By DAN RESTIONE
Stick a Fork In It

Chefs and restaurant owners aren't as superstitious as sailors, but as Anthony Bourdain has said- there's often a haunted feeling to certain locations where the ghosts of failed eateries rattle their chains, maliciously wishing doom on the current occupants. Olivar has taken over a spot where a couple of places have been born and died untimely deaths, but there's a lot going for this little brick building just off Broadway on Capitol Hill, and a lot going for what's happening inside at Olivar.

The inside looks as nice as the outside, (check out the murals in the photo gallery!) cozy but low-key sophisticated that murmurs "Excellent Date Place" in your ear. The service- while still settling in to new routines and new menus (the offerings swap about depending on what Chef Phillipe Thomelin can find fresh) is friendly but not pushy.

The menu is mostly small plates- about a dozen- hot and cold and drawn from Spanish and Basque classics. They're priced between 5 and 15 dollars. There's a shorter large plate selection in the 16 dollar range...as well as a prix fix menu that's very reasonable. If you're still up for it, there are three desserts.

My Avacado, Prawns, and Grapefruit Cocktail was really a salad- and fantastic. I loved the contrasting tastes- the tart, sour grapefruit leveled out with the creamy smooth avocado and then lifted with the simple, clean taste of the shrimp. I love a salad that is big on taste but leaves plenty of room for the meat.

And meat I got- starting with the hot small plate of Babada Asturiana...a kind of Spanish cousin of the french cassoulet. Soft and meaty white beans simmered with slices of zingy chorizo, chunks of Serrano ham, and....blood sausage (for God's sake- don't be scared off by the name! It's fantastic. Hug your inner carnivore! Love him or her!) And the juices that collect at the bottom make a great mopping sauce for your table bread.

For large plates, I went with the Conejo al Ajillo con Pasta Fresca and the Cazuela de Arroz con Mariscos- basically that first one is Rabbit in a very understated garlic sauce on top of wide, fresh pasta noodles....and the second- a hearty bowl of bomba rice with shellfish and rockfish with a saffron broth. The rabbit was the first sign of a newborn restaurant line- it was a little on the dry side and I found the sauce a mite thin. It was better with the al dente pasta than the rabbit. The individual parts of the seafood bowl were all excellent- the shellfish was fresh, the rockfish flakey and moist, the rice all fatted up from the saffron sauce. As a whole- the combination didn't knock me off my chair- but man- I couldn't stop eating it. Sometimes the picky, critical part of your brain has to stop waiting for the next greatest taste in your life and let you enjoy something really good, but not epiphany inducing.

I couldn't get to the desserts- but I yearned to dig my fork into the Lavender Creme Brulee and you can bet I will the next time I drop in.

And have no doubt, there WILL be a next time. Olivar is only days old and already it's kitchen and front-of-the-house staff are doing solid work. I'm going to keep tabs on this place- partly because there's so much more to try and because I can't wait to see what it's like when the growing pains subside.

As far as I'm concerned... the ghosts can moan all they want. Like the little lady in "Poltergeist" said... "this house is clean."

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Olivar: 806 East Roy Street, Seattle, WA 98102 | Map