Elvis left the building long ago. Actually, that was celebrity chef Kerry Sear, who'd been lured away from the cossetted confines of the Olympic Hotel by an unnamed big investor (assumed to be Craig McCaw) to launch a serious fine-dining restaurant in the Austin Bell Building that was named Cascadia. Lemon-yellow walls on which were hung grand paintings by Northwest masters, niches for expensive objets d'art, the best-equipped kitchen money could buy. Funny thing happened: after five years, Sear was recruited by Four Seasons Hotels (partly owned by a local fella named Gates) to take over food & beverage at the chain's new hotel overlooking the waterfront.
The months went by, then a year, and one day a modest parish priest from Madrid showed up and asked to look at the space. His name was Luis de Lezama, and his mission was to train disadvantaged youth as cooks. In a 20-year-run, he'd done that, starting with a rundown tavern in central Madrid, adding restaurants and hotels around the city and the Spanish countryside until his Grupo Lezama became a hospitality powerhouse that opened Taberna del Alabardero, a showcase of Spanish gastronomy, in Washington, DC, in 1989, and ten years later in Seattle.
Alas, Belltown proved one leap too far. Not for the management's want of trying, but Seattle's appetite for sophsticated Spanish cuisine and formal service faltered. (Don't believe me? See Aragona.)
A new tenant eventually followed, a gent named Kwang Yoon who'd been living in Alaska for the last few years. It appears he once ran a Mongolian restaurant there, but seemed to have transitioned into the seafood business. The name on the sign in Belltown was "Red King Crab Seafood," but restaurant management was not this outfit's strong suit. Within six months, "Ken" had asked his First Avenue neighbors at the Belltown Pub if they'd be interested in taking over his lease.
Which brings us to where we are today. "What Kenny didn't know is that we'd actually looked at the Taberna space years ago," Dave Tolan told me last week, "and we had a business plan ready to go." Tolan and his partners, Erwin Arceo and Zach Nethercutt, have spent the summer gutting the "old fashioned" interior (but not touching its "million dollar" kitchen). Their concept is high-end Mexican: upscale spirits and cocktails, salads with quinoa and kale, tableside ceviche, no refried beans with cheddar. The centerpiece is a very large bar island that dominates the 5,500-square-foot space.
The big unknown is whether Tres can find that sweet spot somewhere between the street-level taco truck and doom. The Matador folks, Nate Opper and Zak Melang, have found it, with half a dozen stores packed cheek by jowl with thirsty urbanites. You've got to get the details right, keep your eye on the grill and not the windmill. The Dude of La Plancha, in other words, not the Man of La Mancha.
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