The Restaurant
Renee Erickson is Seattle's most respected restaurateur — the force behind The Walrus and the Carpenter, Barnacle, and a constellation of restaurants that have shaped the city's culinary identity over the past fifteen years. When Amazon asked her to open a restaurant inside the Amazon Spheres — the giant glass biospheres that anchor the company's Belltown campus — the result could have been a corporate cafeteria dressed up for PR. Instead, Erickson created something genuinely remarkable: a room that functions as one of the most spectacular dining environments in the Pacific Northwest, serving food that transcends its extraordinary surroundings.
The Spheres themselves are a feat of engineering — three interconnected glass domes enclosing 40,000 plants from 400 species, creating a rainforest environment in the middle of downtown Seattle. Willmott's Ghost occupies a position within this glass-and-greenery cathedral, with tables surrounded by fig trees, tropical palms, and the constant ambient sound of the building's climate control maintaining conditions for plants that would not otherwise survive a Seattle winter.
Wallpaper* magazine featured the space as one of the most architecturally significant restaurant openings in North America — a recognition that acknowledges what makes Willmott's Ghost unique: the architecture does things that no other restaurant in the city can replicate.
The Food
The menu is anchored by Roman-style pizza al taglio — thick-crust, rectangular, sold by weight and cut with scissors, a format more familiar in the neighborhood bakeries of Rome's Testaccio district than in fine dining settings. Erickson has adapted the format for Seattle without domesticating it: the dough is made with long fermentation, the toppings are seasonal and Pacific Northwest-inflected, the execution is serious.
Alongside the pizza: shareable small plates in the aperitivo tradition — cured meats from local producers, pickled vegetables from the season, cheese from Pacific Northwest and Italian producers, and the kind of briny antipasti that make a Campari spritz sing. The drinks program is built around Italian aperitivo culture: spritzes, low-ABV cocktails, natural wines from Italian and Pacific Northwest producers.
The kitchen changes its menu weekly based on seasonal availability — another Erickson signature. Don't expect to find the same topping combinations you read about elsewhere; what's on the pizza when you arrive depends entirely on what arrived that morning from the farms.
Why It's Perfect for Team Dinners
Willmott's Ghost solves the perennial team dinner problem: finding a space that is spectacular enough to signal appreciation, relaxed enough for everyone to enjoy themselves, and flexible enough to accommodate groups with different dietary preferences. The sharable format of al taglio pizza and small plates means no one is navigating an individual menu; the food arrives at the table in waves and is shared by the group.
The Spheres setting does the work of making the event memorable before the food arrives. Visiting executives who have been to Seattle dozens of times will not have dined here. The combination of novelty and quality makes team dinners at Willmott's Ghost genuinely unusual in a city where the options for group entertaining can feel samey.
For birthday celebrations, the birthday occupant gets to tell the story of the Spheres — a kind of ambient entertainment that takes the pressure off anyone who hasn't planned elaborate activities. The aperitivo program is also well-suited to pre-dinner drinks that loosen a group before food arrives.
Practical Notes
Access to the Spheres requires entering through the main ground-floor entrance on 6th Avenue. Parking validation is available in the Day1 garage. The restaurant is accessible to the public — not restricted to Amazon employees — but confirmation of this is worth checking when booking, as the policy occasionally creates confusion for first-time visitors.
Book through OpenTable. Weekend dinner slots fill within days of opening — the combination of the Spheres setting and Erickson's reputation makes this one of Seattle's most in-demand bookings for group entertaining. Weeknight lunch service (Tuesday through Friday) is significantly more accessible and worth considering for business lunches with a theatrical backdrop.