Staple & Fancy Mercantile

This place is amazing. Do the chef’s sampler, it’s a treat!!! Be adventurous and trust in your server and chef.
Food delicious, atmosphere trendy cool, service top notch.

Amazing, came here during Restaurant week with a coworker and again on my husband’s birthday. Amazing food each time!

I am a huge fan of Italian food and Staple & Fancy hit the spot in every single way for me. I offer Ethan Stowell my wholesome foodie gratitude for this delicious gem he opened right next to The Walrus & The Carpenter.
While they do serve single entrees, one would usually come here for their tasting menu which, if i heard the waiter right, changes every other day (or at least, quite frequently). It’s a family-​style tasting menu, which means you get a larger variety of dishes if you come with a group of friends. The pair of us decided to test the waters ourselves before gathering a larger group of friends — and wow, would we go back.
The apps were just amazing.
Started with a plate of cured meats. and a bit of background on how much we love Spanish cured meats: we bought a 7lb jamon serrano and ate it with breakfast bennys for several weekends straight. S&F did not disappoint. After another cute plate of bread with mozarella & apricot, we also had potato leek soup which was so deliciously creamy and served in the cutest tiny tea cups. Their beef tartare was also void of horseradish (which I do not like in combination) and tasted great. The tuna sashimi made me believe that the Italians definitely know their seafood and that plate of fried oysters just took it home for me.
Surprisingly, the main courses didn’t impress me as much as the apps. I really liked the pasta (totally cannot recall the specific kind) — because it was a bit hard and chewy — not what I’m used to but something I definitely enjoyed. The sauce was a bit salty so I would’ve liked that more toned down. The pork chop — perhaps I was already full lon apps at that point but it was not as tantalizing as the apps. Our meal ended with the most yogurt-​y and satisfying serving of crème brûlée i ever had — despite feeling like we were each carrying two food babies.
Now time to find a group of 5+ friends so I can try everything on the tasting menu. Heh heh heh.

There needs to be more stars to rate this place. Everything was delicious. The octopus. The spaghetti. The scallops. The panna cotta. The service was impeccable and unexpected. This is last meal kind of good.

Boyfriend and I celebrated our anniversary at this restaurant. AMAZING FOOD and loved the atmosphere. We took part in the Chef’s menu. It was our first time and we had no idea what to order. It was great to choose the 6 course meal because we had the chance to taste many things such as the friend oysters, ravioli, and steak. It’s about $ 55 bucks per person. Worth every penny! I would recommend selecting the chef’s menu.

Staple And Fancy… if I could give you 10 stars, I would.
Being Vegan isn’t difficult, but being vegan with a carnivore partner and both of having culinary backgrounds-​dining out is often disappointing.
We have been left speechless!
The food. The service. The plating. The food. Did I mention the food? The service. The atmosphere. All just absolutely PERFECT.
My only complaint is that it is quite a task getting to the bathroom in heels-​but this really is no fault of the establishment.
I can’t wait to go back, this will definitely be our go-​to anniversary/​birthday spot!

So I have heard a lot about his place. Everything I have heard were favorable remarks so of course I had to try it for myself.
I hate to start out by saying that I particularly was not totally taken with this place. While it is a cool place visually the service, in point our server, was not that great nor was my meal.
The server had some kind of attitude that was not appealing at all, very cold and not friendly, In fact, my husband remembered him from the last time he was there. Same reception or lack there of… He took our order after delivering our drinks. We did not order any starters as we anticipated just being able to only have enough room for our entrees. The server was taken by the fact we did not want any starters and abruptly pointed out to us what we ordered would take up to 20 minutes or so. We told him were fine with that… and what a weird look he gave us??? Some people are not big eaters like others.
Then we did get a bit hungry while waiting so I stopped another server, as our server never checked on us after giving him our order even though he pasted our table a few times without look our direction, we ordered some bread. She made it clear to us that they charged extra for that, as if we looked like homeless people off the streets, not quite.
My husband got his pork chop entrée and I the whole fish. Very underwhelming! The pork chop was just fine but not great and my whole fish was under seasoned and soggy, literally. Not just moist but soggy.
You ask why did we even go if my husbands last time there was not that good either because he wanted me to judge it for myself without his pre determined opinion.
After all of that we ate and ran. I won’t be going back but do love a few of the other places that are affiliated with Stable and Fancy/​ESR like How to Cook a Wolf, Tavolata and Ballard Pizza.
This is just my opinion and experience.

