NEW FRESH FISH
Earth & Ocean, 1112 4th Ave., (206) 264-6060 - In any
market, W Hotels make it their business to attract a chic crowd.
But at this restaurant inside the downtown W, the
food often
upstages the fashion. Part of the reason is the food-as-art
presentation of noted chef Johnathan Sundstrom. Mostly, though,
it's because of the attention paid to seafood dishes like tuna
carpaccio with crème fraîche and paddlefish caviar; young carrot
soup with lobster and lime; and Dungeness crab salad with roasted
corn, avocado, green chiles, and bacon-fat vinaigrette. (Vegetarian
and meat entrees are also available.) And there's nothing fishy
about the ever-changing dessert menu that's quickly become a
Seattle favorite.
OLD FRESH FISH
Sunfish Seafood, 2800 Alki Ave. S.W., (206) 938-4112 - It's a
good bet you've never heard of Sunfish, but you should. You
probably also don't know that halibut fish n' chips are a Seattle
staple and that few places do them as well as this local secret in
West
Seattle's Alki Beach (itself a local secret, with panoramic
views of downtown and ferry traffic across
Puget Sound). With a
small courtyard filled with picnic tables next to the sidewalk,
Sunfish is just across the street from the beach and always crowded
on sunny afternoons. The seafood kabob is almost as popular as the
halibut fish n' chips.
NEW SKYLINE VIEW
Seahawks Stadium (south end-zone bleachers), 800 Occidental
Ave. S., (206) 381-7555 - Rarely do civic planners make one perfect
decision, let alone three. For most Seattleites, it was good enough
when the Kingdome was imploded in March 2000 - going to a game in
the city's biggest eyesore was like watching sports in a parking
garage. But then Seattle built gorgeous
Safeco Field for baseball's
Mariners and, in time for the 2002 season, opened the
NFL's most
striking new facility, the corporate-sponsor-free Seahawks Stadium.
The team isn't currently as impressive as the view from the upper
decks, which in addition to the action on the field takes in the
downtown skyline, Space Needle, and part of Puget Sound. In summer,
the view from the upper right-field-line bleachers at Safeco is
almost as good and the Ichiro-led team a whole lot better.