Ivars Salmon House Lookin Pretty Rough

Although we didn't mention it on our great Wallingford things post, we love Ivars Salmon House on Northlake. In the summer, when the weather is nice, we think their deck stands up against the best in the city. The bar always has a great mix of age groups which is something that's not easy to find and their happy hour food is, uh, cheap. The best part about a trip to the Salmon House, though, is seeing the patrons that eat at the restaurant (which we've never actually eaten at). It seems that every person we see coming out of there is a member of the old Seattle guard whose hair is as blue as their blood. They'll eat at the Salmon House, but, you know, the only real restaurant in Seattle is Canlis.

The weather's been getting better lately and it seems at any moment the heavens may throw down a 63 degree cloudless scorcher that'll send us all running to the decks. Don't run to Northlake, though. Ivars is closed and under heavy construction and there's precious little information out there as to what, exactly, they're doing. We have an email in to Ivar and will update when we hear back from him, but when we were down there this weekend to take these pictures things were not looking good. The signs say it's going to reopen on March 30, but they're going to have to bust ass if they want to go from "hard hat area" to "open for business" in two weeks.

Immediate Update: Well, we heard back from Ivar the moment we posted this. They're remodeling the kitchen to accomodate their brunch which is apparently doing pretty well. They're also moving the brunch buffet to the bar area and doing some minor cosmetic work on the barge (their awesome word for the deck) and they still think they're going to be open on March 28.