Today’s Groupon combines elegant eats with elegant architecture: for $15, you get $35 worth of food and drink at Preservation Kitchen in downtown Bothell. Preservation Kitchen's kitchen preserves the traditions of regional Pacific Northwest wining, dining, and warm hospitality in a beautifully preserved 1916 hillside estate.
Preservation's plates of Pacific Northwest cuisine change with the season. Start with a plate to share such as buttermilk-tempura-battered calamari ($9), onion gnocchi ($8), or duck leg confit ($12). Main courses from the sample menu include an all-natural roasted pork loin perched atop a ziggurat of risotto made with apples, leeks, and hazelnut ($25), and the ling cod tronchonette: pan-seared Bruce Gore cod with sautéed parsnips and leeks and sourdough crouton in a citrus broth ($21). Preservation's dishes use locally grown, organic produce and sustainably-raised meats and wild fish whenever possible (click here to see a list of its local producers). Pair your meal with Preservation's wines from smaller wineries throughout the Northwest to make a deliciously local dinner. Or stop by for soup ($6 for the soup of the day), salad ($8 for a salad with baby spinach and cranberries), a sandwich ($13 for a smoked duck sandwich), or Benedicted eggs ($10–$12) and gravied buttermilk biscuits ($8–$9) during brunch on the weekends.
Preservation Kitchen’s eloquent exoskeleton is a stately brick mansion estate built in 1916 and formerly occupied by a mayor of Bothell and his family. Tucked away on a hillside, Preservation Kitchen crackles with the heat of its cozy fireplace and creaks merrily with the stomps of satisfied diners upon its hardwood floors. And in its continued efforts to positively impact the community, Preservation Kitchen is donating portions of its proceeds to local charities.
Reviews
The Seattle Times, the Seattle P-I, and Between Courses all praise Preservation Kitchen's superb sustenance:
- Scallop mousseline, smooth, cream-rich forcemeat pressed into timbales and topped with grains of smoked black sea salt, was marvelous spread on garlic-rubbed crostini. Roasted pork tenderloin, still pink and wonderfully moist, arrived sliced and arranged over risotto dense with apple, leeks and hazelnut. The final fillip of sweet onion marmalade was akin to wrapping a pretty package with a perky bow. Pleasing flavors are at play in chicken paillard, too. – Providence Cicero, Seattle Times
- Every chef has cooked up a variation of beet salad. At Preservation Kitchen, the savory golden beet custard is the most original version I've seen so far: delicate slices of roasted red and Chioggia beets topped by a goat cheese custard and vanilla vinaigrette, which accentuated the earthy sweetness of the root vegetables. – Leslie Kelly, Seattle P-I
Citysearchers give Preservation Kitchen four stars, Yelpers rate it a solid 3.5, and 81% of Urbanspooners like it:
- The food was great and I loved the intimate feel of the restaurant. – Olya123, Citysearch
Groupon Says
Mayors of Yesteryear
Preservation Kitchen is located in the home of a former Bothell mayor and was built in 1916. Unlike today's mayors, whose chief tasks are to sign giant checks, cut oversized ribbons with colossal, extra-sharp scissors, and to dress like children in order to go undercover at public schools, mayors of the early 20th century were far more than glorified ceremony attendees.
Old-timey mayors were appointed, not elected, usually on the basis of height and the height of their soaring rhetorical appreciation of local baseball clubs. Mayors had to rise early and collect the resin from their town's many goose hatcheries before heading off to construct City Hall singlehandedly. When the building was completed, the town's truants and troublemakers were locked inside and the building was demolished, signaling the end of one mayor's term and the start of autumn.
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