SEAReview
Sawyer
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Included In
There’s a reason why comfort food isn’t called “emotionally average food.” It’s your go-to in times of extreme need, like when you catch your wife embezzling her company’s money to buy an expensive tropical fish for her aquarium, or (more realistically) eat one too many weed gummies. In these moments, chances are you probably end up at the ramen spot on the corner or the pizza place across the street. But comfort food shouldn’t just be eaten while you’re in crisis mode. Sawyer, an upscale sawmill-turned-restaurant in Ballard, is perfect for when you want to go out to a nice dinner, but you’d also like some nachos.
On first glance, Sawyer’s menu has a lot of things you could get anywhere. But here, the nachos are topped with braised oxtail and the incredible burger involves a minty special sauce. After one bite of the DIY porchetta naan wrap with chimichurri here, your standby fried chicken and beer cheese from the pub downstairs won’t seem so warm and fuzzy anymore. The food is familiar but special - like the bone marrow-infused matzoh ball pho. And while this haphazard combination of dishes might sound like a trainwreck or an edible version of The Avengers, it also allows you to try a little of everything (unlike at your usual burger, pizza, or nacho spot).
photo credit: Nate Watters
The space is part industrial warehouse and part HGTV “after” photo, which is convenient for when you need to convince a client to sponsor your company’s annual lip sync battle or celebrate an anniversary. Whoever you bring here will be so content with the well-designed interior that they won’t notice that the sleeves of your finest blazer are rolled up to the elbows while you tear into the wild boar ribs slathered in mustard sauce. Sawyer offers a different kind of comfort that, ironically, warrants those nice shoes that hurt like hell.
So go ahead, have your birthday dinner sipping bourbon cocktails in the elegant space with a mouth full of ’nduja cheesy bread. Host a coworker Happy Hour over champagne and peanut butter s’mores choco tacos. If you’re anything like us, you’ll find that a meal at Sawyer is sophisticated, fun, and pretty dang smart. We’d leave the house with a felon or bad case of cottonmouth for that.