Food & Culture
Cafe Lago Opens Sister Spot in Portage Bay
Little Lago is equal parts neighborhood restaurant and market, and now we want to move.
By Chelsea Lin November 8, 2016
My love for Cafe Lago’s perfect lasagna knows no bounds. And now, there is another place to get owner Carla Leonardi’s wonderful food—though sadly, for now anyway, not the lasagna.
Leonardi opened the doors to Little Lago, an Italian market and deli, in Portage Bay on Monday, in the space formerly inhabited by Canal Market. This makes sense, since Ericka Burke’s unfortunately failed market was designed (and zoned) as a similar concept—Leonardi is reportedly doing everything she can to make Little Lago an asset to the ‘hood.
From this view, we can’t see how it won’t be. Visitors can expect rotisserie chicken, pizzas prepared in the wood stone oven, wine and beer on tap, imported Italian goods, seasonal produce, and house-made gelato. There are just a few four-top tables and limited bar seating at the pizza counter; all the shelves, tables, bars, etc. inside were designed and built by Lago bartender Addis Manley. Monday’s soft opening was apparently so busy they ran out of pizza dough by dinner—you can be Leonardi won’t let that happen again, though.
Now, if we can only persuade her to offer take-home lasagnas.
Portage Bay, 2919 Fuhrman Ave. E; 206.922.3324; littlelago.com.
Join The Must List
Sign up and get Seattle's best events delivered to your inbox every week.
Follow Us
Decolonizing dining in Seattle
Hillel Echo-Hawk is at the forefront of Seattle’s Indigenous food movement
In 2022, an Indigenous-owned restaurant serving a precolonial menu — Owamni, in Minneapolis — earned a James Beard Award as the best restaurant in the country. Names like Sean Sherman and Crystal Wahpepah (respectively, a Beard award finalist for best emerging chef, and the first Native American chef to compete on the Food Network’s Chopped)…
Pastry: An Affair to Remember
Chef Ewald Notter of Dote Coffee Bar makes it easy to fall in love with pastry and chocolate
Most romances unfold in predictable ways. An invitation for lunch, where you share sandwiches in a loud café, silently wishing your bread was crisper, but never giving up on the idea that one day it might be. An awkward laugh as your fingers touch while you both reach across the table for sugar in that…
Mix It Up. Try old-school cocktails this holiday season
These 10 drinks may not be on the menu at your local bar, but all pack a punch as well as some colorful history
Editor’s note: A version of this story previously appeared in “Seattle” magazine. Impress your guests this holiday season with these 10 concoctions from a vintage bar guide from Glenn Shaw Creations – supposedly from the 1950s – found in an antique shop in Olympia a few years back. Keep in mind that these drinks may…
Sip, Slurp, Celebrate at Frank’s Oyster House
Let’s be Frank about Champagne
The best bubbles in Washington state may very well be found at an East Coast-style restaurant in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood. That, at least, is the opinion of The Champagne Bureau, USA, which has named Frank’s Oyster House and Champagne Parlor as one of the top 10 bars and restaurants in the nation for the quality…