Outstanding little restaurant in the Ballard neighborhood!
I can’t say enough great things about this place.
It is connected to The Walrus and the Carpenter in an a remodeled old marine supply building. We loved the interior from the wood floors to the brick walls. The lights are dimmed down and the tables either have a light bulb or candle to really set the romantic setting. It really is a fun vibe where you can appreciate great food in a unique restaurant.
This is a smaller sized restaurant that does take reservations. If you have a little time in advance, I would recommend making a reservation as people will have dinner for a couple hours. This is in the Ballard neighborhood, so there is plenty of street parking on the main road just behind the building.
The restaurant has a great wine list to choose from. Several good options for glass pours and an extensive list for bottle options. The waiter was very good at providing wine suggestions for food pairings, or in our case, made a great suggestion for a bottle that would work well with all the food. We ended up getting a bottle of a red Italian wine (2012 Nottola).
The menu is an a la carte style. They encourage you to go the «fancy» route, and put your dinner in the hands of the chefs. This is the route we decided to go after reading the Unilocal reviews, and did not disappoint. It is $ 55 per person and everyone at the table must participate due to it being «family style» and meant to share. The meal included 7 appetizers, one pasta dish, one protein dish, and one dessert dish. The waiter mentioned in the beginning that it is unlikely you will get anything that is on the regular menu. We also noticed that the tables near us had ordered the «fancy» as well, and were getting different dishes. A great place if you are looking for something different every time!
The service was impeccable. Our waiter was very helpful, had great recommendations, attentive, and friendly. Plates were cleared from the table just as they were finished, water was always full, and they kept our wine glasses poured. The table was cleaned in between courses quickly and efficiently. At no point did we feel rushed and were able to thoroughly enjoy all 4 courses.
There wasn’t a single thing that was brought out that wasn’t delicious. If you are like me and enjoy trying different types of foods, this is the place for you. You get a little bit of everything and the food is very unique with high quality ingredients.
Highly recommend and we will be back!

Definitely get the tasting menu, even if you have some diet restrictions! I am pregnant, and was nervous seeing some of the options on the menu, but our waiter assured me they do this all the time. I think we ended up getting more food than normal, because they would bring out some of the regular tasting menu items with some extras that I could eat. They were also great about explaining what was in each dish (some salads or dipping sauces had raw egg, or prosciutto), so I could make a decision for myself whether I wanted to take a chance.
I also was concerned we wouldn’t have enough food, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Appetizers kept coming out, to the point where we were basically full but still had three more courses to go! We took a lot of the pasta and entrée home (my husband was so excited, he LOVED the bucatini with bolognese that had some mint in the sauce). I don’t think there was a single thing we didn’t enjoy. And it seemed like an incredible deal, just because of the sheer volume of amazing food that kept appearing at our table. Not an everyday meal, for sure, but for special occasions it is totally worth it.
I wasn’t really expecting to be quite so impressed, but the service and food blew me away.

We did the chef’s choice menu (Do It Fancy is what I believe they called it) and it was a perfect amount of food. Variety of flavors! Fried oysters were delicious as was the parsnip soup — phenomenal! Steak tartare was good (but I prefer Walrus & The Carpenter’s steak tartare next door) as was the butternut squash ravioli, hamachi crudo, and chocolate dessert. You can’t really go wrong with anything.
Excellent service — really great waiter. I would most certainly go again… and again… and again.

