'd finally bought
the old house that was to become her dream restaurant — divorce. That's
when her friend Roo McKenna came to the rescue. A single mom with
two kids of her own, McKenna signed on as business partner, despite
a complete lack of restaurant experience. Today you'll find her doing
everything from prep work to pouring wine, paying bills to waitressing
alongside her best buddy.
Two years ago, armed with attitude and a
sledgehammer, the pair began an extensive remodel of this old concrete
house, bashing out walls, peeling dried wood, priming, painting and
scoring funky secondhand furniture, tableware and kitchen equipment.
They beachcombed for tile to craft into tabletops and, when the time
was right, hired a chef and devised a menu with an eclectic mix of
comfort foods. When Wild Mountain Cafe opened in March, these moms
with moxie had clearly transformed the place into a warm and friendly
neighborhood restaurant.
On the front porch, two tall cafe tables
overlook a profusion of wildflowers; from here you can catch a glimpse
of Mount Rainier or peek through a window into the cutest bar in town.
The bar's slate top was composed from recycled chalkboard; the back-bar
was a former waterbed headboard — an appropriate choice given that
the bar was formerly a bedroom. A warren of homey dining rooms is
set with mismatched chairs and Goodwill china.
Breakfast brings rich
rewards, including the "Persian Sun": French toast layered with sesame
paste, drizzled with lemon-honey, draped with fresh pineapple and
sided with a slab of country-style ham ($8.50). Need a wake-up call?
Have a hellfire-hot wasabi bloody Mary ($5.75) followed by the roasted-garlic
mashed-potato cakes that come alongside eggs Benedict — a classic
whose poached yolks ooze golden under a cloak of lemon-luscious hollandaise
($8.75). The brunch-worthy menu offers a variety of egg scrambles,
a bagel and lox with all the trimmings and such Mexican-accented items
as a breakfast burrito and corn-tortilla quiche. Kids are invited
to fill up on sides of eggs, bacon or fruit. Their milk comes in a
lidded sippy-cup and they'll be presented with a cookie tin filled
with toys to keep them busy while their parents linger over strong
coffee, poured freely and often.
I found myself lingering too long
on a weekday lunch, wondering about my meal's delay given the scarcity
of patrons and the brief menu. But it was worth the wait for mac 'n'
cheese ($7.50) whose "secret" four-cheese blend sung with flavors
that bounced from sharp to soothing to tart all in one spoonful, and
whose freshest salad greens snuggled up to a little pitcher of delicious
herbed dressing. Mamma's panini is an elegant example of the genre,
built on thick slabs of rustic bread grilled to a pleasing crunch
($8.75). Stuffed with portobellos, fresh spinach, goat cheese, roasted
red peppers and pesto, it's offered with soup or salad.
Waiting for
lunch afforded time to reread the menu, which asks for customers'
patience and forewarns patrons that "we do sell out of things." Arriving
for dinner on a Saturday night, we fielded helpful hints from departing
diners. Alas, their suggestions — the ahi tuna special and the popular
"Picnic Plate" — featuring honey-drizzled fried chicken, potato salad
and corn-on-the-cob ($13.50) — were sold out. We'd been warned.
So
we supped instead on soup, creamy and luxurious with mushrooms and
spinach ($4.25), and an impressive light-jacketed array of tempura
with ginger-soy dipping sauce ($6.50). Deciding among such entrees
as Rellenos Allegro (two cheese-stuffed chilies served, in gargantuan
portion, at the next table) and pan-fried oysters offered with three
sauces and corn bread ($14.25) was tough.
We erred by ordering oversized, overpriced, pan-fried prawn cakes
($17.75) that were more "cake" than prawn. Dotted with pine nuts in
need of toasting, these benefited greatly from their delightful yogurt
dip and not at all from a breakfastlike side-salad of orange slices
sprinkled with dried cranberries. My "Moxie Medley" — marinated lamb
and beef kabobs skewered and grilled with onions and peppers ($15.25)
— could have used more moxie: It tasted like Mom's home cooking, which,
all things considered, should be no surprise.
Nancy Leson |
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Seattle P-I Review:
Crafty owners turn a fixer-upper into a cozy people-pleaser
Friday, July 12, 2002
By LISA STIFFLER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Descriptions of the Wild Mountain Cafe pre-renovation would strike fear in the hearts of homeowners. Some of the wooden window frames were so ravaged by dry rot that they crumbled to dust with a gentle prodding. The walls in the concrete-over-chicken-wire structure had gaping cracks that daylight shone through. And don't even ask about the roof.
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But the plum-colored cafe in Seattle's Crown Hill neighborhood has been transformed, as though by the wave of a fairy godmother's wand, into a gem, with warm peachy walls, antique furniture and wholesome foods carefully prepared. But rather than wave a magic wand, owner Connie Stone and pals swung hammers for a year and eight months to revive the building and fulfill Stone's lifelong dream through sweat and determination. It's something of a Cinderella story all the same.
