600 Union Street
Seattle, WA 98101
206. 402.4588
http://www.thechefinthehat.com/loulay-kitchen-seattle/
Each year four of us go out on the town for one amazing dinner to celebrate all of our birthdays. These are two of our dearest friends, and our challenge for these meals is to deny ourselves nothing, which usually leads to the four of us spending so much money on the meal that we are embarrassed to tell anyone about it. The excess and fiscal irresponsibility of this celebration means that we cannot repeat it in a given year; hence, the one meal out for the four special days.
This year, we decided to celebrate at Loulay, the new restaurant of Seattle’s revered chef-in-the-hat, Thierry Rautureau. My beloved pusher called ahead and had a conversation with the hostess about seating. The restaurant has two levels—one up a long staircase—and we needed to be sure our reserved table was on the ground floor with a clear passage to the restrooms, he told her. She said she had just the table for us. And she did!
Our amazing meal was lit by a charming French candle. Two of us have special dietary needs, so some of us feasted on crab beignets, oysters, foie gras, sweet polenta with mushrooms, beet carpaccio with smoked salmon and chevre, salmon with red beans, roasted chicken, the chef’s hot chocolate with toasted brioche and salted butter…well, embarrassingly, the list goes on. The evening was a delight to the senses, and we sang the virtues of everything we ate to each other, praising the chef-in-the-hat, himself, when he stopped by our table. “Thank you,” I told him, “for making your restaurant so accommodating to those of us in wheelchairs.” “I love everyone,” Mr. Rautureau responded, “and I want my restaurant to be one everyone can enjoy.”
And enjoy it we did! The food was amazing; the space felt welcoming; and our server never smirked even once when we kept adding to our order.