I’ve visited S&F a few times now and I’ve never been disappointed. In fact, every time I go, I like S&F more and more.
Their tasting menu is absolutely wonderful. It’s definitely on the pricier side, but well worth it. I would recommend going with more people because you get more variety. I went with four people and got about 6 or 7 appetizers, 2 large entrees – a pasta and a meat (I think if we had one more person in our group, we would have gotten a fish dish), and basically all the desserts they have. SO worth it. The tasting menu changes a bunch – every time I’ve gone they’ve had different dishes for the various courses. Everything is always super fresh, super flavorful, super delicious.
I would also definitely recommend going for Seattle Restaurant Week (SRW). Is like a miniature version of the tasting menu. You get like 5 appetizers (you don’t have to choose!), but only get to select one entrée and one dessert per person. Not too shabby at all. While I find some other SRW restaurants not worth it, this one most definitely is.
Service is on point here.
Always down to go back to Staple and Fancy. DO the tasting menu.

4.95 stars.
Came in and decided to opt for the tasting menu. I might never have a better idea as long as I live. It was one of the better tasting menus I’ve had anywhere in the country. I won’t go into detail about the dishes (there were a lot of them) but just be sure to ask for a seafood focused menu. During the course of the menu, I think we sampled roughly ten dishes, each one better than the next.
Given the high praise of the food, why not a five star review? This is a small thing, but the first course (which consisted of half a dozen dishes) came out pretty much at once. It was really tough to work through that much food at one time. This could’ve been because the restaurant was relatively empty during the dining time, or perhaps it’s just the pace of the menu. Only one way to find out, I guess (twist my arm) I need to go back and have it again…

I’m an Ethan Stowell fan and heard amazing things, so I really wanted to like Staple & Fancy. I came ready to eat and ready to be impressed, so I ordered the chef’s tasting with a friend. We were brought a dozen or so items — most things were pretty good, many things were disappointing.
* Proscuitto — 3.5 stars: Standard, good. But so tiny.
* Cauliflower soup — 3.5 stars: Standard, but good.
* Steak tartare — 2.5 stars: Roughly cut tartare, but it was so unsettling to chew such large pieces of raw meat and I wasn’t a fan of the sauce.
* Fried oysters — 2.5 stars: Again, the texture was a bit off-​putting.
* Salad — 2 stars: A few pieces of poorly dressed lettuce, how disappointing.
* Seared tuna — 3 stars: 2 tiny pieces of seared tuna.
* Pasta — 3.5 stars: pretty delicious
* Meat course — 4 stars: I loved the salt flakes on top.
* Chocolate dessert — 4 stars: For the choco-​holics.
Overall, not my favorite Ethan Stowell restaurant, but I will be back soon to check out their neighbor.

