The highly anticipated restaurant has experienced many delays, but now it looks like a debut is in sight for Nick Badovinus' Preston Center seafood place, Montlake Cut.
"We got our C.O. from the city last week," Badovinus told me by email. "Exciting!" (C.O. refers a certificate of occupancy.) Montlake Cut, which the chef has described as a casual, Pacific Northwest-style seafood house, will occupy the space that was formerly Spoon Bar and Kitchen. Badovinus -- who also owns three Neighborhood Services restaurants and Off-Site Kitchen, the burger place in Trinity Groves -- plans to begin staff training the week after Thanksgiving and open Montlake Cut sometime during the second week of December.
The debut has been highly anticipated not just because of Badovinus' stature and talent, but also because Dallas suffers from a dearth of serious seafood restaurants. When the chef first announced the project last winter, he talked about a May opening, which was later pushed back to September, and more recently November. Now he is at long last staffed up. "It's a good crew," he says, "but finding good cooks in this market has become a crazy challenge."
And now the chef faces another challenge: The availability of some of the seafood he has been eager to feature, such as Dungeness crabs, a Pacific Northwest treasure. A toxic algae bloom has delayed the season for California Dungeness crabs, which traditionally begins Nov. 15. "Tough for a Seattle kid" to see the price go up and availability go down "for something we always took for granted growing up," he says. Nevertheless, "I'm hoping we can get our hands on some for the opening. There are crabs to be had, but the price is nuts."
