A thrilling magic-carpet ride for the taste buds
She's Moodie and he's Boring, and though this is absolutely true, it is also completely false, as you'll discover at Marjorie, an exquisite little bistro and bar where mood and food indulge the senses, sending them on a world tour that begins right here in Belltown.
At Marjorie, you'll find proprietress Donna Moodie. Those who know her from her first two restaurants — Marco's Supperclub and Lush Life — will recognize her warm professional manner and unerring ability to create fabulously funkadelic décor and secure, polished, personable servers.
Twenty-six-year-old chef Tyler Boring — raised in Kansas City, Mo., schooled in his trade in Seattle, France and Denmark, and traveled in Africa and Thailand — brings an appealing sense of adventure to his intriguing menu, abbreviated after 10 p.m. for late-night dining. One taste of his beautifully rendered offerings — among them Sri Lankan curried eggplant, Chinese-influenced halibut with crispy chow-mein noodles and Southern-style pork ribs with black-eyed pea "cassoulet" — and you'll know he's Boring in name only.
Moodie's split from husband Marco Rulff was a personal life-change that occasioned a professional one: he kept his eponymous Supperclub; she got their Italian-accented Lush Life. Following a three-month closure and a cosmetic and spiritual makeover, the former Lush Life reopened in January, renamed to honor Moodie's mother.
It's a place with a dash of exoticism so appealing, after each visit I couldn't wait to go back.
A small inviting bar, well-stocked, well-tended and repositioned from the recesses of this L-shaped room, now greets patrons just inside the front door. As does Moodie, whose son Max is her "Mini-Me" maitre d', and owner of the tot-sized table and chairs sharing space in the lounge with the grown-ups' settees. Max willingly shares his furnishings and provides inspiration for Max's Noodles ($7): pasta with butter, Parmesan and (according to the menu) "Absolutely No Green Anywhere."
Keen for green? Try the onion pakora ($7), whose daring dippity-do's include curried ketchup and a vivid green coriander chutney. The pakora, thick-cut onion rings dredged in a chickpea batter and fried to a golden puff, resembles a giant cinnamon roll. Pull the rings apart and dig in for a new addiction.
Miss Marjorie's Steel Drum Plantain Chips ($7) are equally addictive — and a swell accompaniment for the minty mojito and other citrus-fueled cocktails. The warm banana crisps are heavily salted and heavenly sided with a tropical guacamole starring rough-cut avocado and grilled pineapple.
Further finessing finger foods, the chef gives the Jamaican-jerk treatment to generous swatches of skewered pork ($7), grilled and posed on a banana leaf. He turns to Italy for pizza quattro formaggio ($10), an elegant four-cheese pie whose crust offers equal amounts of crunch and pull. Toying with tofu, he uses egg-roll wrappers to enfold the marinated bean curd, Vietnamese herbs and slivered vegetables, fried to a clean hot crisp ($7).
A joy-inducing, cold-curing chicken-noodle soup, billed as the chef's favorite, is Chinatown's answer to Jewish penicillin — an intense broth steaming with vegetables, herbs and chicken nesting among fresh Chinese egg noodles ($6). "Donna's Favorite," one of several substantial salads ($7), mingles greens, onion, carrots and avocado, nodding to the Middle East with caramelized pistachios and the sesame kiss of tahini.
Lush jewel-toned raw silk covers chairs and ceiling tiles, soaking up sound and adding vibrant color to a vaguely Moorish décor, appropriately perfumed by the chef's tagine ($15). This North African squash-and-potato stew is scented with saffron, sweetened with fire-roasted tomatoes, tart with preserved lemon and embellished with Berber cheese. The latter, a soothing mix of house-made yogurt cheese, fails to best the lingering bite of a way-too-garlic-heavy parsley relish.
Brandishing his artistic license, Boring roasts tomatoes, fennel and spring vegetables, adding depth to his marinara, a harmonious saucing for baked ricotta ravioli ($17) — Italian blintzes built with pasta sheets and fresh ricotta. Chewy handmade chapatis (Indian flatbread) are the perfect vessel for sopping the coconut milk-enriched sauce that lends excitement to Sri Lankan curried eggplant ($15). Batons of crisp carrot, chunks of chili-roasted yam and cilantro-stoked basmati rice help make this a memorable dish.
With so many distinctive meatless options, one might expect less from the meaty entrees. One would be mistaken. Collards, cornbread and a right-on revelation described as black-eyed pea cassoulet (that toothy texture!) play up the Southern roots of a massive bourbon-glazed pork rib, grilled and glistening with a gutsy barbecue sauce ($19). Hanger steak — the cut-of-the-moment on menus all over town — is dry-aged and draped in a passionately purple wine reduction, a sweet complement to the tender beef ($23).
Oompah meets ooh-la-la in a fleur de sel-roasted chicken with sour-cherry sauce ($17). Two hefty haunches of crisp-skinned bird bed down with caraway-studded cabbage and apples. This symphony of salt, sour, tart and sweet, like many of the entrees, is overportioned, leaving little room for dessert. A sin!
An accomplished baker, Moodie's desserts, like her restaurant, offer a delicious eyeful. Her chocolate layer cake ($7) may look like a towering triangle of death-by-chocolate, but it's ethereal in its lightness. Her lemon chiffon cake may sound simple, but lavished with lemon curd, strawberries and whipped cream, this remarkable round is offered with a sprinkling of edible gold. Boring? Not on your life.
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