I decided to drag my boyfriend to this restaurant kicking and screaming (Just kidding. Its really not his thing, though.), on recommendation from another Unilocal Elite member who said it was one of the best options for Restaurant Week. This place is POPULAR. By the time I found out it was restaurant week, the only available times were 9:30PM for reservations!
That being said, the hostess was lively and bubbly. I really wished she was our server. The servers were knowledgeable, but there was something cold about them. I’m not sure if it was the awareness we would be paying under $ 100 due to only wanting the Restaurant Week, or what, but they were definitely strange towards us. On the bright side, I enjoyed listening to them introduce each plate with a sense of pride, and wiping our table between courses. I also liked the fact that we could have chosen to dress up or be casual. If this restaurant were in Miami, I’d need to bring my stilettos and micro-​dress out!
What I enjoyed most about this restaurant was that it offered 4 dishes for appetizers, which is what earned this place its 4^th star. I’ve never gone to a restaurant during Restaurant Week where that’s been done before, and I am aware that each appetizer is actually worth $ 12 – 16 each, so I’m aware I got bang for my buck!
I’m just going to state right now I don’t get what’s with the fawning over the Proscuitto Di Parma & Parmesan. Perhaps I’m not refined enough, but your local deli offers equally delicious prosciutto for less…
What we recommend from our dinner experience:
Appetizers:
Swiss Chard Arancini House Made Mozzarella, Basil: You can’t go wrong with a fried ball filled with risotto and mozzarella, that’s served on homemade marinara sauce. You just can’t.
It was our favorite appetizer.
Foie Gras Mousse Crostini, Aged Balsamic: This is like bruschetta for classy people. The aged balsamic spread had a flavor was interesting, and hard to describe. It was buttery with a slight tang.
Albacore Crudo Baby Fennel, Taggiasca Olive, Orange: Seared albacore (think ahi tuna) was paired well with olives, orange pieces and fennel. However, I wouldn’t go as far as to describe this as something you could only get or experience at this restaurant.
Main Course:
Grilled Salmon, Cauliflower, Caper, Lemon:
My boyfriend said «It was good. I’ve made better» (he has)
Cullote Steak Celery Root, Maitake Mushrooms: My boyfriend and I compete for the «best order» as our entrees are served. Usually, he wins. Not this time! I won and this was the best dish of the night. My medium rare stake was truly something to be envied by all who witnessed it. Not only would a BBQ Master have bowed down to it’s glory, but would have also asked the chef for tips. Everything about this dish was worth 5-​stars alone. The maitake mushrooms were crispy, and I could have sworn I caught a hint of sweet potato pieces. All around delicious.
Dessert:
Dark Chocolate Molten Cake with Almond Cream: The chocolate is rich and has the texture of fudge. My boyfriend isn’t into overly sweet dishes, but said that the almond and cream balanced everything very well.
Seasonal Sorbetto & Shortbread — Raspberry flavored, rich and VERY creamy. One of the best sorbets I’ve ever had. No exaggeration.
Final thoughts: I can ONLY recommend this restaurant for Restaurant Week, just to try.
I think good food is not uncommon and only featured at expensive restaurants, and that an expensive dish doesn’t always mean it will be a delicious or interesting one. For a place that is so highly regarded, I would say you could do just as well as Outback Steakhouse, to be honest.

Popped in on Sunday night anticipating a wait but was happy to have drinks before around the corner. Unfortunately this is where they lost a star for me, they had booked out the entire restaurant to reservations only. It was the start of restaurant week but I don’t agree with that move, there should always be room for walk ins. With that, there are 8 countertop spaces so we had perfectly timed sliding into a spot. Good thing we were only a party of 2 or wouldn’t have been able to experience the mouthwatering pasta. The bartender started is off by reviewing the normal and RW menu for us, seemed very knowledgeable and gave wonderful suggestions.
I ordered the duck ragu. I could’ve licked the bowl clean. The duck pulled apart so smoothly and melted instantaneously in my mouth. Hands down one of the best pasta dishes I’ve had in a long time. Al dente noodles, perfectly sauced, and with a dash of red pepper flakes it was a comfortable pasta I want over and over. Too bad I don’t live in Seattle. I’m mad at myself for being too full and not finishing. Don’t think it would’ve flown home well the next morning.
My friend on the other hand got the second best pasta of the night, traditional spaghetti and meatballs. Had to beg to let me experience the heartiness of the meatball and thick sauce of hers. Worth the begging ;-)
Both dishes were well priced, about $ 18 each. If we hadn’t had apps and drinks around the corner would have loved to order more food. I definitely recommend this restaurant. Would be happy to dine again!

I was taken here for my birthday dinner by my wonderful thoughtful boyfriend.
We both decided to do the chefs menu! Best choice ever! It seemed like the food was never ending and they catered to my dietary restrictions with no hesitation. It was ALLLLL so delicious. The main course was a fish (I can’t remember) but I have never had a whole fish served like that and it was odd seeing the fishes head that I was about to devour. BUT IT WAS SOOOO YUMMY!
A Ballard must! And most def do the chefs menu, worth ever cent of the $ 55.00.
Drinks were delicious as well!

