Local

Is Seattle dining too casual for fancy clothes?

Does Seattle shun the suit and tie? 

SEATTLE — Seattle dining too casual for a tie? Too laid back for a nice jacket? It’s a question recently put to Seattle’s Reddit forum, and one that sparked quite a back-and-forth — mostly pushback warning to keep ties away from our bars.

Seattle has been known for its own West Coast brand of casual — plaid shirts, Seahawks jerseys, plenty of denim, sandals and socks (though I think most, even locals, can agree that’s going too far). But are there gems in the Emerald City where people can get gussied up for a fancy night out? Or is Seattle culture not fit for a suit and tie? One out-of-towner posted this question on Reddit:

Some friends and I want to go out in Seattle – but want to go somewhere where we get to suit up. Anybody have recommendations? We are hoping for more of a bar rather than a restaurant.

Whether it was an issue of fancy Seattle dining or a night out at a high-end bar, the best advice Seattleites could offer was to go to the East Coast for an upscale environment. And if you don’t want to travel that far, Bellevue could work.

You can be sitting down for a $100 steak and some dudebro will still be there in track pants and a backwards hat.

… part of the reason I love it here. You can wear a suit or a tutu anywhere you want and nobody judges or looks twice. For stubby though I might say find a club in Bellevue or expect to get shot down in Seattle proper.

The dive bars are where it's at in Seattle. Glad there are no b******* dress codes.

It seems Seattle leans more Ted Mosby than Barney Stinson. Or more Nick Miller than Schmidt. Whatever your sitcom, the Northwest is more apt for jeans than slacks. But according to Seattle celebrity chef Tom Douglas, that’s just the Seattle dining culture, but it’s also not a factor unique to the Northwest. The chef and restaurateur owns a collection of establishments to the delight of foodies, such as the Dahlia Lounge, the Palace Kitchen, Lola, or Cuoco. But he doesn’t require a dress code.

“Seattle is still more casual, but the whole country is more casual than it used to be,” Douglas said. “When I first moved here – 40 years ago – there were a few places, but still not a ton of places that are white tablecloth. You have to go to Vancouver or to San Francisco on the West Coast to get that very high-end.”

“You see a little bit more pretense in Manhattan … or in Paris, but even in Paris the dress of choice is jeans and a sports jacket for a maitre d’. It used to always be a tux,” he said. “The world has changed. Business casual has taken over.”

“It’s is not relevant to today’s dining,” Douglas said. “If you walk into the Dahlia tonight you’ll see, probably, 50 percent of the people there in formal wear, and 25 percent in business casual, and maybe another 20 percent in casual. I think business casual is the order of the day and you would feel comfortable in that anywhere.”

Tieless in Seattle

Douglas points to Canlis as an option for going fancy in Seattle. The restaurant is known for its higher-end dress. Canlis doesn’t have a strict dress code, per se, but it does highly encourage men to don a blazer or a suit. Casual attire is discouraged, though a patron might get away with very dark, clean denim. Canlis’ dress preferences have even sparked conversations elsewhere online. In any case, despite being one of Seattle’s top chefs, Douglas’ casual attitude may not make it at Canlis either.

“I’ve always been a more casual person,” Douglas said. “Honestly, I would eat at Canlis five times more if I didn’t have to have a jacket or something like that on. I find myself driving by on my way home and thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll stop by for a martini.’ But almost always, I’m not dressed properly.”

That’s generally jeans for Douglas, though he notes when the weather gets warmer he’s exclusively in shorts until winter hits. Otherwise, he says he’s gone into many establishments around Seattle with jeans and felt just fine. And that seems to be the standard Seattle dining culture, according to his experience.

“Any of our places you’d feel comfortable, certainly the Dalhia … certainly the Wild Ginger … the fancy restaurant at the Fairmont always required coat and jacket and they are not even around anymore because it just didn’t attract people,” Douglas said. “Kashiba down at the market is very high end, but super casual. The average ticket there is $100 per person.”

In Seattle, it has more to do with what the diners or the bar patrons are going out for, as opposed to the destination. If they want fancy Seattle dining, that’s what they’ll get. But the table next to them may have other plans.

“People go and dress, in my mind, for the mood they are in and for what they want to accomplish that evening,” Douglas said. “Let’s say they go to the symphony and dress up more … they just choose to dress up, or they choose to dress down no matter which restaurants they go to.”

“I’m not afraid to say that Dahlia is as good as any food you get in downtown Seattle, and we honestly don’t care whether or not you are dressed up, but people come both ways,” he said. “The marketplace always goes to what people want … as far as I’ve been in business, you never know who you are talking to in your dining room – a billionaire or a thousandaire. You treat everyone the same.”

“People got smart and realized that a tie is uncomfortable,” he added. “I went to Catholic school, (grades) 1-12, and had to wear a coat and tie every day, so if I never have to wear one again that’s fine by me. How you are dressed doesn’t make the man, and it doesn’t make the food.”