1 Hotel Seattle

Inside La Loba, the Swanky New Spanish Restaurant Opening in Seattle | Eater Seattle

"Chef Oscar Amador—raised in a little town 15 miles away from Barcelona and who made a name for himself running restaurants in Las Vegas (he earned a James Beard Award nomination in 2023; Vegas is a long ways from Barcelona no matter how you slice it)—says "Seattle is close to Barcelona," meaning spiritually and in terms of landscape and the abundance of high-quality produce and seafood. "For me, here is like a paradise," says Amador of the bounty of fresh ingredients available in Seattle. "I would love to go to the market every day and buy things and come back to the kitchen and start cooking, but it’s kind of hard to do that at a hotel." He and his team have committed to sourcing 85 to 90 percent of their food from within 100 miles, sourcing from both Western Washington and east of the Cascades and leaning on providers like Beecher’s—whose truffled cheese shows up on a smoked candy montadito—and Coro Foods for charcuterie. The interior is heavy on vegetation and the bar resembles the inside of a tree trunk (at least if the tree trunk was itself inside a luxury hotel; rooms at 1 Hotel generally run above $300 a night). Guests can choose cocktails that are heavy on gin and tonics—a Barcelona staple—or wines that feature bottles from Washington State and Spain. The kitchen will also try to save and reuse as many food scraps as possible through drying, freezing, and fermentation, an initiative Amador says aligns with 1 Hotel’s commitment to sustainability (all of the brand’s properties are LEED certified). The food is not presented as a strict tapas program, but Amador says the small plates "shine the most;" his favorite is one of the most traditional: potatoes bravas, or thinly sliced potatoes that are fried and served with a spicy sauce. The project opens Tuesday, May 6, inside 1 Hotel Seattle at 2125 Terry Avenue; given the relative scarcity of Spanish restaurants in the city (Capitol Hill’s Maripili Tapas Bar is a noted example), another one is welcome." - Harry Cheadle