I really enjoyed the Do It Fancy tasting menu. 13 dishes, some part of the normal menu (spaghetti, fried oysters, mozzarella) and some not (blue cheese simple salad, beef tartare, salmon, pork tenderloin). Everything was quite delicious and well prepared.
I probably wouldn’t order anything else. Every dish that came as part of this (as well as everything on the menu as far as I can tell) are pretty simple and something you can make at home relatively easily. What you would not do (probably) is make all of them for one meal unless you have lots of helpers.
You will probably not be wowed by any single item (I certainly was not), but the whole experience is quite worthwhile, especially at it’s moderate price.
Service is very good except that they pace the tasting menu very quickly compared to other places making it easy to get full before the whole experience is over.

It’s been over a week and I still cannot stop thinking about the meal I had here that I claimed to be one of the greatest meals I’ve ever had. I still stand by this claim! We came for Seattle Restaurant Week because the appetizers for the table just sounded too good. We were promptly seated for our 9:30 reservation and immediately introduced to our waiter. He was cool and helpful when suggesting beers to our table full of inexperienced college students.
We started with the proscuitto di parma which was great! I love proscuitto and I don’t think anyone can go wrong there. We had a party of four people and the plate had enough proscuitto for 2 – 3 slices for each of us. Then came the seared albacore. It was light, summery, and flavorful! It was especially nice following the salty proscuitto. Next was the foie gras mousse. This was my favorite part of the meal, and one of the best things I’ve ever tasted! I’m really into pâté but this was on a whole different level. It was fluffy, buttery, and just perfect! I tried to save it because I wanted to end with that bite, but couldn’t resist and ended up finishing it before the end. Seriously to die for.
Then we came to a pause in the appetizers. Here is where there’s a disconnect in communication because we had different servers bringing us different appetizers, none of them really knew what we’ve had and what we were still waiting on. We had to remind them that we were still missing two appetizers and then they brought them out. If we hadn’t mentioned it to them I don’t think they would have brought us our last two. I read in a previous review that someone tried «all four appetizers» but there were five! I’m sorry to whomever missed out :(
So we continued with the arancini and gem lettuce. The arancini was like a fried risotto ball in tomato sauce, yummy! The gem lettuce was nice to finish off the appetizers. I liked that there was a subtle anchovy flavor in the dressing, different but delicious!
I ordered the swordfish for my entrée and it was very yummy! A little bit on the salty side but the fish was cooked perfectly and I loved the assortment of vegetables under it. My friends ordered the rigatoni and the ravioli. Both of which were cooked al dente and super tasty!
For dessert I ordered the sorrel panna cotta. I loooove strawberry and rhubarb and they came together beautifully in this light, creamy dessert! My friends ordered the chocolate terrine and LOVED it. I’m not a big chocolate fan but if you are, this is the dessert for you! We also had the grapefruit sorbetto which was also a nice and refreshing end to dinner. Surprisingly, we were all pleasantly full after dinner. The portion sizes are perfect! They definitely don’t skimp out on food and don’t load up the plate so that you hate yourself after. I actually think I love myself more now for deciding on this place. Thanks, Brittany.
After every restaurant week I think, «wow, how are we going to top that?» and I honestly don’t know anymore. I’ll probably end up coming here for every restaurant week from here on out. It was that good.

Came here for dinner for Seattle Restaurants Week and it was absolutely amazing. Loved the atmosphere of this quaint restaurant. The exposed brick wall, refurbished wood floor, and dim light coupled with the 23 table set up was my kind of place.
The service was awesome. Our waiter was nice and made the whole experience great. We had the 4 tapas to start: meat platter, smoked ahi tuna, marinara breaded cheese balls, and Cesar salad. All really great.
For dinner I had the steak with carrots and onions. My boyfriend had the steelhead. We finished every single bite!
We will be back again:)!

The restaurant certainly had an interesting atmosphere to it; i loved the restaurant’s interior design, and the excellent service definitely enhanced my experience there.
In terms of the food, I would say the food was great overall. The baby beets salad was a nice and refreshing salad. Also, I would recommend the beef short rib; it was very juicy, tender, and nicely packed with flavor. The grilled fish was also nicely paired with saltiness and tanginess of the capers. However, I didn’t really enjoy the brussels sprouts; they sort of lacked flavor.