The vibes at Allister are an impeccable mixture of basic and stylish.
Not fairly two months after it opened its doorways, Allister acquired the best endorsement a Mercer Island restaurant can obtain: Hometown celeb Joel McHale posted on Instagram that it was nice, and folks ought to “Go right here and eat.”
Sorry, Joel, you’re too late. Everybody already was already going there and consuming. They began crowding into the mushy—in each really feel and shade—banquettes from day one. Gossiping below the burnt clay orange archway whereas they waited for his or her marble desk; basking within the light gentle of the Artwork Deco chandeliers and sipping cocktails with custom-cut ice cubes on the horseshoe-shaped bar.
The Mercer Island restaurant scene has lengthy rested safely on a reliable captive viewers, resulting in numerous abnormal advantageous eating places and the occasional shining star—that often pale rapidly when it realized it wasn’t going to attract huge crowds from Bellevue and Seattle. Now, a trio of recent companies, led by the bold bistro from first-time restaurateur Sara Seumae McAllister, are bucking that custom.
Allister proprietor Sara Seumae McAllister and chef Joel Childs.
“The entire level of Mercer Island is that you just see your pals and your loved ones and run into folks on a regular basis,” McAllister says. She wished to construct a greater place to do this. A spot to seize cocktails with associates, to get a chew to eat late at evening, to have a pleasant lunch assembly, a household dinner that appeals throughout generations.
The upholstered seating and steak frites exist on the exact intersection of on a regular basis consolation and quiet luxurious. The whole lot feels light and simple and a smidge particular. The {custom} youngsters cups maintain chocolate milk, combined in-house from syrup. A trio of sharp inexperienced leaves stick up attractively from the orange Jungle Fowl cocktail. The loos odor of gardenias. Allister is a spot you need to spend time.
Allister leads a trio of recent eating places into a brand new period for Mercer Island eating.
A miso Caesar salad incorporates the added umami simply subtly sufficient to intrigue, the bonito flakes dancing on high embracing the salad’s inherent fishiness in a pleasant new method. The salad exemplifies what McAllister described to me as her problem: discovering one thing acquainted, that feels secure to order, and making it thrilling, turning it into one thing that surprises and electrifies.
The steaks come out cooked to the requested temperature, the fries are scorching and crisp. The meals is nice. It aspires to be nice—and it may very well be: McAllister’s tenacious entrepreneurial intuition retains her targeted on enchancment. Nevertheless it additionally doesn’t should be: The vibes and setting at Allister are wealthy sufficient that the meals merely must fly below the radar, staying easy sufficient to by no means, ever, intervene or interrupt the move.
Greater than something, Allister is a particularly nice place to spend time.
Mercer Island’s restaurant scene is sort of a newly arrived excessive schooler, wide-eyed and curious, not sure of itself because it tries on stylish new outfits and hangs out with the cool youngsters; nonetheless trying over its shoulder on the comfy trappings of childhood. Aside from Vivienne’s Bistro, which opened in 2022 and drew company with a contemporary interpretation of Cantonese delicacies totally in contrast to anything within the space, eating places performed it secure. Kitchens closed early, a TV tuned to sports activities handed for atmosphere, and the cocktails have been, to be blunt, principally horrible. “Probably the most thrilling factor we had the previous few years earlier than was like, ‘Oh my god, we’re getting a Pagliacci,’” says McAllister.
The island’s precarious geography does it no favors. On OpenTable, the restaurant reservation system, McAllister discovered that her restaurant reveals up as a suggestion for neither Bellevue eating places, nor Seattle. When she referred to as her rep, he instructed her she needed to decide one or the opposite. Regardless of the proximity to Seattle and easy accessibility from the freeway making it simpler and sooner to get to from a lot of the town than restaurant hotspots like Ballard and Capitol Hill, Mercer Island has at all times been spiritually an Eastside city, so she went with Bellevue. However she has greater aspirations, “For folks to consider Mercer Island and equate it with, like, a enjoyable place to go get meals or to get a drink.”
Allister’s meals is nice, it goals to be nice.
A number of blocks away, the Crawlspace Gastropub does its half to contribute to the trigger. It opened shortly after Allister, with a menu of the Hawaiian delicacies co-owner Jason Farrish grew up on, Korean-inspired flavors, and likewise tacos. It feels much less deliberate out or polished than both Allister or the swanky polished cocktail bar Asa Gathering. Crawlspace is the one one of many three unable to beat the basic Mercer Island restaurant downside of feeling prefer it’s in a strip mall. (To be truthful, it’s.) However bulgogi poutine, a current particular, and a lilikoi mai tai carry sufficient persona to the place to make up for the dearth of charismatic décor.
The place Allister’s vibrant and pleasant area bubbles with life, Asa Gathering is dimly lit and intimate, teetering on the sting of over-the-top in a splendidly un–Pacific Northwest method. Once I first entered, a server in a floral-patterned jacket uniform knowledgeable me of an hour-long wait on a wet Thursday evening. “No downside,” I stated, and, in a second thrilling for anybody ready for Mercer Island’s second to shine, “I’ll wait on the bar throughout the road.”
On the horseshoe-shaped bar at Allister, my good friend and I snacked on pommes dauphines, a classy identify for bite-size potato puffballs and one other instance of Allister nailing the temper with its meals: They sound fancy, they appear fancy, they style like french fries.
After we completed up, we headed again to Asa, the place the fuchsia neon signal within the restroom would have appreciated these pommes dauphines, too: “Fancy is my second favourite f phrase,” it declared. Our tiny desk was prepared for us, set with a complimentary jar of SkinnyPop. Glass chandeliers illuminate a wall of library-style cabinets with liquor bottles and books organized by coloration. The menu gives margaritas that use a citrus kosho (a Japanese fermented condiment) and an espresso martini made with Boon Boona espresso—highlighting the shared Ethiopian heritage of Boon Boona’s founder and Asa co-owner Mizan Howard.
Ladies on the white couches wore excessive heels and strappy attire, outfits that slot in higher on a Actual Housewives episode than at a winter afternoon soccer recreation. My good friend, an islander and simply as fashionable as anybody there, questioned aloud if these folks lived there, too, a touch of hope in her voice as she marveled on the crowd.
Allister is a candy addition to Mercer Island.
Allister was designed for islanders to stumble upon associates over late-night steak frites. Asa’s slip of an area is made for aspirational moments. Allister assures diners they’re cool sufficient for pommes dauphine, Asa reminds them there are even larger ranges to which to aspire. Crawlspace, with its eclectic however good meals and laid-back perspective (plus the occasional karaoke evening), doesn’t even care about coolness. Collectively, the trio showcase Mercer Island’s first tentative steps into life as mid-lake eating and consuming vacation spot.
