Hungrygrrl

The entrance to the Corson Building feels like something out of a storybook, as if inside the heavy door you might find a huge feast, mid-stride.

Instead when we arrived at 6pm on Wednesday the dining room was empty, the lights just starting to glow in the late summer evening. It was like an old French farmhouse, with thick boards, exposed brick, and a stone fireplace.

The place was built in 1910 as someone’s home. In the 1920s it was taken over by an architecture firm who expanded it and dubbed it “The Corson Building,” etching the name in stone. Then last year Matt Dillon and his partner Wylie Bush (of Joe Bar) decided to make it their new restaurant, adding on a kitchen. The renovations and the idyllic gardens give it a rustic feel that almost makes you forget you’re in the middle of industrial Georgetown, until the trains come rumbling past a few feet away.

Unlike Matt Dillon’s other restaurant (Sitka & Spruce), the Corson Building initially offered only a set menu at a fairly steep price ($90 without wine, $120 with). They’ve recently expanded their offerings, now serving an a la carte menu on Wednesdays, brunch on Sundays ($23), and a cheaper set menu on Sunday evenings ($60 with wine). We picked a Wednesday and found the a la carte menu so approachably small we almost ordered the whole thing.

Highlights were a warm plum salad (with plums picked fresh from the garden), some beautiful treviso greens tossed with chanterelles, and an impressively cooked squid entree– perfectly seared and yet surprisingly tender. A dessert of huckleberry clafoutis was the peak of the meal, steaming hot and custardy, like something your grandmother would make. It was a bit long in coming (we waited half in hour) but our server brought out a few glasses of a leafy sweet dessert wine to tide us over.

There were a few stumbles—beautiful local lobster mushrooms that were just shy of perfectly cooked and thus not ringing in flavor, and beet greens that came out in a mushy pile that would embarrass even the most casual home cook. I also didn’t quite understand the point of potted rabbit, which tasted like the canned chicken my mother used to buy.

But overall it was a wonderful meal. The place felt magical. While we sat the room filled up, ringing with voices and flickering candles at the long communal tables.

On our way out we wandered through the gardens, discovering a terrace on one side with an outdoor oven that would be perfect for evening wine tastings, perhaps with a few grilled pizzas.

I hope we’ll be back. Maybe for brunch.

………………………………………………………………….

The Corson Building

5609 Corson Ave S
Seattle, WA 98108
www.thecorsonbuilding.com

(206) 762-3330