We recently wrapped up another round of Dine Around Seattle, a promotion created by, among others, Rich and Sharon Malia, owners of Ponti Seafood Grill (3014 Third Ave. N.). They’ve been around for decades but manage to keep innovating. Their first restaurant, the Snug, capitalized on the fresh ingredients of the nearby Pike Place Market; their second, Mrs. Malia’s, introduced the concept of wine dinners to Seattle.
In 1988, they bought a lot behind Bleitz Funeral Home, overlooking the Ship Canal and built Ponti (“bridges” in Italian), with views of both the lower-level Fremont bascule and the soaring Aurora Bridge: elegant but not intimidating, a sort of dialed-back version of Canlis, with more than 200 seats. It offers close-in waterfront dining without the swarms of tourists, as well as a decades-long commitment to sourcing only fresh fish and wild-caught seafood.
Of particular merit: the lush and moist grilled swordfish, and a distinctive, five-spice-cured Alaska black cod with a lemon-ginger emulsion.
The gent running the kitchen, Alvin Binuya, may be the best Seattle chef you’ve never heard of. Born in the Philippines and raised on Vashon Island, Binuya went through what was, 35 years ago, the foremost culinary training program in town, at South Seattle Community College.
From there, he went to The Other Place (alongside Bruce Naftaly), to the Hunt Club, to Tom Douglas’ Cafe Sport, and to Adriatica, a partnership between Jim Malevitis and Rich Malia, where the late John Sarich helmed the kitchen.
Binuya headed up the kitchen for their new venture, Ponti Seafood Grill, for the next decade, then ran his own place, Madoka, on Bainbridge Island from 2005 to 2009, before returning to Ponti.
Having come up through traditional training programs, Binuya now finds himself, at 52, an elder statesman.
“I can make the numbers work in the kitchen,” he said modestly. Not to mention being an undisputed, understated master of restaurant seafood.
A disconnect?
The wine list at Volterra (5411 Ballard Ave. N.W.), that temple of Italian food and wine, is a dream of northern Italian bottles, with most less than $60. But I confess I was disappointed by its tiramisù, with neither coffee nor Marsala flavors — just ladyfingers and pastry cream.
Chef Don Curtiss, whose mother was Sicilian, takes his own inspiration from the hills of Tuscany, so you have, for example, a risotto of wild mushrooms and a tenderloin of wild boar.
One of the selling points of Dine Around is supposedly to highlight the connections forged between restaurants and their suppliers, be they wholesale vendors or artisan foragers. The server could only shake his head when asked about their provenance.
The tomatoes for the Caprese salad? “Canada, I think.”
Local honorees
The Star Chefs dinner at McCaw Hall on Dec. 15, honored Rising Chefs from around town were honored. We can’t name them all, but we want to recognize these particular ones.
Three of the honorees work at Canlis (2576 Aurora Ave. N.): executive chef Brady Williams, pastry chef Baruch Ellsworth and sommelier Jason Rohrbaugh.
Eduardo Jordan of Salare (2404 NE Ravenna) and Marie Rutherford of The Whale Wins (3506 Stone Way N.) are on the list of Rising Stars.
Seif Chirchi and Rachel Yang are honored in the category of outstanding restaurateurs. They have three restaurants: Joule, Revel and Trove.
Brandon Pettit of Delancey (1415 N.W. 70th St.) is honored in the category of Community Chef; Heong Soon Park, owner-chef at Tray (4012 Leary Way N.W.), is honored in the category of Sustainability Chef.
And the team at Holy Mountain Brewing in Interbay (1421 Elliott Ave. W.) — Colin Lenfesty, Mike Murphy, and Adam Paysse — is named for its craft beer.
Odds and ends
I don’t need to tell anyone that Din Tai Fung in University Village has some of the best dumplings in town. Its first store was in Bellevue; its third, just announced, will be on the fourth level of Pacific Place, in the heart of downtown.
Remember Shaun McCrain, the talented chef at Book Bindery (which became Hommage, which then shuttered)? He and his partner, Jill Kinney, are opening a place in Ballard called Copine, mid-2016, in the Ballard Lofts (5105 Ballard Ave. N.W.).
At the bottom of Queen Anne, the building occupied by Tini Bigs (100 Denny Way) and Hula Hula (106 First Ave. N.) has been sold to a developer, so drink up!
RONALD HOLDEN is a restaurant writer and consultant who blogs at Cornichon.org and Crosscut.com. He recently published “Home Grown Seattle: 101 True Tales of Local Food & Drink.” To comment on this column, write to QAMagNews@nwlink.com.