The Room
Tom Douglas opened Palace Kitchen on Fifth Avenue in 1996 — the senior anchor of what would grow into his thirteen-restaurant Seattle portfolio. Twenty-nine years later the room is the longest-running Tom Douglas restaurant and the dining-room expression of his group's working-American-with-Pacific-Northwest sensibility.
The dining room is unchanged from the late-90s renovation: a long bar at the front, hardwood floors, a wood-burning oven at the back, the careful clutter that working-American dining rooms achieve only with three decades of repeat customers. The James Beard Foundation has shortlisted Palace Kitchen for Outstanding Restaurant multiple years.
The Food
The menu runs modern-American with a Pacific Northwest bench. The wood-burning oven handles the kitchen's signature dishes: the wood-fired flatbreads, the wood-grilled chicken, the seasonal vegetable plates. The bar runs late — service until 1am — and the bar menu handles a serious late-night working-Seattle crowd.
Wine programme is Pacific Northwest-and-American. Cocktail bench runs a working classic-cocktail programme. Service is the Tom Douglas group standard.
Best Occasion Fit
Birthday: Birthdays at Palace Kitchen are warm, wood-fire-led, neighbourhood-American affairs the room has hosted for nearly three decades.
First Date: The bar at Palace Kitchen is one of downtown's most-enduring first-date seats. The wood-fired flatbreads share well, the cocktail programme is the conversation.
Close a Deal: Palace Kitchen is the working-downtown alternative to a steakhouse for a deal that wants the room to read as Tom Douglas-American rather than corporate.