In terms of adding a dedicated server, the additional sales would make up for the increased payroll, Custer noted, even with Seattle’s minimum wage going up. The math on the economics of counter service for La Dive isn’t as simple as you might think. The low level of commitment suits the Capitol Hill clientele along with regulars stopping in and weekend groups drinking bubbles via Chambongs (a Champagne flute’s unholy union with a beer bong), they get a lot of first dates. “Our decision to go counter service - I think it resonates with our ethos, in terms of providing value for the guest, and also providing somewhere that’s less pretentious,” Custer said. The line can move relatively fast, and whether it’s just drinks or food, too, there’s no waiting for someone to wait on you. And La Dive’s customers appreciate the expedited service, Custer said. “We still wanted to be seen as a bar, somewhere that was fairly casual,” Custer explained, and they wanted to keep menu prices as low as possible - snacks run $5-$14, with sandwiches, noodles and dumplings $10-$15. Custer and Gurewitz like that the level of what’s coming out of the tiny kitchen is a surprise, e.g., roasted Brussels sprouts in a silky mustard-and-cream sauce infused with lime leaf and adorned with shallots, golden raisins, mustard seeds and caraway seeds fried in butter, finished with a squeeze of lemon. But with Gurewitz’s résumé - Spinasse, Lark and more - it also serves superlative food under the guise of small-plates snacks. While it’s open to all ages, La Dive looks like a bar and acts like a bar, particularly during the neighborhood’s prime party time.

Anaïs Custer, beverage director and co-owner of Capitol Hill’s La Dive, says she and chef/co-owner David Gurewitz chose the more casual, order-at-the-counter model from their pre-pandemic start. “Whereas if we had these reservations, and this is how many tables we know we’re going to have each night, our numbers have to be a little more set.” Getting away from the table-service model would allow Local Tide to be both “more flexible and more accommodating.”īut restaurants may want to avoid table service for more counterintuitive reasons. “We get to serve more people, we can actually keep our prices lower,” he explained. The benefits of counter service went both ways, Steinbrueck realized.

“It gave us an opportunity to really try new things and figure out who we are,” he said. Serving people some of the finest seafood possible, during a terrible time, in approachable formats like a gorgeously messy rockfish banh mi, at relatively affordable prices ($18 for that stellar sandwich) - it changed Steinbrueck’s entire conception of what his restaurant could, and should, be. He significantly reconfigured his menu, changing more than half the dishes to make them to-go compatible and, concomitantly, less costly. “And then it turns, because of the pandemic, into this - at first - takeout-only spot.” He dramatically reduced his plans for staffing, with six people on the payroll rather than 14 (and shortly, recalibrating again, went down to four). In August 2020, “we were opening - I had sourced all this amazing seafood, and the quality was really there,” Steinbrueck explained recently. The chef/owners of one spot got nominated for a James Beard award, their new counter-service place named Seattle Met’s Restaurant of the Year for 2023 ( The Boat). Others are hailed among the city’s premier seafood restaurants ( Local Tide) or showcasing Thai dishes rarely found anywhere else around town ( E-Jae Pak Mor). Some specialize in one thing - be it possibly perfect pizza ( Stevie’s Famous) or incredible fried chicken ( The Chicken Supply) - while the definition of a bakery/cafe is definitely shifting in a miraculous direction ( Saint Bread). Love it or hate it, a slew of new Seattle restaurants are embracing this traditionally down-market model, while upping the ante in the food they make. Not anymore - welcome to the era of counter service. If not always tablecloths, real restaurants at least have table service. OK, you say, but that’s not really a restaurant - that’s a pizza place, or a bakery, or a cafe. Why nonalcoholic drinks are having a major moment in Seattle.How Seattle’s new minimum wage impacts restaurants, workers and customers.

15 of the best new counter-service restaurants in Seattle.

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