The Seattle Weekly does a fairly decent job of describing the situation at Kurrent Restaurant on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. I had some of the same feelings. The sparkle from the customers seated at the ice bar is an amusing contrast to the hardcore patrons at Kincora Pub right next door. While Kurrent may want to be the uber-chic Salty’s-meets-Monsoon-Restaurant it comes in a bit short. On most nights the ice martini bar draws a decent crowd, thanks in part to their excellent food specials during their double happy hour every night. Drinks are fine but the professional and affluent crowd from downtown and Belltown is just not ready to surrender into having that fancy dinner at a glowing post-modern martini bar on Capitol Hill. Their attempt is uber-chic, however their dining room and presentation lacks the classiness and elegance afforded to restaurants like Monsoon and Wild Ginger.
While their menu items sounded innovative and intriguing the prices seemed a tad bit high. Of course they want to be more than a martini bar hence they have been “sorting out the kinks” in their menu. But for now their dining room does make for convenient overflow for the bar (however, the waitress did inquire if we would be ordering food before they would seat us). Fortunately, Kurrent did an excellent job of establishing a gay-friendly, albeit at times very straight, ice martini bar. For now, judging from business, that should keep them afloat for a while.
