Dining Deals
A bright spot in Fremont for cozy, creative lunch and brunch

By Kathryn Robinson
Special to The Seattle Times

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What fonder dream could there be of a wintry January weekend than a cozy neighborhood hidey-hole for a lingering brunch? Welcome to Persimmon, Fremont's newest lunch/brunch salon, whose owners Sara Moot and Tim Larson favor local produce, organic ingredients and dishes that whisper little French nothings.

The place is charming, its front room painted brightest persimmon under an aubergine sky and scattered with large tables around a counter. (If you're intent on dining a deux, better arrive early: Dining becomes a shared-table event as soon as the place fills up.) In back is a sexy vermilion chamber with one big table and an Asian aesthetic: A good place for a celebratory meal for up to 14.

Persimmon 4256 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle; 206-632-0760 Lunch/brunch Recommended $$ Hours: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays, 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. No alcohol (yet) / credit cards: AE, MC, V / no smoking / no obstacles to access.

And celebrate one will, particularly if one has happened in for brunch.

A tight little list includes omelets, hashes, crêpes, a Lyonnaise salad and a splendid BLT, which teams Niman Ranch bacon, local tomatoes and crunchy romaine with two substantial slices of Essential Baking Co. Columbia bread. A vegetarian version subs grilled crispy haloomi (sheeps' milk) cheese for the bacon.

It's all luscious and lovely and simple in a good way, with attention paid essential details like fresh-squeezed orange juice and fresh homemade chive biscuits and very good coffee. There is no espresso. ("Only place in town," Moot declares proudly.)

There is also, it should be noted, nothing more celebratory to drink ... yet. (Moot and Larson are to receive their beer and wine license soon.)

The lunch list includes salads and all manner of grilled sandwiches, which is served until 7 p.m. — the end, for now anyway, of Persimmon's day. Alas.

Check please

Gruyère and jambon omelet: A damn fine plateful of breakfast, if you ask me. So the omelet was a little runny; the ham and cheese fillings were plentiful and full of flavor. Alongside came a heap of grilled boutique potatoes and a noble chive biscuit, which was too bland until I applied a thick slathering of huckleberry jam.

Crêpes with Calvados and sautéed apples: Best of the items we sampled were these crêpes, delicately wrought — crunchy at the edges! — and filled with warm, al dente apple slices and so much of the heady French apple brandy you could breathe the alcohol from across the table. Dollops of real whipped cream crowned the plate lavishly.

Side of Niman Ranch bacon: Who'd have thought a slice of bacon would ever come to feel like one of the safest meats around? Niman Ranch, the Oakland-based cured-meat purveyor and one of the pioneers of free-range, hormone-free meat production, produces some of the best tasting thick-sliced bacon in the world. At a buck a slice, you can order it at Persimmon as a savory and very welcome complement to the crêpes.

Itemized bill, brunch for 2

Gruyère and jambon omelet $8.50

Crêpes with Calvados and sautéed apples $9.00

Side of Niman Ranch bacon $2.00

Tax $1.71

Total $21.21

Kathryn Robinson: kathrynrobinson@speakeasy.net

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