Champagne Diner

"When we walk into a diner, we’re looking for a couple of things. We need to be able to order something comforting like a tuna melt and macaroni salad or a burger and an egg cream. Slices of pie are a bonus. It’d also be nice to pile into the same big booth with our friends and complain while drinking coffee. And we want the option to get eggs at any time of the day. While Champagne Diner in Interbay meets those requirements, they also have things that we would never expect—like organic pinot gris, a pork belly BLT, and lots of shiplap. This is a diner where you don’t have to choose between the comforting classics or some natural wine with fancy bar snacks. You can get both, and they’re both equally excellent. For everything that‘s casual about this place, there’s something else that’s sophisticated. With your vegetable pot pie, you can drink a glass of chilled red or select a bottle of champagne from their exclusively-natural wine list. Alongside your ham omelette, you can snack on marcona almonds seasoned with chicken salt. The tuna melt isn’t made of sad white bread filled with canned fish and Kraft singles, but rather a combination of local cod, gruyere, cornichons, and aioli in between perfectly toasted sourdough—and it’s the best thing in the building. But even if you just want a burger with cheddar, special sauce, and a pile of delicious crunchy fries, you can do that, too. Whether you come with your significant other for a date at the bar or bring your child who refuses to eat anything green, everyone will find something they like here. photo credit: Belathee Photography Located on Elliot Avenue in the strange limbo between Downtown and Ballard, the restaurant is hard to find. But it’ll work to your advantage—it’s never crazy busy, even on a Friday night, and there’s a parking lot. You can count on a meal here being a stress-free, last-minute thing you can pull together without much thought. What makes this least like a diner is that you could even treat it as a wine bar if you wanted to. There are reasonably-priced glasses of natural wine made from grapes grown in France and Oregon, and you can even buy a bottle at retail price and drink it here without an additional corkage fee. So, go forth and eat sunchokes with some biodynamic syrah or dive into a meatloaf dinner and guzzle a cup of milk. This the diner where you can do both. Food Rundown Macaroni Salad This combination of firm elbow noodles, shredded carrots, tangy mayo, and celery seeds is excellent, and goes with everything on the menu. Get an order for the table. Veggie Pot Pie The pot pie is a tasty and filling vegetarian option that we’d want to have stocked in our freezers for the entire winter. But at $15, we wish it was just a bit bigger. Fish & Chips Champagne Diner’s fries are fantastic. They’re crunchy and salty with fluffy insides, and the aioli that comes with them would even make an old rubber tire taste great. But the fried fish in this dish is where things fall flat - the flavor is perfect, but the batter on the cod can end up wet and soggy. Diner Mac The diner burger here is kind of like what would happen if a Big Mac and a turkey club met at a sandwich conference in Cedar Rapids, had a one night stand, and conceived a child. This double cheeseburger in-between three slices of toast is that child. Order it with confidence. “Tuna Melt” The best thing here is the tuna melt, even though it’s not really a tuna melt at all. It’s cod, gruyere, cornichons, and aioli mixed together in a paste and toasted between two slices of sourdough. It’s more comforting than any grilled cheese we’ve had. Ovaltine Pie The mixture made from malted whipped cream and chocolate pudding is an iconic duo we’d eat all day - but the tough crust sadly needs a chainsaw to cut through it. If you scrape the filling out with a spoon, it’s still an A+ dessert." - Aimee Rizzo

"Champagne Diner, a tucked-away gem owned by Bryn Lumsden of Damn the Weather, is closing on April 7." - Meg van Huygen

"Chances are a diner isn’t the first place you think about when planning an elegant dinner. But that’s exactly what we love about Champagne Diner. This spot in Interbay serves crowd-pleasing dishes for your green vegetable-shunning child, like burgers, pot pies, and fish and chips, but it’s a natural wine bar as well. Which means the adults can drink glasses of chilled reds and snack on marcona almonds and chilled mussel rolls. There’s also a parking lot, which is very convenient when you have a few kids in tow." - aimee rizzo

"As light and sparkly as a fine cuvée The crowd Happy mix of families and 20-something scenesters The drinks Food-friendly sparklers and killer cocktails The food Diner classics with a cheffy flourish The service Friendly and well-informed" - Jessica Voelker

"Have you ever been to a diner where you can have both a meatloaf dinner and some chicken-salt marcona almonds with a glass of natural wine? We hadn’t either until we went to Champagne Diner in Interbay - a modern diner that serves a combination of the classics along with other stuff like slices of chocolate pie topped with malted whipped cream to a terrific “tuna melt” made with local cod, gruyere, cornichons, and aioli. This place also doubles as a bar that serves exclusively-natural wine by the glass, as well as bottles you can buy to drink there without any additional corkage fee. There’s no way you couldn’t feel cool here, whether you’re on a date sharing a giant ribeye or you’re at a family dinner with your nephew who only eats plain burgers." - Aimee Rizzo