Success depends on recruiting the best talent, as the Seahawks proved in successfully recruiting Pete Carroll by challenging him to rebuild a winning franchise, and promising they'd buy Reggie Bush a house give him control of player personnel. For a resto chef'd by an in-demand Heisman-level talent; The Walrus and the Carpenter.

Rigorously recruited to anchor the new Kolstrand Bldg redevelopment, the French-foodtrix behind the Boat Street Cafe's opened this smallish oyster bar (named for characters from a poem in Through the Looking Glass) boasting salvaged wood/diamond plate flooring, a coral-reef-esque twisted-metal chandelier, and 45 bar-height-seats (plus 20 at the picnic tables outside) overlooking a polished-metal raw bar dominated by heaping baskets of shellfish, and a totally open kitchen, who claims to not care who his GF is forking. Water-sourced-noshes start with rotating varieties of NW harvested oysters served w/ champagne mignonette, and continues with house smoked trout w/ lentils & créme fraiche, salade nicoise w/ olive oil poached local tuna, and clams w/ fennel, pastis, parsley & cream, as clams rule everything around me(als) -- dolla dolla bils ya'll! Other grub ranges from preserved/fermented snacks (Sunset Bay Chevre & Ballard Honey, Dinah's Cheese & Boat Street Pickled Plums), to meatier options like an almond & mint relish'd serrano jamon w/ roasted apricots, and steak tartare w/ a farm egg yolk & rye toast, but not wry toast, which you always oooohhh burn!

The W&C's also got a highly-curated wine list featuring food-friendly sparkling, red & white options, plus specialty 'tails like the gin/lemon/Ballard Bee Co. honey/mint Southside, the Henry's Old Fashioned w/ rye, orange & brandied cherry, and the Pimm's No.1/ gin/lemonade/cucumber Porch Swing, also the name of the final thing that ensured Reggie stayed a Trojan. Well, that, and $200 K. And the hot Kardashian. But that's it!