“Come in! Make yourself comfortable.” Chef Caprial (ka-PREEL) Pence stops our conversation for a moment to welcome a man who’s just stepped in off busy First Avenue in downtown Seattle. He smiles, relaxes and removes his coat to sit down. Yet even if the words hadn’t been said out loud, The Bookstore Bar & Café seems to be saying the exact same thing itself.
Stretching the length of one rust-red brick wall is a banquette of dark green velvet begging you to take a seat. Across the way, library lamps line a long table, casting a warm glow. The walls are filled with heavy leather-bound tomes on shelves reaching to the ceiling. The bar stands at the center of the room, splitting the space into two cozy halves. It’s backed by glass shelves holding bottles on bottles of spirits collectively capable of inspiring a drink order from any seat in the café. Add in a mélange of dark wood, easy music in the background and a flood of natural light from the café’s front bank of floor-to-ceiling windows, and the result is an unequivocal invitation to stay an hour or three.
Pence is as warm and welcoming as the café she spearheads, laughing easily and happy to talk about most anything. A Portland native, she trained at the Culinary Institute of America and took a position as executive chef at Fuller’s (now closed; then a nationally-respected fine dining destination) in Seattle, which was where she garnered the inaugural James Beard award for Best Chef Northwest. After a two-decade return to Portland—where besides establishing an acclaimed bistro of her own, authoring nine cookbooks and cooking for Julia Child’s 80th birthday she and her husband John (also a chef) filmed a cooking show and led culinary trips to countries from Italy to Costa Rica—a place of her own was on Pence’s mind again. Though Jet City wasn’t necessarily in the game plan, she smiles and recalls, “We got this offer and said, well, we might be moving back to Seattle!”
The Bookstore, set in the base of the Alexis Hotel, had been through a quick string of short-term chefs that didn’t quite fit the bill. Pence took the post at the end of July, bringing not only 30 years’ worth of experience and expertise but a far-reaching vision for the eatery. That vision includes a locally-based, seasonally rotating menu, with everything from sauerkraut to cheese to pastrami done in house, and Pence’s favorite meal, brunch, served all day every day.
Pence’s vision is already reflected in her winter seasonal menu. “Fall and winter are my favorite time to cook,” Pence says. “Everyone starts wanting to eat again, and they tend to want comfort food.” Current options include the brunch menu’s candied ginger cake donuts (piping hot with jams for dipping), dinner’s braised short ribs with caramelized shallots and gremolata, and Pence’s favorite on both menus, the Reuben with the house-cured pastrami. These are mixed with standbys too good to take off the old menu, including a nutty, salty-sweet granola made with spent grains from Pike Brewing Company a few blocks away.
The bar program, also overseen by Pence, is correspondingly solid: with a spirits collection that’s whiskey-focused to the tune of 130 bottles (and that’s single-malts alone), cocktails like the Blackened Manhattan (Eagle Rare, Averna, Aperol and orange bitters) and Burning Redwoods (cedar-infused Maker’s Mark, Punt e Mes, Maraschino, orange bitters and flamed orange zest) are worth sampling. The drinks are as seasonal as the menu offerings, and just as thoughtfully made: currently the team is crafting its own Worcestershire sauce for use in, among other things, the non-stop brunch menu’s requisite Bloody Mary. As both programs continue to come together in the beautiful venue, this will be a café at which to spend lazy late morning after afternoon after evening, especially to watch Pence work her particular Northwest brand of magic.
Bookstore Bar & Café || 1007 First Avenue, Seattle || bookstorebar.com
