'Big, comfortable food' is specialty at North Bend Bar & Grill

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'Big, comfortable food' is specialty at North Bend Bar & Grill

Saturday, December 25, 1999

By GREGORY ROBERTS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER RESTAURANT CRITIC

After six years of pulling beer taps at the 74th Street Ale House in Seattle, bartender Keith Mickle was ready to go out on his own and get out of the city.

"My wife and I wanted to live up in the woods," Mickle said. On a fishing trip to the Cascade foothills one day, he drove through North Bend and saw that the Little Chalet, a longtime downtown restaurant, had shut down.

"I researched it and found the owners and made a deal," Mickle said. "It was kind of exciting. It had been here for, like, 40 years."

In April 1997, Mickle opened the North Bend Bar & Grill in the remodeled Little Chalet space. The expanded bar, trimmed in rough-hewn wood, serves as a focal point in the restaurant's bustling front room, which also includes a color television for sports, several tables for diners and a comfy couch in front of the antler-bedecked fieldstone fireplace. A quieter, non-smoking dining room fills the rear of the restaurant.

"The interior is kind of a lodge-y, comfortable, hangout place," Mickle said. "It's the kind of place where the people from the valley can come in and meet their neighbors, and also bring their kids in."

The pub-ish menu ranges from nachos and burgers to chicken dinners and steak, with a few flourishes along the way.

"It's nice, comfortable, big food," Mickle said. "It fills you up."

RESTAURANT REVIEW
North Bend Bar & Grill. 145 E. North Bend Way, North Bend; 425-888-1243. Lunch 11 a.m.-5p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5-10:30 p.m. nightly; breakfast 9 a.m.-noon Saturday-Sunday. Full bar. Visa, MasterCard, Discover. No obstacles to accessibility. Free parking in lot. Smoking in bar area.

Dinner might start with a vegetarian quesadilla ($5.95), the grilled tortilla stuffed with lightly sauteed zucchini, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes and enough melted cheddar to enrich the melange without overpowering it; salsa and sour cream come on the side. There's a meat-packed version ($7.95), too, loaded up with ground beef, chicken and Italian sausage.

Other starters include some usual suspects -- cheese nachos ($5.95), chicken strips ($5.95), hot wings ($6.25) -- as well as beer-battered, deep-fried cod nuggets ($5.95) and veggies ($5.25). Among the salads, the decent Caesar tossed with house-made dressing comes either alone ($5.95) or topped with grilled chicken ($7.95).

The menu lists jambalaya ($3.95/$5.50) with the soups, which would seem strange for any visitors from bayou country, yet it does come in a bowl and in a broth. Nonetheless, the spicy, tomato-y serving of rice studded with tasso ham, shrimp, chicken sausage and bell pepper tastes very close to the real thing.

Dinner specials give chef David Turner a chance to strut his stuff, as with a sauteed boneless breast of chicken ($12.95) awash in a creamy, mushroom-flecked Marsala sauce of beguiling balance; it comes with a refreshing dinner salad, peppery-good roasted potatoes and lots of veggies. The pepper steak ($12.95) on the regular menu, if not exactly a hunk of USDA prime, also shows a deft touch, its zesty crust adorned with sauteed mushrooms.

Desserts run to unremarkable commercial-grade cheesecake ($3) from outside suppliers. While the menu lists a handful of standard-issue California wines by the glass ($3.50-$4.50), beer gets bigger play, with a range of microbrews on tap ($3-$3.50).