Seattle Food: Copine

Tempura fried salmon topped with creme fraiche and salmon roe

I know I promised photos of Siena's beautiful cathedral today, but when I have an amazing meal all bets are off. Mr G and I went to a new restaurant, Copine, for his birthday and it was the best meal we've had in Seattle. So good, in fact, that we made a reservation for my birthday before we even left (which means there may be even more photos soon).

The meal started with the lovely little bite pictured above. 

For our starters Mr G had an heirloom tomato salad that looked like a piece of art:

 Heirloom tomato on top of ricotta, sliced zucchini and yellow squash with caramelized hazelnuts.

Given that we are fully into summer I went with a chilled sweet corn soup:

Creamy sweet corn with tiny braised chanterelle mushrooms, chives, and whole corn kernels

At this point, we were in love, but hesitant because entrees are where things can go wrong. Not in this case, thanks not only to the food, but to our server whose descriptions and explanations of each dish helped us make the best choice.

 On the menu this is: Pithiviers de Canard. What? I had an idea that canard means duck but the other word? No idea. Well, a pithivier is a small round pie made of puff pastry. So...this was duck confit in puff pastry with grilled nectarines and turnips.

I had the pork loin with cabbage slaw,  spätzle with tiny slices of apple and a maple-bourbon jus. The combination of bright crunch from the slaw against the earthy flavor of the pork and spätzle was wonderful.

Because it is physically impossible for me to leave a restaurant without dessert AND it was Mr. G's birthday:

A dark chocolate gateau on a crisp crust with strawberry ice cream and fresh strawberries. Absolute perfection.

This really was a marvelous meal, with fresh, local ingredients, and enhanced by the kind of service that is attentive but not annoying. The fact that it's only been open for less than a month and is already running this smoothly is a good sign for Seattle foodies. I'm already planning what I'm going to order for my birthday dinner...