Blu Sardinia

Modern and traditional Mediterranean

Opened four months ago, Blu Sardinia is the realization of Fabrizio Loi's dream of bringing Sardinian flavors to the Pacific Northwest. He has partnered with Marcus Dunbar to create a casual yet upscale Sardinian/Italian restaurant in Redmond.

Marcus grew up in Scotland, a long way from Sardinia, and apprenticed in Edinburgh to become a French-trained chef. He worked at Gleneagles golf resort in Scotland, and the Caribbean, eventually going to London at the Dorchester. Recruited by Westin Hotels, he moved to Texas and then Seattle, refreshing the Market Café and Palm Court at the Westin Seattle. He worked with Roy Yamaguchi to turn the Palm Court into Roy's. His experiences showed him the value of great service: personal yet unobtrusive.

Fabrizio is from the village of Triei on the island of Sardinia. From 1978-1980, he attended a certification program in restaurant management and operations at Italy's national culinary college, the Instituto Professionale Alberghiero. He graduated with top honors. After school, his work experience led him to four restaurants in Sardinia, Germany, the Italian Alps, back to Sardinia and then Rome. While there, a regular customer offered him a job at a restaurant in California where he worked for a year before moving to Seattle. Here, he opened Ristorante Paradisos in Kirkland 25 years ago, serving traditional Italian cuisine. He started Paradisos with more Sardinian flavors, but "…people weren't ready and we went more traditional Italian." Obviously, that worked. He also owns a hotel and restaurant in Sardinia.

Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Consequently, Blu Sardinia's menu is heavy on seafood. What's not heavy is how the kitchen handles it. Whether a grilled salmon filet, tomato broth prawn soup or cioppino-like Sardinian pasta seafood dish with prawns, mussels, clams, scallops and sea bass, the seafood is almost under-done-perfect since it continues to cook as you eat. Textures don't become hard as they will if over-done. Many sauces are tomato-based, yet each is very distinct, and none overwhelm the fish or vegetables within.

They call the restaurant 'casually elegant,' which does apply to the food. The atmosphere is more on the casual side, nice tables, no tablecloths, linen napkins and modern-looking banquettes in the dining room. The bar has counter seats in front of the wood-fired oven and tall tables around the rounded, floor-to-ceiling windows. Furniture comes from Italian designers and there is art from Sardinian artists. Lighting fixtures were hand-blown in Olympia.

Menus point out which dishes are a modern take on traditional Sardinian cuisine and/or gluten free. Italian breads and gelato are made in-house daily. They've clearly put a lot of thought into their beverages. A number of interesting non-alcoholic options go well with their food, and they have a full bar with all the usual suspects. In addition, they feature a red wine, Cannonau, that 'cleans' your arteries as it is rich in flavonoids; and amari, an Italian spirit that each region in Italy produces. These are infused with herbs, roots, berries and bark.

With all that Fabrizio has going on, why another restaurant? "I wanted to bring the flavors of Sardinia here, but timing wasn't right when I opened Ristorante Paradisos. At this point, it was now or never. We wanted to stay on the Eastside. When you have many restaurants, you have people to run them. When you have two, you need to be there. So I wanted to be close to Kirkland, and even looked in Kirkland," explains Fabrizio. "When we found this location, it looked and felt right. There are cement columns on one side that fit our look." Those columns will help delineate outdoor dining on that side, and there is more outdoor space on the other side of the main entrance. They are in the process of finishing the vestibule which has glass doors to protect the indoors from cold weather and includes a gas fireplace. Once that is done, they will complete the outdoor dining. Upstairs is a private dining space (no elevator) that has its own bar, restroom, and seats approximately 30. It is also used for overflow dining on busy nights.

Blu Sardinia manages to work no matter what you're looking for: pleasant lunch, fun happy hour, casual dinner, private party or special dinner where you want to go all out. Share appetizers or enjoy a full entrée. Come casual or dress up. They're waiting for you.

Blu Sardinia
8862 161^st Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052
425-242-0024

www.blusardinia.com

Photos courtesy of Blu Sardinia

Connie Adams/July 2015