Heartwood Provisions

Seattle's most ambitious menu

By Ronald Holden

It was, in its earlier incarnation as McCormick & Schmick's, a venerable First Avenue institution. Iconic beyond venerable, even. The precisely-calibrated menu featured seafood from a long fresh sheet; the bar featured late-night happy hour burgers at incredible prices. For decades, it was part of the Portland-based McCormick's chain, until, one day, it got corralled by Landry's, a 500-unit Texas outfit, and herded into a stable that included old warhorses like Rusty Pelican, Claim Jumper, and Morton's. Landry's spared the McCormick's on Fourth Avenue, but the First Avenue store, despite its pedigree, was sent to the glue factory.

In a move straight out of Hollywood ("The Kid Stays in the Picture," perhaps), up stepped Ron Cohn, scion of McCormick's homegrown rival, Consolidated Restaurants (parent of Elliott's Oyster House, Metropolitan Grill). Cohn's designers gutted the place and created a single, contiguous space. There's a 50-seat bar in one corner, and 100-seat dining room that includes a counter overlooking an open kitchen with a pair of wood-burning ovens. The place was re-christened Heartwood Provisions.

The effect is a classic, clean, and elegant palette from which to serve whatever the chef chooses to create, whether steak house, fish house, French, Italian, or (unfortunate catch-all) "Modern American." At Heartwood, the first sign this would not be dinner-as-usual came in the choice of chef. Varin Keokitvon, who was born in Laos, began his career as a professional chef at Elliott's. He moved to Spain for a year on a scholarship from the Spanish Trade Commission. Most recently he has been the head chef at Farestart, where he trained homeless and disadvantaged adults. The word everyone uses to describe him is "thoughtful."

As it happens, I was a judge in a salmon-cooking contest two years ago in which Chef Varin was one of the competitors. "Chef Varin's southeast-Asian salmon," I wrote on my blog, "was an ambitious tour-de-force: a red curry butternut squash, a shower of lightly sautéed kale, a lime-coconut foam, tobiko, mustard seeds, tamarind paste, and a crunchy lime-glaze cracker, all surrounding a perfectly baked cut of spice-rubbed salmon." No question at all about his technical competence, or his willingness to stretch beyond cooking-school boundaries.

The menu at Heartwood is divided into sections called Snacks, Vegetables, Raw, Meat & Seafood, and Desserts. The opening specialty is a beef jerky with a spicy chili preserve that was served warm. A plate of red and yellow beets included tasty bites of honey-drizzled goat cheese, as did the accompaniments to a baked kabocha squash. The best bursts of flavor came from the next two dishes, steelhead roe with crème fraîche, and beef tartare with lemongrass and mint (pictured). The best dish of the night followed: oxtail with a beet purée and a dollop of horseradish cream.

When it came to desserts, the most spectacular was a deconstructed key lime mousse hidden inside a spun-sugar sphere; the tastiest was a smoked caramel panna cotta with vanilla ice cream.

But Heartwood isn't just about the food. It's also about the cocktails, which makes beverage director Amanda Reed the chef's partner. Originally from the Bay Area, she's worked locally at RN74, Tavern Law, and Needle & Thread. There's a more-than-decent wine list with excellent by-the-glass choices, but Heartwood's unique proposition is to pair a small cocktail with each dish.

Cocktail photo courtesy of Heartwood Provisions

When it works, this can be an amazing combination, creating previously unimagined taste sensations. The vodka cocktail in a glass rinsed with 10-year single-malt was still basically a martini, and didn't do much for the steelhead roe, but a late-harvest roussanne, enhanced with cachaça, dry vermouth, and verjus was a superb foil for the surprisingly sweet and meaty tartare. And for the oxtail, a late harvest tempranillo was anchored by solera rum and the alpine herbs of Amaro Montenegro: spectacular. On the other hand, the key lime dessert was accompanied by an almost undrinkable viognier overwhelmed by the addition of a Czech liqueur called Becherovka that imparted its (unwelcome) flavors of cinnamon, anise, and cloves to the wine.

In all, 19 of the menu's items include suggested cocktail pairings; this is in addition to Heartwood's 13 "signature cocktails." And this wealth of choices creates problems for the restaurant as much as it does for the diner.

With every dish, with every drink, with every pairing, it was clear that the kitchen and the bar were swinging for the fences. Nothing held back. When it worked (and it did, a couple of times), it was amazing. But all too often, I was left overwhelmed by the choices or underwhelmed by the execution.

Key lime pie inside of sphere

The most celebrated three-star restaurants in Europe have developed tasting menus that are showy without being intimidating. I ate last month at the Osteria Francescana in Modena, ranked best-in-Italy and number two in the world (on some list or other). Their ten-course tasting menu with seven or eight matching wines was unforgettable; that feeling of satisfaction was well worth the $350 charge to my Visa card. I was a guest of the restaurant at Heartwood, and encouraged to order a lot of dishes, but the eight courses and pairings I tried would have run about $200. Not so sure it would have been worth it.

Is Heartwood too ambitious for Seattle? Too complicated? Too weird? Could be, could be. A diner looking for adventure has a lot to read, absorb, and imagine; it's a big ask for an experience-dining out-that many people simply want to enjoy. The servers, who've learned the menu backwards and forwards, are more than helpful, but they almost seem like college admissions coaches at your elbow during the SATs, whispering answers, reminders, suggestions, instructions, and encouragement. It felt exhausting.

My suggestion, for what it's worth, is that Heartwood should offer a couple of chef's choice tasting menus of the food & cocktail combos at set prices (a three-course and a four-course), to show off the chef's artistry and the bar manager's imagination. I would return for the salmon roe and for the oxtail (pictured), and would give serious consideration to the beets, along with their cocktail pairings. And let the rest of the menu revert to more standard fare. It's not a cop-out. On the contrary, it's a way to highlight what's so special about this place: imagination, vision, and meticulous attention to detail.

Heartwood Provisions
1103 First Ave Seattle, WA 98101
206-582-3505

w ww.heartwoodsea.com

Food and Chef Varin photos by Ronald Holden

Ronald Holden's next guide to local food and drink, FORKING SEATTLE, is due this summer.