Restaurant Report: Stateside in Seattle

The New York Times- After working with Daniel Boulud in New York and Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York, Paris and Shanghai, Eric Johnson moved to Seattle to be near family, enjoy the outdoors and start his own restaurant. The result is Stateside, which opened in December in a former parking garage, where the chef is bringing together those culinary experiences with his travels in Asia by artfully recreating French-Vietnamese dishes.

The space captures the colonial feel you sometimes find in Vietnam, with palm-tree wallpaper, Edison lights and patina mirrors. The concrete floor is original from 1910, parking stripes removed.

Mr. Johnson considers Vietnamese cuisine “the natural meeting point of Chinese and French food,” but what sets his versions apart is his attention to detail and his determination to deliver complex and greatly satisfying “layers of savoriness.”