Sazerac keeps the good food rolling
The decor at Sazerac might have changed, but the menu's still a hearty taste of the Big Easy, from fresh cornbread to crayfish and andouille gumbo to pecan-pie cheesecake.

Just over a decade ago, Sazerac exploded onto the downtown dining scene like a Mardi Gras brouhaha. Executive chef Jan "Big Dawg" Birnbaum got les bonnes temps rolling in the summer of 1997 and the party was fueled as much by his outsized and flamboyant personality as by food and drink that merged Southern comfort with bi-

coastal culinary sophistication. Seattleites guzzled rye and bourbon and gorged on grits and gumbo in a room ideally designed for revelry.

That room at the Hotel Monaco has enjoyed a recent renovation without losing a whit of its former whimsy in the process, as one glance up at the massive new chandeliers will tell you. Ragged-edged and disheveled, they float like just-erupted paper party poppers above a dining room framed in scrolling black ironwork and furnished with French provincial chairs, velvet-clad booths and iridescent taffeta curtains in colors that range from ripe plum to amethyst to palest mauve.

Birnbaum is now busy opening new restaurants in San Francisco for the Kimpton Group, which also owns Sazerac, but his larger-than-life spirit still haunts the dramatic exposed kitchen set behind a counter on a dais that dominates the far wall. With flames jumping in the wood-fired oven and licking at chickens on a giant rotisserie, it could be an altar to Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth.

Executive chef Jason McClure currently leads the pack. Part of the kitchen crew since the beginning, he knows how to make hearty food that rumbles deeply with flavor, whether it's a cup of rooster, crayfish and andouille gumbo, house-made charcuterie, or a skillet full of smoky macaroni and cheese. But he includes lighter fare, too: "tiny little bites" balance the "big plates" and whole sections are devoted to seafood and vegetables.

I came away enamored with something new every time. A salad of fava beans and fresh peas was simply enchanting. The tangle of fresh ingredients offered a surprise in every bite: mint, lemon zest and peppery greens; sharp, firm goat cheese or salty ham. Fava beans delighted again when pur¨|ed and spread on thin rounds of garlic toast; whole favas, petals of Parmesan and a drop of truffle oil crown each canape.