Introducing Rigoletto, Opening Tonight in South Lake Union

By Seattle Mag October 1, 2014

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Northern Italian has landed in South Lake Union.

Rigoletto (451 Yale Ave. N.; 206.641.7671), a new restaurant by former Il Fornaio chef and La Toscanella owner Enrico Ambrosetti, opens tonight for dinner at 5 p.m..

What looks like a possible Ethan Stowell and Barolo hybrid—exposed brick, industrial/reclaimed furnishings, Italian tile, opulent chandeliers, private curtain-drawn booths—has taken over the Supply Laundry Building, a laundry house built in 1906 that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The other half of the building, also owned by Vulcan, will house Amazon offices.

The place is very unassuming from the outside, sandwiched between residential units across the street from Feierabend pub. I had a bit of a hard time finding it. Inside, it’s quite splashy. There’s a mezzanine, main dining room, private dining area and lounge, totaling about 150 seats. There’s also a couple of hidden chef’s tables behind the kitchen that are not quite visible to other diners. Interesting fact: piles of 100-year-old wood found in the attic of the building are used throughout the restaurant, mainly in the lounge. The place was still going through the final-touches phase when I got a sneak peek late yesterday afternoon.

Right now, the plan is to open for dinner nightly, followed by lunch and then brunch. As for the menu, it’s predictably heavy on the foods Ambrosetti grew up eating in Piedmont. That includes risotto, of which there are four versions on the menu (along with lots of seafood, meats, pasta and a hefty Italian wine list).

There’s currently no website for Rigoletto, but there is a Facebook page, which also has photos of the finished product

 

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