Capital Grille – Indulgence beckons in plush steakhouse: Seattle

By steak Tuesday August 25, 2009

SEATTLE TIMES June 13, 2008 By Providence Cicero

One wonders why, with 31 locations nationwide, The Capital Grille would venture into Seattle, a market already well-marbled with many fine steakhouses, from the homegrown variety — Metropolitan Grill, Daniel’s Broiler and El Gaucho come to mind — to chains like Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris. Do we need The Capital Grille?

Or maybe that’s akin to asking a woman with a closet full of shoes why she needs another pair.

Judging from the lunch and dinner crowds filling the plush dining room and mirrored bar on recent visits, The Capital Grille, which opened downtown in February, is finding an audience. Most were in business attire, making them the perfect extras for a set designed to look like those exclusive men’s clubs of yore.

A thick, Oriental-patterned carpet covers the floor, antlered stag heads gaze down from mahogany columns and ornate frames hold life-size portraits of local luminaries from Chief Sealth to Eddie Bauer. Other familiar names are etched on the brass plates of private booze lockers prominently placed near the front door. Along the upper ledges of the capacious booths, magnums of wine stand tall as if ripe for plucking, should the whim to celebrate overtake one of these titans of commerce. It is all reminiscent of an earlier century, another Gilded Age.

“Recession?” I thought. “What recession?”