Welcome to Opening Night, our new column about hot new restaurants around Seattle. For our debut edition, we went to a media preview at Doris, a teeny-tiny Pioneer Square spot that oozes style.
Longtime Seattleites may get a bit of a shock when they walk into Doris. The narrow, hallway-shaped space on the corner where Third Avenue meets the Second Avenue Extension used to be Salumi, Armandino Batali’s legendary salami and sandwich destination. “This was like the sacred place of Seattle in the early 2000s through 2020, when Salumi moved,” Doris owner Angela Dunleavy told guests at a media preview on July 13.
The sandwich counter and meats are gone, replaced by an elegant, Art Deco-inspired interior. Dunleavy says her goal was to create something that feels like Europe or New York. There are candles and fresh flowers along one wall, a dozen two-top tables along the other, high ceilings, and a splash of turquoise at the back. On summer evenings, the late-setting sun pours in through the big front windows. Emma Stimson, of Dunleavy’s hospitality and events company Rally, designed the space; she wonders if it’ll feel cozier once the big dark sets in and the natural light diminishes.
The tiny new restaurant is in the historic Mottman Building near King Street Station…