Get to Bar Solea before it closes this month
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We're gonna miss these pies. Photo: Melissa Santos/Axios
You have less than two weeks to snag some great pizza and antipasto at Bar Solea before it closes indefinitely.
Driving the news: Brendan McGill, the acclaimed chef who owns Bar Solea and Hitchcock Restaurant Group, announced last week that his downtown trattoria on First Avenue will run its last dinner service Dec. 23.
- After that, McGill is hopeful he can reopen the restaurant at some point — if more office workers start coming downtown again.
What they're saying: McGill told Axios he's committed to the First Avenue location, which previously was home to his now-closed Roman-style pizza joint, Bar Taglio.
- But with low return-to-office rates and a major tenant moving out of the space upstairs, he said sales aren't going to be enough to sustain a restaurant there right now.
- "We just need to hibernate," he said.
Thought bubble: I've been making repeat trips to Bar Solea mainly because I really like the pizza there (although they serve pasta and meat dishes, too).
- The restaurant's neo-Neapolitan style doesn't precisely follow the rules of traditional pizza from Naples, but channels the spirit of the region. That involves incorporating local ingredients — like red wheat flour from Skagit Valley — and producing a tender crust that calls for knife-and-fork treatment.
- My favorite is the Margherita DOC — topped with buffalo mozzarella and a piercing tomato sauce that speaks to the soul — and the zucca pizza, laced with delicata squash and fried leeks.
- Recently, the staff whipped up an off-menu cheese pizza for my 3-year-old, shaping the pie to have Mickey Mouse ears, unprompted, just for fun.
The bottom line: Seattle is losing (at least temporarily) a great spot for pizza and other Italian-inspired fare that felt upscale and intimate, but not overly pretentious.
- I'll be making at least one more visit before the lights turn off.
Address: 822 First Ave. (corner of First and Marion). Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 3-9pm.