Brian's Bite Of The Week

December 31, 2004
 
By Brian Gregory

SEATTLE - Brian's Bite of the week this week is the XO Bistro in Seattle.

A familiar face is now seen in the old Cassis location on the north end of Capitol Hill. Co Owner of Maximillians in the Pike Place Market, Axel was overseeing the new operation last night. XO, like Cassis, is still a neighborhood spot with french flair and lot's of daily specials. We tried the tarte flambe, a small pizza really, and the seafood cakes that, with Mussells, we were told came from a traditional recipe from Brittany and loaded with flavor. The four of us last night sampled the coq au vin, the steak frites, that came with some amazing roqufort butter on top, a pepper crusted NY strip steak and the pork tenderloin with fresh apples and thyme sauce. And the parmesan crisp, spinach salad that had dried apricots and honey hazelnuts was one of the best salads we have had. I do have to say that, in the way of the french, the service was a little slow but with an excellent wine list, this is a wonderful place for a romantic evening. And Speaking of wine, Axel came over and suggested a better wine than what we had selected, and for less. Another item to mention, XO offers take out. French to go!! Next time, I think I'll try the Grilled chicken and Brie sandwich.

XO Bistro
2359 10th Ave. E.
Seattle, WA 98112
Phone: 206-328-6444

First Course

January 2005
 
By Alicia Comstock Arter

Cosseting Capitol Hill diners with bistro fare to defy the storms of winter are two Frenchmen, Eric Francy and Axel Macé, who also own Maximilien’s in the Market. Their new XO Bistro opened in late November.

Tucked into a 1920s brick building that formerly housed the much-loved Cassis restaurant, XO Bistro is a romantic neighborhood spot, with glowing wood floors, deep orange/red walls, and an old zin bar.

That’s where chef Francy turns out Gallic standards, including escargots, moules marinières, coq au vin, and cassoulet, prepared with Northwest ingredients like Penn Cove mussels and Walla Walla onions. Diners can choose from dozens of wines be the glass, and wine flights feature pairings of Northwest and French wines, showing off regional variations in grapes and winemaking styles. “Our wine theme is French and Northwest wine… in the United States, the Northwest style of wine is the closest to the French, I think,” says Axel Macé.

XO’s linen tablecloths are topped with white paper and a side of crayon, and eventually the more creative doodles will become a collage. It’s nice to leave more than a sauce splotch on the table as a reminder of a delightful evening, non?

Upstairs, Downstairs
One block, two bistros, infinite possibilities for the perfect evening.

There are many ways to spin French and Italian cuisine, and even though XO Bistro and Cellar Bistro, two relatively new and superimposed restaurants on the north side of Capitol Hill, aren't found within the locus of the hill's most community-oriented blocks, they've both smartly opted for neighborhood casual.

At the French-spun XO, owned by Maximilien proprietors Eric Francy and Axel Macé, this means you get incredibly gracious service provided by young people wearing blue jeans with their shirts and ties, and it means that no one will look at you funny if you want your cheese plate before dinner instead of afterward. They even offer it that way.

At Cellar Bistro, they deal in the pasta trade, and their proletarian philosophy means there's no regional specificity; polenta is nowhere to be found, but you can get Cajun chicken in your fettucini. They definitely keep the American in Italian American. If either were more ambitious or overly serious—if a few more words of XO's menu were in French or if Cellar took down the black velvet painting of Marlon Brando as the Godfather—they probably wouldn't be as charming, or as profoundly easy to return to.

Every serious food lover in Seattle has fond and sometimes rhapsodic memories of XO Bistro's predecessor, Cassis; as for Cellar Bistro, every Pike-Pine bar-crawling hipster headed to what was once Spaghetti Red's for good gnocchi and even better kitsch whenever they could afford a reprieve from Bimbo's or Linda's. Those are serious shoes to fill, and you can almost hear how the strategizing must have gone as the new residents designed their rebounds: Yes to escargots, no to frog's legs; crayons and white linens on the table; and we'll keep a few of the favorites just to ease the transition.

