An Italian chef comes home to Cap Hill

Anything can happen when you go to Dick's, which helps to explain why that clingy Jane chick is always hanging around. For a Spot from a less clingy couple that also got their start hangin' at Dick's, Altura Restaurant, open Wednesday.

Helmed by a husband and wife team (he'll do the cooking, she'll run the bizness) who legit met while crushing Deluxes at the nearby D's, Altura is classing up a former retail space by filling it with antique Euro furnishings, and exposing the brick chimney and fir structural beams in what is now a 40-seat dining room looked over by an angel reclaimed from a French chapel bombed during World War II.

The constantly rotating menu of Italian fare uses seasonal ingredients sourced mostly from Pike Place Market for starters (grilled octopus w/ butter bean puree & mint, a sweet pepper/ alici/ salsa verde/ salsa tonno yellowtail crudo), and pastas like a squab & pheasant agnolotti, and Yukon gold potato gnocchi w/ a ragu of lamb and Whidbey Island beef, which is presumably aimed at that punk-ass Camano. Who wants what?!!?

There're also mains ranging from a rib eye cut for two w/ herb-fried potatoes & anchovy butter, to pancetta-wrapped Pacific scallops, to a loin/shoulder/ribs trio of lamb from Anderson Ranch, which shouldn't be that hard to find considering Louie puts it on everything.

AR also offers cheeses and dessert (Chocolate Truffle Cake), and, though you can order a la carte, they encourage diners to choose a three-, four-, or five-course meal, the last of which you can totally make happen at Dick's, assuming you order everything on the menu.

Photo by Marty Kelly