Ronald Holden has been writing an award-winning wine and dining blog, Cornichon.org, since 2004. A Northwest native, Belltown resident and unreconstructed Francophile, has worked at KING TV, Seattle Weekly and Chateau Ste. Michelle. He has published five guidebooks to the wine country of Washington and Oregon and is the wine columnist for The NW Magazine. He is also the director of wine tours for The International Vineyard, restaurant reviewer for Belltown Messenger and editorial director of DeliciousCity.com.
Artemis Café, on a gentrified sidestreet at the intersection of Bellevue Avenue, Bellevue Place and Bellevue Court, perches on Capitol Hill's western slope, but it's very much the sort of place every neighborhood needs: friendly, airy, moderately priced. There's a $6 cocktail, the Bitter End, made with gin, campari and grapefruit freshly squeezed by barman Chuck Bourg. The kitchen, headed by Nick Castleberry (late of Sitka & Spruce), turns out upscale comfort food (seared scallops, pork belly, venison) for under $20.
This is the kind of place Yelpers can't stand; it's not a high-energy corporate outpost that emphasizes phony "customer service" over good food and laid-back atmosphere. Castleberry himself responded to one particularly whiney post with a rousing Cheney-ism. Way to go, Nick!