Steelhead Diner's Kevin Davis will reopen Oceanaire

Kevin Davis, recognized in my previous post for his outstanding work at Steelhead Diner, is about to expand. With his wife, Terresa,  he will take over the grand space at 7th & Olive vacated when the Oceanaire Seafood Room filed for bankruptcy this summer. Mind you, there are still a dozen Oceanaires in other parts of the country; Seattle's was one of four that closed. Kevin had worked there for five years as exec chef before setting out on his own and launching Steelhead; his successor, Eric Donnelly, landed at the new Toulouse Petit. The injured party in all this was the landlord, Clise Properties, who had a gorgeous, empty restaurant on a prime intersection on its hands, and so the call went out: would Davis be interested in taking over the lease?

Now, Kevin has his hands full running Steelhead, although he's found a great chef de cuisine in Anthony Polizzi, and Terresa has her hands full, too. She's an accountant, she's attending law school, and she's going to have twins come April. But the prospect of taking over Oceanaire, well, that's opprtunity knocking. While Kevin ran the diner during the holiday crush, Terresa wrote the business plan, rounded up financing (no outside investors!) and a designer/architect  (Elizabeth Grace of UrbanMix). It's all coming together, supposedly this spring, and will be called Blueacre Seafood.