Since she was 17 years old, Stone yearned for her own restaurant. She told her father it was her dream. "He said, 'That's nice, honey, go to college,'" Stone said. She did, but her passion still simmered. After years of working in restaurants, including The 5 Spot on Queen Anne, she bought her own space.
The vision was only beginning to take shape when it was nearly dashed by her divorce. But Stone's longtime-friend Roo McKenna came to the rescue, signing on as business partner and comrade in carpentry.
The result is a cafe that is delightfully personal and inspiringly clever. The plates and silverware are all secondhand, in line with the owners' philosophy of reducing waste. Who would ever think that an $11 waterbed headboard salvaged from a thrift store would make a picturesque bar back, or that tile scraps could be assembled into table tops so crafty that Martha Stewart would want to hang up her glue gun in defeat?
And for the most part, the food at Wild Mountain Cafe reveals the same kind of attention to detail and resourceful use of ingredients.
The tempura appetizer was the cheapest of the starters and the favorite as well. A dozen or so chunks of yam, mushroom and broccoli were fried in a light batter and served with a sweet ginger soy sauce.
The Aglio Olio was easier to eat than pronounce -- the garlic was roasted sans skin in olive oil, making it easy to spread the tender cloves that were sprinkled with red pepper flakes for a spicy finish. The lox terrine was an impressive stack of pink salmon layered with shallot butter and drizzled with lemon and a suitably mild wasabi cream.
The house salad, a heap of springy mixed greens, and the Caesar with shaved Parmesan were well dressed, but no belles of the ball. A cup of creamy, soothing broccoli soup was rich and held intact florets, but the tomato and mushroom soup needed a pinch of salt.
Despite a small kitchen -- expansion was impossible because of the building's concrete construction -- meals even for large tables arrived simultaneously and piping hot. Servers were knowledgeable and enthusiastic, clearly eager to make the cafe a success.
Stone developed the menu with help from a former 5 Spot chef who now works for her. One of her creations is the delicious Rellenos Allegro -- two roasted poblano chilies stuffed with sharp Cheddar and cream cheeses, coated in a crispy egg batter and served on refried beans.
The prawn cakes barely clung together, so light was their binding. Prawn chunks were mixed with corn, pine nuts and peppers and served with a lime and cilantro yogurt, providing stimulation for sweet and tart taste buds alike. The Filina's Favorite chicken had an almost caramelized fried coating and was mostly moist.
The eggplant manicotti was the only disappointment -- the eggplant was fibrous and there wasn't enough cheese filling. The hot manicotti dish was inexplicably served on a bed of greens that quickly wilted. A recent salmon special was perfectly cooked with mango chutney and cilantro rice, but some side veggies would have made the $20.25 price easier to swallow.
The wine list is short but well-matched with the menu. There are about a half-dozen whites, a couple of sparkling wines, plus nine reds ranging from $20 to $63 a bottle, though most are on the cheaper end. On Sunday nights, bottles of wine are half price.
Desserts are guided by whatever creative fancy strikes Stone and McKenna. A quick check in the antique case by the front door might reveal a strawberry crisp with graham cracker crust or a cheesecake-like lime tart with cream topping.
Unlike many Seattle breakfast joints, the morning meals at the cafe are generous but do not send diners into an overeating paralysis. The corn tortilla quiche with sausage and jack cheese was a standout, served with fresh fruit. The Persian Sun was a twist on a classic -- French toast slices bound with a layer of nutty tahini (pureed sesame seeds), sweetened with brown sugar and nutmeg and topped with fresh pineapple.
Open since March, the restaurant already has won over a regular clientele. Don't expect the charming cafe enshrouded in herbs to turn back into a pumpkin anytime soon.
Lisa Stiffler |
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BEST OF SEATTLE DINING GUIDE 2004
Ballard
Wild Mountain Cafe
This whimsical, women-owned restaurant was built with love—and a social conscience. All kitchen scraps and coffee grounds are composted out back for use in the cafe garden; all of their charmingly eclectic furniture, silverware, kitchen equipment, dishes, and glassware are secondhand; and every bit of recyclable waste they can sort by hand is recycled appropriately—all rarities in the restaurant industry. On top of being environmentally friendly, the home-style comfort food tastes great, too. Irresistible entrées include the honey-kissed, oven-fried chicken with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and exquisitely roasted vegetables, and the four-cheese secret-blend mac ’n’ cheese. Set inside a remodeled old house, with dining tables and a full (but tiny) bar dispersed throughout its main rooms, this cafe is about as homey as they get. And any place with staff this happy has got to be doing something right. K.M.
1408 N.W. 85th St., 206-297-9453. $$
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