June in Madrona holds promise with its eclectic menu

Since they settled in Seattle some five years ago, Vuong and Tricia Loc have launched two new restaurants and had two babies. Full plate? You bet, given that dad is executive chef for both restaurants and mom is pastry chef at Portage, the plush Queen Anne nook named for their Michigan hometown.

They dubbed their new Madrona restaurant June, after the month their eldest child was born, but it actually opened in May in the space where Cremant fizzed then fizzled. Like an early summer garden, it's filled with promise and just needs a little tending to thrive.

Except for a beckoning bright- yellow front door, a few spring-green cafe chairs and a wild flower on each glossy wood table, there's nothing very June-like about June. November would have been more apt, given the unpainted concrete and weathered wood walls and gray flannel booths that are more comfortable than their severe profile suggests.

I found the sky-lighted interior most inviting at weekend brunch. A sleepy-looking couple lounged along the banquette languorous as cats in the sun; another canoodled in one of four secluded booths-built-for-two hidden in the rear bordering the bar area.

No pancakes or waffles here — though there are decadent chocolate doughnuts on the menu, hot from the fryer, sauced with caramel and pecans.

Eggs, any style, come with "bacon steak" and potatoes. Better yet, consider a poached egg, either buoyed by a trio of pork-and-shrimp-stuffed wontons in a soothing bowl of mi noodle soup or swathed in lemony hollandaise astride a very fine duck confit hash. (There's a veggie hash, too.)

Can't get your mind off bacon steak? That extra-thick rasher embellishes a skillfully charred Thundering Hoovesburger. Juices from that plump, grass-fed Walla Walla beef patty gush into the brioche bun with each bite. Fennel and coriander jazz up the accompanying Jo-Jos.

That burger is also a dinner option, along with such main courses as spinach gnocchi, honey-roasted pork chop, braised lamb neck, grilled salmon and rabbit. The range is ambitious, the results erratic, even with Loc in the kitchen.

Rabbit earns highest marks. A sliced, spinach-stuffed leg is the centerpiece of an elegant deconstruction that includes strips of grilled loin, liver, kidney and pinkie-sized ribs. A delicate jus and a side of creamed kale, its bitterness balanced with sweet sultanas, were perfectly in sync with the meat.

Not so the overpoweringly salty ham hocks and green-bean stew derailing the impressive pork chop. Salt also undermined braised lamb neck. The countless nooks and crannies of the hulking bone yielded the tenderest meat imaginable, but the broth's extreme saltiness rendered the wide-cut noodles underneath inedible.

Spinach gnocchi with zucchini and "walnut crumb" was a bitter, gritty dish, flooded with oil. Yet the same kitchen, on the same night, sent out an appetizer of seared albacore that was focused and full of finesse: pristine fish, cool cucumber spears and crisp green beans sparkling in a sweet but sharp huckleberry gastrique.

"Apps" and "bites" are another way to go. Scoop aioli with sweetly caramelized grilled yam slices. Dip radishes in soft butter crunchy with sea salt. Spread tangy crème fraîche butter on a crusty baguette.

Tartines of rabbit rillettes are more like confit than rillettes, but a pleasant nibble nonetheless. With any of these hoist a fittingly named Ginger Sensation: gin, ginger, lemon and mint served up.

Corn soup, a little heavy on the cream, gets a thimbleful of sprightly watermelon relish; it could use more. A geoduck twofer should abandon the chewy sautéed clam in favor of the more dynamic minced raw shellfish zingy with sweet and sour apple and Serrano pepper.

Advise the caring, considerate staff it's a special occasion and dessert will arrive with a candle. Make it crème caramel, sort of like cheesecake wrapped in flan. Improbably good zucchini-lime sorbet is among the seasonal ice creams and sorbets. Get it while it lasts.

Providence Cicero: providencecicero@aol.com