Luc Cafe and Bar - Seattle

Luc is a French-American café and bar named after Thierry Rautureau's father, Luc. Located just up the block from James Beard Award winner Rautureau's Rover's in the heart of Seattle’s Madison Valley, Luc is a neighborhood spot with excellent food, fresh cocktails and a well-selected wine list. Cindy and I ate an early dinner there last night and were very impressed overall. It is interesting to see how all of Rover's fine points are handled in this dramatically lower priced venue. Of course, there is no comparison between the two places - Rover's being the top fine dining in Seattle with everything that goes with it to match and Luc essentially being a bar with very good small plates of comfort food with a great French Twist. However, it is easy to see Theirry's skills and taste at work throughout the operation.





Cindy and I started with an incredible, fairly priced bottle of a wonderful French Rose - Domaine de Fonsainte Gris de Gris 2009 ($35) and the best dish of the night - a Tartine of Smoked Salmon. This appetiser had a generous portion barely smoked fresh Salmon flakes on a toasted country french bread with a light spread of capers and goat cheese and a nice topping of arugula drizzled with olive oil ($8.95). It was both beautiful and amazingly tasty.





We then shared a salad that was very good but not life changing. It was fairly small and was composed with arugula, house pickled Bing Cherries, a small amount of caramelized shallots with a nice olive oil dressing($7.95).



For our main courses Cindy chose the Hamburger($11.95) and I had the Steak Frites($18.50). Cindy felt the burger was one of the best she has been served anywhere. Small, very chewy nice bun, tomato jam, aioli. My steak was typical Rovers, properly sauced, cooked and presliced. The fries were very good but being a small cut cold quickly. The dipping sauce was excellent but had an unfortunate look of a cheap thousand island dressing. The presentation of both plates was very casual, as intended. This type of fries needs to be a smaller portion or in a cone or napkin to retain heat though.



The dessert was an excellent fresh fruit cobbler with house made ice cream. Small and satisfying. We thought the whole thing was extremely enjoyable - with a good crowed vibe in the room. At $125 with tip not as "inexpensive" as it should from the mention of menu prices but still a very nice evening.



Seattle if lucky to have Theirry's excellent restaurants - you get what you pay for - and there is no huge profit in the type of operations he runs - I practically consider it a community service!