ENTER THE RED velvet cake ($3.75) at Cellar Bistro, and the wonderfully tacky fake plastic grape bunches that hang from the ceiling. Although it maintains a listing for Tuscan bread salad ($7.95), what came to our table was nowhere near the treat that Spaghetti Red's was. The "grilled" bread was thin and wimpy, and it seemed to have been merely run through a toaster oven. Worse, there wasn't anywhere near enough of it. It was an OK salad, sure, but it was no bread salad.

As disappointing as that misstep was (bread salad is more elusive than it ought to be, and Red's was damn good), it was hard to find a single thing wrong with the decadent eggplant Parmesan ($11.95) or the lavish lasagna ($12.95), which also sticks by its lineage, still dressed in three sauces (marinara, pesto, and garlic cream) to represent the Italian flag. While they're not necessarily practicing the high arts of old Italy, the service couldn't be any nicer and Cellar does a stand-up job of delivering darn good pastas and side dishes. Dessert is nothing to scoff at, either.

There are, however, no two ways around the fact that Cellar's upstairs neighbor is the star of this block—maybe even this side of town. First of all, there's XO's front-of-the-house staff. If you encounter patient, thorough, knowledgeable service in this town, consider your evening blessed. If, additionally, the service you receive only gently corrects your mumble-mouthed French for clarity's, not condescension's, sake and is so genuinely kind that you feel like everyone—not just the fortunate diners—is happy to be there, you're probably being attended to by a woman named Rachel.

Without overpromising, her thorough description of the night's albacore tuna special ($18), dressed with a green olive beurre blanc sauce and served with lentils, sounded irresistible, and rightfully so; it was a perfect plate of amazing food. The olives gave the buttery cream sauce a bright green, salty, and almost jalapeñolike bite; the lentils and tenderly seared fish were substantial and light, respectively, in the smooth, slow richness of the sauce. She guided us through the approachable but interesting wine list, which features flights that showcase Northwest wines alongside their French and Italian ancestors. And she came and went like a bird.

XO, too, retains some of Cassis' most alluring aspects while taking some liberties with them. The cozy bar still seems the perfect place for a late dinner with a promising date. You would want to order the excellent moules marinières ($12.50), Penn Cove mussels prepared traditionally and deliciously with white wine, butter, garlic, shallots, and parsley; or, alternately, the steak frites ($24). This will give the two of you a chance to debate the formal logic of the French fry, previously shoe-stringed and twice fried by Cassis, but here thickly cut, dense, and a little too soggy for some tastes. A good debate, remember, is the perfect lead-in for crème brûlée à la vanille de Madagascar et au Borbon (homemade Madagascar vanilla custard with bourbon and caramelized sugar, $7).

French classics? Oui. And lighter fare, aussi, are served at XO

By PENELOPE CORCORAN
February 11
Seattle PI

For the moment, XO Bistro probably is best known as "that new place where Cassis used to be." Opened late last fall by the duo who owns Maximilien in the Market, the warm custard-and-brown-colored bistro serves a menu of approachable, French country classics and traditional bistro fare.

Steak frites? Oui. Escargots? Bon. Moules Marinieres? Bien sur.

A lowball glass of fresh crayons sits atop each crisp white-papered table. The colors beg to be used, and not just by children. For the record, while I don't personally see any kids dining here, XO does offer items for les enfants. My accomplices and I quickly give in to temptation. We sketch and doodle at will, before and between courses, finding the activity as relaxing as anything else served in similar glassware.

The congenial servers also help us unwind. In keeping with the true spirit of a bistro, they are unpretentious, helpful and efficient. One young woman, in particular, personifies "can do" and "no problem." She's knowledgeable and genuinely seems to enjoy her job. When my table is in her hands, I enjoy the all-too-rare freedom of not having to worry about the progress of my meal. Here's hoping the bistro's less experienced servers model themselves after her.

