Book Bindery: Christmas out Cozy

Every Christmas Marc and I pick a restaurant and go out for what we call “our official Christmas dinner” together. A lovely excuse to get all dressed up and have a really great evening! (I am still learning how to do little black dress in 40 degree weather – note to self – buy some dressy black boots and quick unless you plan on wearing only pants!. Last year we chose Mistral Kitchen and were sorely disappointed but this year we went to Ethan Stowell’s newest restaurant, The Book Bindery. Located along the ship canal in lower Queen Anne just a little before the Fremont Bridge on Nickerson the restaurant did in fact used to be a Book Bindery . The warehouse look of the outside is decidedly in contrast with the inside, with soft gray walls, lots of white wainscoting and built in book cases. What we especially liked was the elegant long bar and refreshing amount of space between tables. Marc and I were seated at a perfect corner banquette table giving me a wonderful view of the moon on the water (come the first snowfall, I want to be sitting at this bar sipping on a bottle of their in house wine Almquist Family Vintners.) Amuse Bouche? You betcha – a delicious oh so delicate little truffle soup – needless to say I could have eaten an entire bowl, how gauche of me! For starters I had an arugula salad and Marc had risotto. For main course he chose the steak (amazing!) while I went for the scallops – guess we’re a surf and turf kinda couple… Both extremely delicious and satisfying yet still leaving room for dessert (how fortunate!) we chose the Almond Financier with fresh strawberries. A couple of coffees, seems this couple didn’t want their Christmas dinner to end! Book Bindery, really great food and calm, beautiful ambience – it was so nice to escape the rude hustle bustle of some restaurants especially for this Christmas occasion – we will be back very soon!