Relish the Ides of March

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to Relish Caesar, not to praise him."

Hold the relish. "His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, THIS WAS A BURGER!"

"The fault, dear Burger, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of beef but once."

"Cry havoc and let slip the sliders of war!"

"There is a tide in the coffee shops of hotels, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."

But what began as the Westin's prestigious Palm Court, which became Roy's and Coldwater, has now morphed into Relish, as sterile a corporate concept as one might imagine. (Banish all memories of Trader Vic's, long vanished from the lower level.)

Eddie Carlson, the self-made genius behind the Seattle World's Fair, the man who sketched the Space Needle on a napkin, the man who transformed Seattle's Western Hotel into the Westin chain, would only shake his head at the lack of ambition and confused execution of this once-proud venue.

By the way, the URL given on the hotel's website for Relish doesn't work. This one (relishbistroseattle.com) does, but it's an embarrassment. Seriously.

Relish Bistro, Westin Hotel, 1900 5th Avenue, Seattle, 206-256-7900