While much of the current menu feels winter-hearty, XO does a good job of offering some lighter alternatives. How you choose to construct your meal is, of course, up to you. On future visits, I would happily make a meal of soup or appetizer ($6-$8) followed by a large salad ($9.50-$9.75); share a platter of cheese and charcuterie ($14) with my tablemates, with my own small salad ($5) on the side; or, perhaps, confine myself to the bistro's very lovely grilled chicken and brie sandwich ($11), served open-faced, with fries or, yes, a salad of mixed greens.

Why the insistence on salad? Simple. XO's three offerings are winners. My favorite features a charming mix of fresh seasonal greens ($5/$9.50) tossed with mustard-tinged walnut vinaigrette, enhanced with a restrained amount of goat cheese, chopped walnuts and sliced tart green apple. The satisfying house salad ($5), a small toss of seasonal greens, uses a similar dressing with a sprinkling of crunchy baked cheese bits. Finally, the spinach salad ($9.75/$5.50) takes an impressive mound of tender dark green leaves in an interesting direction with dried apricots, whole Parmesan crisp and not-too-sweet honey-hazelnut vinaigrette.

Former Cassis habitues probably could care less about that entire last paragraph. What they want to know is this: "How are the frites?" Alas, XO's frites fall short of the crisp, perfectly tanned and salted standard set by Cassis and its baby sister, Bandol. They're not bad, mind you. In fact, I like their flavor. But one time they're light-colored, flaccid and cut the size of an average French fry; another they're browner, thinner and quite crisp. What they lack, in short, is consistency.

Don't let this news deter you from ordering frite-dependent dishes like steak frites ($24) and Moules Mariniere ($12.50). The former is a juicy pan-seared steak daubed with Roquefort butter and served with both fries and a small salad of mixed greens green salad. The latter is a black iron serving pot overflowing with thin-shelled, medium-size Penn Cove mussels, cooked in white wine, butter, shallots, parsley and light garlic. In the words of one accomplice, Frank, "you have to dig deep for the juices," but it's worth it.

You also can't go wrong with starters like traditional French onion soup ($7) or escargots ($8). The soup possesses a subtle sweet flavor thanks to a not-too-salty beef stock filled with loads of mild, slivered onion. It's baked in a ceramic crock, just like it always was, back in the '70s, and comes topped with gooey cheese atop soggy bread crouton. As far as snails go, I'm down with any that arrive, as these do, sizzling in six little pools of butter and garlic.

Interpretations of coq au vin ($14) -- pieces of chicken slow-cooked with onion or shallot, bacon or lard, wine or brandy, herbs and various vegetables -- can vary widely, but isn't one I'd order again. A thick, dark, somewhat off-putting, chunky-textured sauce covers pieces of chicken in XO's version, served with mashed potatoes. If you're in the mood for a poultry classic, choose the Duck Confit Sarladais ($15.50), a duck leg that's preserved and cooked in its own fat, served with lentils and sliced potatoes sauteed in garlic and more fat. Lean cuisine this ain't.

Fear of specials keeps me from sampling the market-priced "fresh catch." Fortunately, an accomplice is eager to order the peppercorn-crusted albacore ($19), accompanied by beurre blanc, caramelized grilled fennel and adorable Pommes Dauphine -- fried balls of mashed potato and profiterole batter we nickname "French hush puppies."

My favorite desserts here involve chocolate: dark, rich chocolate. I highly recommend both the warm chocolate cake (gateau fondant au chocolat, $8) and the chocolate marquise ($8), a glazed chocolate mousse-parfait confection. Sadly, I'm not sure how much longer either will be available. I'm told XO Bistro plans to make all of its desserts in-house in the near future. These two are among the ones brought in from the outside. C'est dommage.