A James Beard Award-winning chef. An exceptional beverage program. A massive, custom-made wood-fired grill. And some of the thickest cuts of meat in the city.
Sound like a winning combination? It is. This is Butcher’s Block Sundays, a brainchild of chef Jason Wilson (formerly of Crush, which closes by choice today), who was honored in 2010 with the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest (to name just one of a plethora of accolades). Miller’s Guild is a rustic yet handsome hideout of a restaurant built into the ground floor of swanky Hotel Max at the heart of downtown Seattle. Inspired by the influx of workers to Seattle for whom the Hotel Max was originally constructed in 1926, Miller’s Guild maintains a focus on doing things by hand, whether it’s the furniture and décor sourced from local craftsmen, the head-to-toe butchery that shapes the menu or the house-finished barreled cocktails from behind the bar.
There are two prerequisites for attending Butcher’s Block Sundays: first, show up with a minimum of two people, and second, show up hungry. Once seated at one of the solid wood tables beneath the two-story Gothic-style windows that cover the restaurant’s front wall, you’ll be presented with a miniature loaf of herbed focaccia in a cast iron baking pan, a salad of fresh seasonal greens, and a tough choice between a rotating cast of three entrée options. Currently that is sumptuous Meyer Angus prime rib, a thick, juicy grilled pork chop or tender sockeye salmon from Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Luckily, there is no wrong answer, though I should mention that the prime rib is especially delectable.
If you’re sitting anywhere but the furthest corners of the restaurant, you’ll get to watch your protein of choice sear and sizzle over red-hot wood coals, which radiate heat out into the huge, high-ceilinged room. Pretty soon, your meal will come your way on a shared, heavy wood butcher’s block, bordered by sides like seared maitake mushrooms, a salad of fresh snow peas, and perhaps the best fingerling potatoes I’ve tasted, dusted with savory, salty Parmesan cheese.
Those drinks I mentioned aren’t far away, either. Miller’s Guild’s carefully curated cocktail list is worth a browse just for the fun of the drink names (The Classy Drunk, Fernet About It, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride), and creations like the King Kong Brigade (Rittenhouse rye, Campari, lemon, orgeat) and the Mezcal Negroni, built on house cask-aged Sombra mezcal and offered on draft, are beautifully balanced. For those who favor wine, snap up a bottle of 2010 Eveningland Vosne-Romanée red or Auxey-Duresses white burgundy for a mere $25, or browse both local and international by-the-glass offerings including the 2012 Miller’s Guild Syrah from Walla Walla’s Waters Winery. You’ll find a variety of draft beer from up and down the West Coast (pFriem’s Blonde IPA, Alpine Brewing Co.’s Hefeweizen, Hilliard’s’ Chrome Satan) on the menu as well.
You’ll top your Butcher’s Block Sunday experience off with a shared dessert (surely you didn’t think dinner was over?) – options include sweet coconut cake laced with vanilla buttercream, five-layer carrot cake laden with cream cheese frosting, and the rich chocolate bourbon cake with salted caramel ganache.
Assuming Butcher’s Block Sundays whets your appetite for more Miller’s Guild (and it almost certainly will), check out the restaurant’s new brunch menu, which features a notably wide variety of dishes ranging from a selection of six “sloppy sandwiches,” to the truly decadent bacon white chocolate bread pudding (banana caramel included), to a cold brunch board of cheese, house-cured meats, pickles, smoked fish, yogurt and toasts, to a unique waffle made with a flour derived from the dried, ground pulp of coffee cherries. The brunch menu’s crown jewels are a trifecta of gourmet Bloody Marys: Miller’s Guild’s classic Mary with fresh horseradish and smoked sea salt, a beet juice-infused bloody with sweet onion, pickled quail egg and goat cheese foam, and a meat-heavy riff using beef stock and garnished with bacon, jerky and fennel. To keep you satiated throughout the week, Miller’s Guild also offers breakfast and lunch on weekdays, dinner and a late-night bar menu daily, and happy hour daily from 2-5 pm.
